Side note, Pickles and I would like to wish everyone a happy holidays! (He's only 7 months old!)
Adorable!
I'll be getting a post moving things forward tomorrow - it's going to be a doozy.
Anybody who is making the book rolls, however, go ahead and post them for me and I'll include the results in my write-up.
Also, I think officially from tonight till - what - the 27th? Just post when you can, if you can. I'll be checking and probably getting up one post/day as I'll be traveling, but I don't expect things to move much at all until the holidays are over, and really pick up steam again till next year.
In the meantime, safe travels, everyone, and enjoy the holidays!
Quick question about the DC25 Linguistics check to study the notes. For spells like heightened awareness and tears to wine, which both last 50 minutes at our level, can we cast them once or do we need to cast them as many times as necessary to cover the full period of study?
All the checks are for the tome. I'll say that you only need to use/cast them once to benefit.
Holy expletive, Walter. Fantastic posts. And that's what you get, ladies and gentlemen, for reading truly forbidden tomes in one fell sitting.
Aw shucks [kicks dirt]
Well yeah it's the second worst tome in Lovecraft's library. Also, the revelation about the cultists has an interesting relationship to Walter's backstory. That's not helping.
Anyway, going to stop for now.
Daaang
Nicely done!
Can't guarantee an IC post until after Xmas, everyone have a happy holidays!
Happy holidays to you too!
I'll try to slip in a post or two before Christmas; as a side note, a little advance warning: I'll be travelling from December 28th to the 3rd of January, so posts might come in sporadically in this period. Please don't hesitate to bot Mihaela as needed!
Walter's breakdown: this is veering close to PvP, and also we may not want to spend too much time on this now that we have the task at hand. But "PC who was kind of tightly wound to begin with takes a deep dive into blasphemous tome, and that doesn't go so great for him" seems like a natural side-scene here. So I thought it might be fun to RP it out a bit.
That said, if DMLC or any of the other players want to fast-forward past this, we can just say "after a bit, Walter pulls himself together" and get on with the main plot.
With the festivities going on, this is probably setting up as a slow period... A nice RP side-scene is a perfect way to have some action going on without necessarily having to push the story forward!
"It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten." - H.P. Lovecraft, _The Festival_
Merry Christmas, all!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I'm going to be back to work on the 27th, so I'll be able to post after that. Until then I hope you have lovely holidays surrounded by those close to you!
Wow, a mere DC 16 to Intimidate poor Walter. Okay, how to RP this?
Under RAW, using Intimidate to make someone Friendly requires a minute of conversation. So obviously this was a Demoralize check, which is done as a standard. Success renders the target Shaken for one round. So... Walter would be Shaken. How does that stack with his current (manic, gibbering, half panicked) state? Would his Spooked disadvantage come into play?
Going to think on this a little. Suggestions welcome!
Truth be told, it was meant more like a fall in line / snap out of it check (as per your spoiler)... I know that by RAW it would have taken a full 1 minute of conversation (a rule most likely concocted to prevent it from being used outside of social situations), but I didn't feel a lengthy wall-of-text speech would have fitted the overall tone.
That said, I think that in interactions between characters, it is no grievous sin to gloss over rules and simply decide how things turn out ourselves — meaning, I'm fine with whatever way Walter ends up role-playing this. For instance, should you think a 16 shouldn't be enough to force much of a reaction from him given the present circumstances, by all means go for it :)
I have survived the holiday family visit and am back! (On the bright side; walking into my parents' house does wonders for getting me into a proper Lovecraftian mood.)
I'll have a post up shortly.
Whew. All things considered, that was a surprisingly decent holiday season - might even be a Christmas miracle.
Might be able to get a post in today but can definitely get one in tomorrow when I'm home proper. Hope y'all had a good holiday!
Wow! This really kicked off over the holidays!
I hope everyone had a great time!
Post coming up soon. I can imagine Lys spending some time in town proper with Kolthis, given that Walter's book-reading binges are familiar to her, and I also don't imagine her not interjecting sooner.
Alas, I am still in the thick of things - my two year old got sick the night before our flight to FL, resulting in our missing Xmas with everybody and driving down 15 hours over the past two days to arrive in Miami this evening.
Fun.
As is, I'll probably not be able to post much till after the 1st, so please continue to enjoy the great rp, and I'll get things moving when I can.
Happy holidays!
I would say Walter, having failed a Will save, is equivalent to Shaken. Might be time for another save to see if he can pull himself together -- but if he fails, he'd be equivalent to Frightened...
Anyone else want to chime in?
Hey guys, love the RPing! Just wanted to say holidays and all have been super hectic for me, will get back to posting after new year's. Hope everyone's having a good holiday time!
Hello everyone! I get back home tomorrow, and plan to hit the ground running come Monday. Thanks for your patience!
Hello everyone! I get back home tomorrow, and plan to hit the ground running come Monday. Thanks for your patience!
Nice! Checking in — and happy new year folks!
Boy the new year comes at you fast, huh? Still here, still kickin'
Happy new year and here's to more spoopy shenanigans!
And we're back!
Let's take a vote here in the OOC channel: which Keeper do you all wish to go after first?
I took the liberty of googling a non-spoilery map of Carrion Hill, since several of our votes depended on relative locations.
Myre is furthest to the west, which is also the furthest away from our current location. His location does seem to be the closest to the Slipper Market.
Crove is the Keeper closest to us, but furthest away from the Slipper Market.
Hyve is in the middle. Almost as close to us as Crove and almost as close to the Slipper Market as Myre.
Yelena's vote is for Myre.
Perfect, thank you, Yelena! I've been saving that map for this moment, but upon posting the Keeper's identities promptly forgot to link you guys. That should help tons.
Logic says we go to the one closest to *us*, for the quickest possible kill. That would be Crove. However, note that "Warden of an insane asylum" means we can't just kick the door in and start blasting. It's a semi-public place. And you just know he'll have done the classic Team Evil maneuver of picking some bodyguards or henchmen from among the inmates...
Hyve is the other strong choice; equidistant from the two points of interest, plus it sounds like he lives alone-ish in the old church, making for an easier approach. Also, taking him out will kick up less of a fuss (as opposed to Crove who is probably a more public figure). Also-also, as a "sage", he seems more likely to have useful information on or near him.
So it's close to a coin toss, but Walter's vote is for Hyve, with Crove a close second.
Tangent: I was a bit afraid that this would turn into a race. Spell sages are at their strongest when it's a bunch of 15 minute adventuring days. Their limited spell slots and dailies make them much weaker in a gauntlet-type situation like this. Poor Walter is already down two 2nd level slots and one of his two dailies. Nothing to be done except to hope for an eight-hour break at some point...
I'm tempted to agree with Yelena. If we're supposed to get to them first, it's more a matter of guessing the creature's pattern and staying ahead of it than simply being quick about it. And proximity to its original summoning place is the only criterion we've got to do that, feeble as it might be.
Mihaela's vote is for Myre.
Tangent: I was a bit afraid that this would turn into a race. Spell sages are at their strongest when it's a bunch of 15 minute adventuring days. Their limited spell slots and dailies make them much weaker in a gauntlet-type situation like this. Poor Walter is already down two 2nd level slots and one of his two dailies. Nothing to be done except to hope for an eight-hour break at some point...
Alas, I've foolishly gone nova on our very first encounter believing that particular section would turn into more of a dungeon crawl, so now I'm almost completely spent (though Mihaela can still function as a martial, unlike poor Vancian Walter).
I also believe the three keepers have probably barricaded themselves in their own abodes (if they haven't fled outright, though that would make little sense in the scope of a one-shot adventure), with standing orders to whatever underlings they may have to kill everything and everyone coming after them. This obviously complicates things and probably calls for a more surgical approach...
Re: it turning into a race... IC, it would make sense to not stop and rest until they're all dead. OOC, built-in timers in Paizo adventures aren't usually meant to be exceedingly punitive (meaning, as long as we overcome something equivalent to four CR 5 encounters before resting, we should be fine). Of course, that's strictly meta-gaming (and GM has the last word, after all), and in-game Mihaela would advocate pushing forward.
I'll say this: there is a ticking clock (as evinced by my keeping track of time), but it's not meant to punish you guys to the point of cruelty and rendering your PC's useless. So think of it as a soft ticking clock, if that makes sense.
Soft clock sounds a lot better than a hardcore survival run, I gotta say. Much better than the last time I played a module with limited/no chance to recharge.
Now I'm going to bring something up that only occurred to me after the holiday madness - since we technically had downtime while Walter and Yelena translated, could we use that as a soft recharge/refill? Like a dice rolls worth?
I fully take the blame for forgetting that it could count just because of personal and family issues around the holidays AND am totally prepared to just roll with things as they are - trying to metagame less this year, seems a good a place as any to start ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hey all, just got home - spent all day in different hospitals, there were three new births in the family today!
I'm slightly concerned about going to Myre, the furthest away, in case we end up playing catch-up with the big monster the whole way through town and find them all dead. It could make sense to start at the most likely place for us to find someone alive, being Crove. But, if we're running a gauntlet, best to start strong and closest to the place of indicence would make sense, following the line west, and ending at the closest spot to the Manor with the asylum. So with that logic, my vote will be Myre.
Oh heck I forgot to vote, although I think Myre is the winner looking at the votes, but just to be sure I'm also voting Myre. The map was extra helpful.
@Kolthis - Three?!?! That feels like a lot and I hope everyone's well.
A clear majority for Myre, then!
I think you need a solid 8 hours to recover, and you had - what - oh, I forget. Yeah. We can handwave the missing hour or two, and say that for ooc purposes everybody got to rest up during the research phase.
I prob won't be so generous moving forward though :P
I think you need a solid 8 hours to recover, and you had - what - oh, I forget. Yeah. We can handwave the missing hour or two, and say that for ooc purposes everybody got to rest up during the research phase.
I prob won't be so generous moving forward though :P
Just to make it clear, I assume this only applies to those who weren't busy researching (Kolthis, Maritine, and Lys) right?
No, I'm being extra generous this one time. Cause things are going to get very rough later on. So, a final reprieve. Everyone rests up. This way, when you're all crying bitter tears over your ruined PCs, I'll be able to point back to this moment and declare that I'm not really an evil DM ;)
Well, that's nice!
If that's so, shall we put our standard reconnaissance plan into motion? Mihaela turns invisible and takes a peek inside? (with a generous sprinkle of detect magic on top to check for alarm spells and the like)
@Kolthis - Three?!?! That feels like a lot and I hope everyone's well.
Thank you! It is, and they were all different, as well. Cousin, aunt, and sister-in-law. All healthy and adorable!
This way, when you're all crying bitter tears over your ruined PCs, I'll be able to point back to this moment and declare that I'm not really an evil DM ;)
That's assuming of course, the PC's plan wasn't just to kamikaze into the unknown all along!
Regular reconnaissance plan works for me. Kolthis will stand in front and look all scary like at things.
Question DM - will the rest time allow me to change any of my spells, considering I assume we don't hit the time of my daily prayer.
Do we have a face character with super high Bluff and Diplomacy? Just thinking out loud here.
I am as ill suited to that task as I think is possible. But I will actively hit things that talk bad back at our chosen face.
Far as I can tell, Mihaela has the best Diplomacy at a +9, while Maritine is at a Bluff/Diplomacy of +7/+7
Huh, so we don't have any Bald-Faced Lie specialists. Interesting.
So talking our way in may not be the way to go.
Maybe not with good ol' fashioned bluff, sure, but I like to think between myself and Mihaela we could just go for a good ol' fashioned intimidate. And that's before we even get to class shenanigans and Yelena's psychic trickery. Failing that, we throw Kolthis at them (/jokes)
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Hey everyone! I was out for a week after the New Years, and wow, this kicked off in fifth gear. I'll post in a moment!
Suggestion: our two highest Stealth monkeys go for a recce up the stairs -- first north, then south -- while everyone else stands around on the ground floor being really alert.
Suggestion: our two highest Stealth monkeys go for a recce up the stairs -- first north, then south -- while everyone else stands around on the ground floor being really alert.
On it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that's going to be Mihaela and myself again. Skill monkeyz 4 lyfe!
Proper post coming hopefully tonight - life is in the way, as usual.
Meta: 8 ordinary zombies are formally a CR 4 encounter, but 8 zombies where we have the advantage of surprise... seems suspiciously easy. I won't be surprised if there's more going on here.
My two big one-shots are Haste and an 8d6 Fireball. This doesn't look like an encounter that should call for either of those, but... hm.
Suggestion 1: Scout monkeys, stare hard at everything. You're invisible, zombies have crap Perception. Watch for traps or things lurking in the vat-goop.
Suggestion 2: Once that's done, missile death. Open with a volley of ranged attacks, let them come to us. (I assume everyone has some sort of ranged attack? That's why I've kept that scroll of Magic Missile...) And keep an eye out for nasty surprises coming from the vats or descending from above.
What think you?
Rush in! Do it!
Rush in! Do it!
I mean, they're just zombies, right? what coul- heyy, wait a minute, you cut that out!
All jokes aside, I will be all over the place this week as it turns out I have a nasty fever and just sitting down typing is wearing me out, so I get to be sick both here and IRL. Woo.
A bit more Meta - We can save Walter's big one-shots for a little later. 8 zombies, suspicious as they are, shouldn't need a fireball.
I've also come to the embarrassing realization I don't have a ranged weapon on my sheet. I have some alchemist vials and stuff, but no actual weapon, and that feels like a major oversight. Whoops.