
GM Kate |

Oh, gosh, I think the bard in my home game has been running it the same way, so I hadn't even noticed!

![]() |

Yeah, I think that makes sense to me (assuming Niksi is willing to wear a stole meant to appeal to humans :P)

GM Kate |

Our internet is out, so I likely won’t be able to post until tomorrow evening.

Corkas 'Prism' Warfiz |

Yay! It always sucks when something with the internet breaks. Makes you really appreciate how gloriour of an invention it is.

Kennari Gleyminn |

It only took AT&T 2.5 days to figure out they had cut the line up the street from us <insert eye roll here>

Corkas 'Prism' Warfiz |

They never care and don't bother to recoup that percentage of days off of your monthly bill either. Which gets pretty close to 10% of your billing period being without service.

Kennari Gleyminn |

Yeah, I've been trying to decide whether it's worth fighting them over that. It would only be like $5 or $6 dollars, and I just don't know that I want to spend an hour on the phone trying to get them to knock $5 off the bill.

GM Kate |

Hero point to Unset for "Dinosaur ridin' grave robbers?!" which made me laugh.

GM Kate |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

The stench auras are a lot to track when they are in every other combat, so I am cool with saying that you've all fought enough xulgaths that you are largely unaffected by their stench. If you encounter a particularly stinky xulgath, I'll ask for a sae.

GM Kate |

I prefer players to do botting; would anyone be willing to bot Rova and Thkrull with Jacob is out?

Kennari Gleyminn |

^done

GM Kate |

I'll be at a con this weekend, so I'll put us on pause for a few days.
We have a bit of wrap-up to do here in the temple, but that was your last combat, so you can start leveling your characters if you would like. Remember that we are implementing free archetype retroactively, so you get to add a bunch of archetype feats when you level, or a bunch of class feats for your original class if you already had an archetype!
If you need to make additional tweaks to your your build, especially to accommodate that change, please do! I'm not going to require retraining for anything.

Rova Moonbright |

Rova, level 8 Groetan cultist enthusiast
+1 to everything
+1 ranger feat: Monster Hunter (maybe not the "most powerful" choice mechanically since it's a 1st-level feat, but I'm starved for actions, so effectively getting a free check is nice)
+1 skill feat: Dubious Knowledge
Retconning!
Free Archetype Feat 2: Medic Dedication:
-- (that will increase my Medicine skill to expert, retroactively giving me another skill increase -- which I will apply to Survival, meaning that is now master)
FAF4: Doctor's Visitation
FAF6: Treat Condition
FAF8: Eldritch Archer Dedication (picking up TK projectile from the occult spell list -- praise Groetus!)

Kennari Gleyminn |

We have a fair bit of healing, but I'm considering the Blessed One dedication. All the poking around in Arodenite temples must be having some sort of effect, right? (I don't have the WIS for Cleric dedication)

GM Kate |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

I will get a longish post up this evening!
The ghost promised to give you the diadem once you cleared out the xulgaths, which you have now done.

Kennari Gleyminn |

Alright, going with that. Metamagic lay on hands is too good to resist, and it certainly matches my theme.
Level 8 Abjurer
Free Archetype Feats:
Wizard Feat:
Skill Feat:
Focus Spells Learned:
4th Level Spells Added to Book:

Niksi Drugova |

Well healing is going to be even less of a concern as Niksi’s used the extra sorcerer dedication feats to pick up more healing for her fey bloodline!
Free Archetype
2 Sorcerer Dedication
4 Basic Sorcerer Spellcasting
6 Basic Bloodline Spell (faerie dust)
8 Bloodline Breadth
Replacement Bard Feat
2 Inspire Competence
New Bard Feat
8 Inspire Heroics
New Skill Feat
8 Battle Cry
New Sorcerer Spells Known/Spells Per Day
3rd (1)—Remove Disease
2nd (1)—Remove Fear
1st (2)—Heal (sig), Longstrider
Cantrips—Produce Flame
New Bard Spell Known
4th—Nightmare

Kennari Gleyminn |

For turn planning, with two other focus point options and two new metamagic options (nonlethal, mercy), I'm probably a little less likely to cast protective aura going forward.

Unset |

Unset has been updated.

GM Kate |

Just to recap a little bit:
You saw this memory from the xulgath priest in the moonstone pool.
And now you've seen a vision perhaps confirming what Ulthadar said.
This is pretty much it for the temple. There was one more room with signs of demon-summoning gone wrong, but no combat. You are welcome to talk with Ulthadar more, head back to the circus, or check in with the constable to report your findings.

Rova Moonbright |

I think let's head back to the circus, and figure out our next step. Which I guess is what tower we should go to next: the towers.
We should also probably tell the constable what we've found.

Corkas 'Prism' Warfiz |

Agreed, I believe that is all we have to go off at the moment. Unless we are forgetting something.

GM Kate |

Did everyone finish leveling to 8, or does anyone need more time?

GM Kate |

I know that Niksi is sick; do we want to just pause for a little bit?

Kennari Gleyminn |

Kennari has no experience with the other circus, and I have some player knowledge about it, so I'm happy to go along with whatever you all would like to do.

Rova Moonbright |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

So I'm thinking we might be better off trying to figure out our plans in the discussion thread. (Though admittedly it's a holiday weekend, so not sure who's on right now.)
We know the Celestial Menagerie is causing us/our circus trouble. We also know Mistress Dusklight is caught up with the xulgaths for some reason. How much the rest of the circus knows and is involved in that is unclear (to me at least).
Seems like we want to do something to stop Problem A, and investigate Problem B. And maybe those are related?
I think I want to go creepy crawling into Dusklight's tent, as good old Uncle Caminson used to do and see what we learn. I'm not sure we really know what else we can do to stop the Celestial Menagerie from messing with us at this point, so I think I'm hoping some information there will help. I think deposing Dusklight/getting them all to realize how bad she is is probably one way to stop them, but open to other suggestions. I think we're not interested in sabotaging their circus if we can avoid it or using the Mukluk method (where he murdered one of them, but darned if I can find that now in the gameplay thread).

GM Kate |

Yes, Viktor Volcano! TO be fair, he was trying to kill you all at the time.
I have added the map of the Celestial Menagerie, as the former employees would know the general layout. You wouldn't know the specific attraction in the Heavenly Gallery right now, though you would know the only way to Dusklight's quarters is through the Heavenly Gallery.
Also, everyone please make sure to fill out your eighth level stats on Slide 3!

Niksi Drugova |

Yeah investigating them only makes sense at this point. Niksi is going to keep trying to send Mistress Dusklight nightmares every day :D
Niksi, as a worshipper of the Lantern King, is very much a proponent of “turnabout is fair play” so she is fine with visiting anything upon Mistress Dusklight that she has done to us. That said, she’s certainly not going to *try* to kill any of them unless they are one of the actively evil members.
She’s a pretty good liar, a better intimidator, and she can disguise herself. We could also use one of her Illusory Creatures as a distraction, perhaps pretend one of the creatures escaped?

Kennari Gleyminn |

It sounds like we can disguise and or invisible-ize several people. Some of us (at lest Kennari, and maybe Unset too?) are probably unknown to them, so might be able to just buy tickets and enter as patrons.

Rova Moonbright |

Agreed. So we get in (Rova, Niski and Prism sneaking by means mundane or magical) and head to Mistress Dusklight's (maybe through the Heavenly Gallery) to see what we can find out. Then decide our next actions from there.

GM Kate |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

Are we ready to set out?
For Rova, Niksi, and Prism, can I get either a Disguise check or an alternate check for a different approach?
It sounds like Kennari and Unset are just going as patrons, so no check needed for that.
This part might get a little bit awkward in play-by-post, so we can assume you enter separately, but then group up once you're in so you don't split the party.

GM Kate |

Oh, good call, Jacob. Does someone want to update the loot sheet, or would people prefer if I just approximated a lump sum?