Dispater's Devils by GM SnowHeart (a Hell's Vengeance AP)

Game Master SnowHeart

Yup! We have carte blanc to see the investigation through. Backing down would just embolden them. But we should try to take him alive, if possible. Would be great leverage against his mother.

Ok, with a couple of folks ready to see where this goes, Brogol can push him to back down or act.

@Ingrid, I'm not 100% sure, but I think there is a lane to get into the church at the door south of the door Brogol is at (that was my intent in moving to that square at least when attacking the angel). Not sure if that would cause you to retcon your action or not (or if GM would allow it), but I wanted to mention it.

I'm going to hold on my action until that is clear, because it effect Brogol's action.

Regardless I’ll keep my actions, to keep this simple. But I’ll act on it in the future if needed. Go ahead and take your actions

Hi all. I just wanted to apologise for being a little absent from the game recently. A whole bunch of relatively small things all popped up simultaneously and I just got snowed under. I'm getting back on top now. Sorry and thanks for your patience.

All,

I am going to be dealing with a cancer death in my family, as well as a funeral, this upcoming week. :(

I'll likely be unable to post until after Memorial Day. Feel free to bot me.

I'm sorry for your loss, Eris.

As I mentioned in the other game, take all the time you need Eris. We'll be here when you get back.

Also Karik, no worries.

Getting walloped at work. Hope to be dug out tomorrow.

Hi all.
So my life has gone mildly to s#~+ atm and I’ve pretty much having a combined burnt out and breakdown.
So what that means is I need to put my campaigns on hold for a month.
Hopefully that gives some space and time to get things semi sorted out and I can pick it all up at the start of July.
I am so sorry and I hope you can forgive me for making a bit of a mess of things.

Hope things quiet down for you and work out.

Hey Karik, that's no problem. Thanks for letting us know and I hope some time with PbP out of the picture helps you center yourself again. Hope to hear from you in a few weeks.

So sorry to hear you're having problems, Karik. I hope things work out OK, and we see you in a bit.

I'm back. Thanks for the kind words.

It looks like Eris has already acted for this round, so I'll jump back in next round.

Also, I don't think that I would have taken the 4 dmg from the arrow. It rolled a 22 (my normal AC), but I had shield of faith active at the start of the fight (AC is 24 currently).

You're definitely still up this round Eris! And welcome back.

And yep, you're right about the arrow. I missed that you'd buffed with shield of faith.

Glad to see you back, Eris :)

Writing a report for a grant we just finished and it is taking a bit longer than anticipated. I may be absent a couple of days as the deadline approaches.

No worries Brogol, we can take our time over the next couple of days. If you have time to pop in for a knowledge check, it might be helpful for the rest of the group to continue planning.

Done! Missed it by that much.

Sorry to do this after my recent absence, but I'm on a quick trip with family. I thought I'd be able to post, but it's looking pretty busy. I'll rejoin Monday.

I think with two out of three party members out, we'll be on pause until at least Brogol is back in action. Next part is all decision making after all. Shame about the KN local check!

An open question for once folks are back in action in gameplay: What are you guys planning to do with the KO'd foes and the corpses?

I got done with my report tonight, so now I just need to catch up on the work I couldn't work on while writing that report :)

I should be able to post again with regularity.

I'd like to move the Allamar kid to jail (and any other survivors). Then interrogate him. As for the corpses... they can stay where they are IMO. Lock down the church with guards, tell them to not let anyone know what happened there or let anyone in. Just that "it is a crime scene."

Totally open to other ideas though.

I concur with all of the above. It seems like the most LE thing to do

OK, two votes is a go.

Unless there's any changes you'd like on the specifics, tomorrow I'll do a bit of a summary of how your above suggestion works out, then transition the scene to the jail so you can do some questioning. You've got all three Allamars still alive (unless you want an "accident" to happen to one of them :>)

Sounds good, GM. I think I'd like to keep the Allamars separated. Maybe one of the boys could be kept tied up in the office?

All the townsfolk are dead, correct?

Yep, all the non-Allamar townsfolk in the church are dead.

Thanks, GM Cellion!

Eris, Ingrid, what information do we need? The location of the fort obviously, but is there anything else?

I was thinking we could tell each of the boys that their mother is dead, but they can save their brother by telling us the location of the Fort.

We could do the same for momma - tell her one of the kids is dead, but she can save the other still.

I think that the fort location is enough. Rather than lying about their mom (and potentially make them suicidally angry/brave) we instead ask them both the same thing:

“Your brother already talked and told us where the Fort is. And we think the idiot is lying. If he was lying, then we will kill him. Unless you tell us where the Fort is. So long as we get the real answer, we will allow you both to live. Lie to us? And he will die. And only him. So you get to live with knowing that you could have saved him. And we’ll find out. The Fort will be found.”

Something like that. Makes it a moral problem. Of do you save your brother or not. I think it might work.

Oooohhhhhh, I like your idea a lot. You do wicked very well, Ingrid!

Thank you :)

I'm fine with hitting the fort now (Brogol needs to just heal 12 hp and he's in good shape), but Eris, how are you on spells/channels?

Question for the GM - Is the Doctor or Karik/Vaelor available to travel with us as a DMPC(s)?

I prefer not to run GM PCs, as they add a lot of cognitive load and additional work for me while risking stealing the limelight from you guys. You have access to spellcasting and skill checks from the Doctor or Karik, but for now they'll be NPCs that'll stay in town.

Very busy at work. Hope to get caught up tonight but please bot if needed. Sorry, work is just walloping me right now. Brogol would turn back to the others and report what he's seen/heard, rather than stick around and find out for sure.

Gotcha Brogol.

@Ingrid and Eris: You can assume Brogol got back to you and let you know what he saw in the courtyard.

Loot sheet updated. Do we have a way to ID wands and scrolls?

Getting walloped at work - hope to be back tomorrow.

Which way do you all want to go? 1, 2, 3, 4?

Do you want Brogol to stealth up first, or should we all go for it?

Let's have you scout it out first--How about #1?

OK! Going up rope #1. We'll see how this goes...

There's really no chance I'll be able to stealth over. I have a -6 on the roll, though I suppose I could take off armor and try it. I'm still not good at it.

I could, at best, create a diversion and climb up later? I could have the skull lantern creep them out and draw their attention while Brogol and Ingrid move to take out a guard position?

I'll let you guys ruminate on it some more. Taking armor off and trying to get up while there's a distraction elsewhere is definitely an option (a risky option, but aren't they all). The ground distraction to give Brogol and Ingrid a chance to move about unmolested seems good too though I'd look for a bluff check or something else that you think would make sense.

RE: Brogol's comment about Blades in the Dark - Love how that system does stuff like this! There's actually a lot of more narrative systems that do group activities in a more dramatic but satisfying fashion. Unfortunately its a bit of a Pathfinder pain-point.

Yeah, I really like the way BitD was designed. Lots of fun.

OK, I'm down with a distraction. As Ingrid notes, if the alarm gets raised, we'll have an action or two to soften up the opposition.

Eris, you do have some distance on your side, so with a high enough roll even a straight stealth (sans armor) may work.

Though a distraction - preferably loud and flashy - is probably more Eris's style from my perspective.

Sorry for the delay--had a busy couple of days.

Let's go with distraction on the ground.

Alright, should we go for the deputy? Brogol doesn't have much strength but he does have sneak attack, so he'll try and take him out with his scarf rather than push him over the edge, but if Ingrid wants to follow up with a shove...

All,

I'll be on a trip through next Monday. Please bot me, as necessary.

Gotcha Eris, thanks for the heads up.

I'm going out of town tomorrow for the next week and posting will likely be intermittent. Please bot as necessary.

I'm back and catching up on life/work. Sorry for the radio silence - turned out I didn't have internet after all, which was pretty lovely actually. I hope to get caught up today/tomorrow.

Maybe it's worth taking a bit of a time-out to strategize here, all.

I've used a all my spells that will work on it. All I have left is my touch of madness, channel negative energy (insanity that it's easily resisting) and my sickle. I'm not sure that will be enough to help much.

We may be feeling the lack of a 4th player right now. Ideas?

My best idea? Disarm or grapple. I can’t get through its DR. But if we can hold it down and tie it up, then combat over.