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FYI for the group, Arillia is running very low on top tier slots now.
In some other multi-table specials I've noticed a tendency for the writers to throw in some resource replenishment before the end, which makes sense given how tough they are on casters who are used to three or four combats per adventuring day. Not this one, though, or at least not so far...
The shadows are incorporeal, the big as-yet-unseen rumbling thing that sprayed cold everywhere...???? Unknown.
If it is incorporeal though, then it's purely making that sound for fun since incorporeal creatures are soundless by default.
You had been earlier, but when Agata moved up for a closer look at the Nightcrawler, the shell moved with her.
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Sorry about that Geatan. I should have said that I was moving up to see the creature and then returning back to keep providing protection. With the map it was hard to tell how far I needed to move to be able to see the creature. Unfortunately, in a face to face game, as soon as I could see it, I would have retreated, but the PbP medium caught me up. Hope it doesn't kill me, or you, as a result!
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GM, are any of the symbols of death still intact (I think you said 1 is?)? Which one? And is the deal that the shadows are activating the others, but were not able to activate the last one because Agata's anti-incorporeal shell is near it? That is, I'm trying to figure out if Agata needs to remain near one of the symbols to prevent it from being activated? And if so, which one?
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Ok, time for some strategy methinks.
Agata could 5' step away from the creature, and cast Heal on herself to bring her back to full hp, but that doesn't do any good unless someone else can go into the breach to engage the nightshade. If a single attack did 124, a full attack will easily kill Agata (and probably any of us).
I'm guessing that Yellow and/or Green are the best candidates to try to block the nightshade's path? Though with burrow it probably just goes right around them...
Getting as many of us as possible into Agata's shell to make the shadows useless seems like a good move. Unfortunately, she can't move anywhere that would bring the shell onto the shadows without collapsing the shell. Depending on how the GM rules it, I think that means she could 5' step to the southeast next to Arrilia without getting the shadows in the shell (assuming she can choose the far corner of her square to be the center of the 10' radius emanation). GM, would that still block off the symbol of death? (Presuming the remaining symbol of death is the upper one with the purple arrow pointing at it?).
In any case, that would protect Arrilia (and Geatan after a 5' step) from the shadows, but no one else. For the others, if Acrobatics are high enough you could try to Acrobatics to the shell to avoid brutal AoOs from the Shadows?
Re the Nightshade: with a bite like that I'm thinking that its a strong candidate for Retribution. The questions are: a) Heal myself first? b) Misfortune the thing first (Will DC 29)? c) Just let fly with Retribution (Will DC 29), knowing that Agata likely dies the next round (unless someone else has Heal handy) but Retribution (and the Shell) should both stay up, hopefully enabling the rest of the group to handle the thing... a) only seems like a good choice if we think that Agata is going to get another turn after this, which only seems likely if something else can occupy the creature's attention; b) seems like a better option if Retribution fails and we want to try the Command Undead option; c) seems like probably the best choice, though I'd be much happier about it if anyone else has some healing capacity.
Thoughts?
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Also, I think we still have the Burst of Healing Aid token for 10d6 healing for all of us. As before, it's no use for Agata if she is going to use Heal, but if she's going to use Retribution then it might give her just enough that a breath of life (if someone has such) would get her back up... I'm inclined to say we should use it - Tally's also down 37, and we already saw what happened before when Agata tried to be greedy and hold onto it! Is it an action to use it or can we just declare that we could use some healing?
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I think Arillia needs to get Geatan out of his current position. I looked at his feats and he can fire without provoking, but there's no apparent end to the number of shadows. Even if there were we can't assume that his Strength will hold out.
If Agata is going to stay up (and I'm not 100% sure about that...the GM seemed to put you REALLY deep in the negatives) we could retreat back into the anti-incorporeal shell. That's a position of high risk from the Nightcrawler, but we should be safe from the Shadows at least.
The other option we could take regardless of Agata's status is just to bail on the current room. Looking at Arillia's likely line of sight, I think she can get herself and Geatan far enough away from the Shadows that they wouldn't be able to attack us for at least one turn. The Nightcrawler is another matter, but with luck we might be able to take one hit.
That second option leaves the rest of the group deep in trouble from the Shadows, but I'm not sure that Arillia has a way to fix that.
She could also try to go for a maximum burn plan, but I'm not confident that would be effective. Her high-tier slots are limited, and her maximum output right now is probably Empowered Fire Snake into Quickened Scorching Ray (which she could do exactly once). The ray requires ranged attacks, though, and I'm not sure she can afford to take this many opportunity attacks from the Shadows (although her incorporeal touch AC isn't awful). If the Fire Snake was at all likely to clear out the shadows it might be worth it, but since it will clock in at half damage I'm skeptical of that.
One possible benefit of running far away from the group is that it's possible the Nightcrawler might come after us and maybe not be all that effective for one round, giving the rest of the group a break from that guy for a turn.
Regarding the Control Undead plan, this thing might be even higher CR than the reaper. I'm skeptical that Arillia's DC will be high enough, with or without misfortune. It certainly would be one way to try to win the fight in one go, though.
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Ok, one more idea: I forgot I have Sweet Mawd's scroll of Heal. Since Arillia is low on spells in any case Agata could: standard: Retribution on the Nightshade; 5' step 1 square to the East (keeping the symbol of death in the shell); move: retrieve scroll of Heal. Then Arillia could 5' step to the NW (to not provoke from the Shadows, though I guess that doesn't matter once you are in the shell), move to take the scroll, and standard to try to activate it. It would be a DC 31 UMD and it looks like Arillia is normally at +17 but Heroism and the luck bonus would make it a 50% chance of working... Dunno if that's worth it...
Also, Zadeh what do you think about Dimension Dooring yourself and Marcus and Tally to the other side of all the Shadows, to get all of you into the Shell?
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One other idea: We could also just leave. We went down this way to find other Pathfinders that needed rescuing, right? I'm not seeing them, and we're decently close to needing a rescue ourselves.
We probably have enough Dimension Door and similar tricks to get out of the fight if we want to do that.
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Responding to Arillia: well, it looks like both you and Geatan can be within the shell with a 5' step (assuming Agata also 5' steps). I suppose it's a reasonable question whether the shell would go away if Agata dies, but I'm not seeing anything in the spell that would cause that. So if the shell stays up, even if Agata dies, then the Shadows are basically irrelevant to the fight as long as we can get everyone within Agata's 10' radius. I don't think the idea of heading for other terrain is so great since the shadows can just move through walls and we've already seen that the Nightshade can burrow.
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Well, one reason I like the Retribution plan is that, if it sticks which is no guarantee at all, the creature ends up killing itself as it attacks us. Agata has one more prep of Heal and two scrolls of it, as well as First Aid gloves, and I think Zadeh said that he can summon creatures that can Heal as well. So, on this plan, we are clustered together in the shell, ignoring the Shadows while all concentrating fire on the Nightshade, while doing our best to keep everyone up from whatever crazy damage it throws at us. Far from perfect, I acknowledge, and if the rest of the group wants to cut and run Agata will go too, but I can also see a workable strategy to fighting it too, albeit one that likely winds up with Agata herself dead.
Okay, not weighing in on strategy, but questions:
Only one symbol remains; it's over the doorway with an arrow pointing to it.
Because Agata was close to that door, one of the shadows tried to get through that door, failed, was annoyed, went over and missed Arillia.
I'd been counting Agata herself as the origin of the sphere rather than any one particular corner. It would remain with her body.
The Nightcrawler attacked from 20' away. Cold resist absolutely works against the bite, so -112 would be correct.
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Arillia, I think w need you to put out some damage. I dont think my summons can touch this thing, at least the ones I have space to fit into the area. I can teleport some people into a better position. It looks like I can get Gaetan and Arillia or Arillia and Agata. I am inclined to go for the latter. Gaetan should be able to take out multiple shadows if he has more ghost salt arroes left.
If I do teleport a bunch of us I am inclined to take us over to the north end of the bridge. That may make the giant monster come after us instead. As an alternative I could drop greater invis on someone.
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OK, looking at damaging options. GM, If Arillia takes a 5' step to the north, will she be both inside of Agata's shell and safe from opportunity attacks?
On a 2D plane it looks like Agata would give the Nightcrawler cover from her. It's often easier to target big things, though. How tall is the door between us and the Nightcrawler? Would it allow Arillia to target the Nightcrawler's upper squares and bypass cover concerns? I'd like to think that she would be able to hit touch AC fine, but we've had problems with that...
I vote we use the healing resource right away. HP damage is only coming from the Nightcrawler, and it comes in massive chunks. It isn't enough to recover from a hit, but it is enough to top us off and help make sure that we can survive one.
Edit: Also considering a Fire Snake. It isn't 100% clear which squares the shadows are in though. Can we clear that up?
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I think the shadows are a red herring - it seems like this place may just keep spitting them out, possibly endlessly. And in any case, as long as we can get everyone inside Agata's 10' shell they can't do anything to us. We need to focus on the Nightshade.
The knowledge check already revealed that it continuously detects all life forms and sees through all illusions, so I don't think Greater Invis will do anything.
Although it has spell resistance, the only form of energy it's immune to is cold, so fire snake or Arillia's dragon breath should possibly hurt it.
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Ok, Agata used the Burst of Healing aid token to heal herself and Tally. And she went with the Retribution option. I'm ok with being moved away via Dimension Door or Teleport if that's what Arrilia or Zadeh want to do, though I strongly recommend that we all try get together in Agata's shell, wherever we go. Also, remember that if Agata is moved away from her current location the shadows can set off the last symbol of death. Strategy-wise, in my opinion, our best bet is to get Marcus and Tally (and summons?) into melee with the Nightshade, hopefully long enough to give Geatan and Arrillia two or three rounds to fire at it.
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I think that after this. The Society will be a mortal enemy for the Tyrant. I mean.... look at the damage we are doing! It is llke we have are destroying his generals. I am very tempted to play Tyrant Grasp now.
Let me know if you find a game and need another player. Aside from playing Book 6 of Iron Gods, I've not yet had a chance to play any of the APs but the pandemic era seems like a good time to try one.
I've played **very** little PF2, but I definitely got the vibe that the Whispering Tyrant was a lot more active and upset - clearly you guys are why!
Quick question, are you currently illuminated, or did you cover your continual flame back up Zadeh?
That's what I figured.
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Ask, and ye shall receive...
Type: Allied Offensive
Generated By: Rufeo, on behalf of Wynnreyell Moonsilver
Heroic? Yes
Effect: Effect: The Aid Character strikes a creature at the same time as the PC, increasing the damage dealt on one attack by 2d8 points in Subtier 5–6, 3d8 points in Subtier 7–8, 4d8 points in Subtiers 10–11 and 12–13, or 5d8 points in Subtier 15–16.
Heroic Aid: This token grants an additional +2d8 damage to the attack. In addition, after the attack, characters attacking the target are considered to be flanking it until the beginning of the attacker’s next turn.
Passing From: GM Lorenzo
Passing To: GM Cwethan
Type: Burst of Healing
Generated By: Traveling Max, on behalf of Julian
Heroic? no
Effect: The Aid Character restores 4d6 hit points to each PC. In Subtiers 10–11 and 12–13, the amount restored increases to 6d6 hit points. In Subtier 15–16, the amount restored increases to 8d6 hit points.
Passing From: GM Lorenzo
Passing To: GM Cwethan
Okay, only one of these can be used in this fight, but you've got some options!
Yeah - They returned triumphant, healing everyone
If the rest of the mission had gone worse, then Valeria would've died. Since it went okay, she's okay!
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IMO, the healing looks best. It'd be remarkable if 5d8 points of damage made a difference one way or another. I could be missing something if Tally or Marcus needs the flanking though.
Agreed, but I guess wait until after its next turn and see how much damage everyone takes. At the moment Agata is the only one who would benefit from the healing burst but I have a feeling Tally may possibly be in for it. Or Geatan. Or all of us!
Okay everyone, as the encounter's speeding up, and the earthquake's beginning the time has come to roll for some boons!
Everyone roll a die in here on their next post, 19s & 20s get boons - if you do get one, then go ahead and roll a d3 to select which one.
Okay, everyone - Home Stretch!!!
flute