GM Lorenzo's #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire - OUTPOST III (Inactive)

Game Master Lawrence Smith 2

I still have a Greater dispel magic and wall of stone, but I thought someone else may want to try. I can aid another the check, +2 divine spellcasting and +1 non-divine.

@Arch, did you wand yourself to full earlier in those 12 rounds you weren’t becoming a dragon?

That's a plan. I thought we were finished and just shapeshifting for the RP. I'll wand myself, shift and taxi whoever needs it up top.

Wand healing
12d8 + 8 ⇒ (6, 1, 7, 1, 6, 1, 2, 7, 2, 2, 1, 2) + 8 = 46

Julian or Bristor, I am probably going to cast Battlemind Link on whoever wants to ride into the fight on a dragon. The spell allows us to roll twice and take the better on all attacks if we direct them at the same target.

Lemme know if that appeals!

I like the idea of a magical archer raining down arrows from the back of a dragon.

Sign me up.

That's some high fantasy magic right there. ^^^

I won't be able to give you Battlemind Link (it wouldn't benefit us because I won't be making ranged attacks) and I might be going into melee if my spells are ineffective. But if you're still keen, let's do it.

Medic Aid Mission

Medic Aid Characters
Azamzama (Archaememnon) Level-13
Kettrick (Bristor Gwin) Level-9
Traveling Max (Julian Duphin) Level-12
Gledrel (Peter Zarr) Level-13

We're still looking for rolls from Azamzama and Kettrick.

If you'd like that Aid Character to earn the Guard boon on the Chronicle sheet, it must make the attempt.

For each Aid Character sent on the mission, please roll 2d6 for a 4th-level NPC Pathfinder, 3d6 for a 5th- to 8th-level Aid Character, 4d6 for a 9th- to 12th-level Aid Character, 5d6 for a 13th- to 16th-level Aid Character, or 6d6 for a 17th- to 20th-level Aid Character. The results for each Aid Character depend upon the results of their roll.

20+: The Aid Character is a triumphant leader, inspiring other Pathfinders with their bravery and skill. They generate 2 successes for the mission. Even if the mission fails, they escape unscathed.
11–19: The Aid Character makes a substantial contribution to the mission, generating 1 success. If the mission fails, the Aid Character is injured. The Aid Character can recover from their injuries at the end of the scenario by spending 8 Prestige Points.
6–10: The Aid Character is trapped in a perilous situation and needs the assistance of other Pathfinders to escape. The Aid Character does not contribute to the mission’s success. If the mission fails, the Aid Character dies.
5 or less: The Aid Character’s luck runs out. Whether from an ambush, a devious trap, or a relentless onslaught of foes, the character meets their end. This Aid Character dies and does not contribute to the mission’s success.

If you'd like to embellish the pure mechanics of your roll of the dice with a little RP, go ahead and do it in the Gameplay thread.

Azamzama waddles on tiny legs and reaches through the barrier between life and death...

5d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 3, 4, 5) = 20

...to pull out a bounty of healing from the other side.

Happy to do another encounter as soon as we finish the Aid missions, if the House still needs more successes.

Same, up for another.

ditto

That's the plan. The scenario called for the table to have a chance to discover the relic before initiating another encounter. Progress toward the goals for Relic and Ritual successes has been slow for the House.

I reported our 2 Relic successes and our 5 Medic Aid Mission successes. Azamaxama's 20 was triumphant, counting for 2. Now let's hope the House gathers a few more, to avoid our medics sustaining injuries. The 8PP co-pay is steep, in my humble opinion.

That's some high fantasy magic right there. ^^^

I won't be able to give you Battlemind Link (it wouldn't benefit us because I won't be making ranged attacks) and I might be going into melee if my spells are ineffective. But if you're still keen, let's do it.

Plus, the penalties for mounted archery are pretty rough. Especially if you are moving around the battlegrounds.

Wynn will just go on foot.

I"ll be happy to ride a dragon, then!

I think Sentry has narrow frame, so maybe Arch or myself should dimension door those interested into the room? It'd take some coordination to pull off, but we could probably position it right. I'm assuming as soon as we do anything we'll be in initiative

I think we'd be better off bombarding it with ranged attacks down the corridor and trying to lure it into a more open space. There'd be no room to maneuver in there.

I haven't moved up and thus opened the spoiler, but my concern is while it may have formidiable melee attacks, it may also have formidable ranged attacks (like the last guy, and this one is alone rather than having allies!). Our ranged is basically Wynn, so it'd be Wynn and it trading full ranged attacks. I can summon some ranged options, but they're not likely to be terribly effective.

It may not even be able to move out of the room, based on what he wrote about Tar-Baphon imprissioning things.

I don't have much skin in the game, as a summoner, so I'd prefer to get Wynn's, and other melee's perspectives.

On another note, the telepathy things makes me far less guilty about ooc strategizing.

If you want to test its ranged capability I could summon a pew pew laser light. I think the odds it doesn't get blasted to bit are about 1000 to 1.

let's back up and brace for burrow and swallow.

Archaememnon is a draconic font of out-of-character knowledge and wisdom! ;-)

Giving everyone a round of prep, before rolling Initiative.

We'll say 10 minutes have passed since you entered the reliquary.

I felt it was legit on the basis of telepathy. I don't have any special knowledge of this creature, just a hard-earned wariness of worm-shaped monsters.

It's cool.

In the buff round, Arch casts Communal Stoneskin - including on Hendric's trusty seed, quickens a Battlemind link on Julian (using glove of storing and rod of quicken), and flies out over the canyon.

Resource Tracking

If I've understood Battlemind Link correctly, Archaememnon, you'll use Julian's higher Initiative roll as your own, enabling you to act before the Nightcrawler in Round 1.

OK, sweet, and just an FYI, that was a full strength rod of Quicken--good up to 6th level spells.

Would anyone like death ward?

Heck yeah.

But if someone who's not flying around on a sweet dragon wants it more, I'll gladly defer.

Since Arch isn't going to hang back this time, maybe she is the best target. If she doesn't want it, I'll gladly give it to you instead.

I would gladly take it, but IDK how effective I'm going to be against this thing. Maybe it should go to Julian if he can get through its DR.

That raises a rules question, iron body says all attacks that depend on you having a physiology fail while iron body is up. Does that include energy drain? If so, it may well be worth using. It'd require a DC 35 UMD (i.e. 50% chance of success), because transformation makes you a non caster, but that would have both of you battle mind linked warriors as protected.

My concern was with swallow whole that he would eat and digest our non-death warded dragon, while Julian at least has freedom of movement and displacement, but if you can put up Iron Body and that wards you from those effects, then we could get death ward on Julian as welll.

Since we are in a wait and see, figured I'd ask this clarifying question now. I learned it has some DR overcome by silver and/or? good. So a weapon that has a +5 equivalent bonus to it should overcome it because that is high enough to overcome both silver (+3needed) and aligned (+5 needed). If so I don't need to worry about smiting judgment since Bristor's falchion is +6 equiv (+4 and lifesurge which is +2)

@Bristor; its only the actual enhancement bonus on the weapon for DR. Although in your case, this hardly matters because you have a +4 weapon, and you will almost always have greater bane, which increases the enhacement bonus of the weapon by 2, reaching that plus 6.

That's a good question. If we have another round to buff, I might spend it on Iron Body. It would negate my breath weapon, but if it also stops energy drain it would be worth it.

I'll update the Gameplay thread in the morning, giving Archaememnon some time to post her Round 2 actions.

I think arch wanted to know if iron body makes you immune to energy drain

Reading the transformation spell description, Archaememnon temporarily lost her spellcasting ability, including her ability to use spell activation or spell completion magic items, just as if the spells were no longer on her class list.

If you've found a way around that issue, then the iron body spell description looks like it could be interpreted a number of different ways. 'Physiology' is one of those words that begs as many questions as it answers. It specifies immunity to ability score damage, but makes no mention of ability or energy drain. The description also specifies immunity to electricity, and reducing acid and fire damage by half. That seems to suggest the spell offers no protection vs cold energy, which would affects one's physiology in a frosty way.

We're stepping into that gray area between RAI and RAW. I'm most comfortable with RAW, so I'm going to rule that there's no immunity to energy drain.

Sorry. Still think you guys have a good shot at taking this thing down without getting yourselves killed.

*EDIT*

Should have added: As always, if you find something 'official' that indicates I've made an error, please let me know.

I think that makes sense as an interpretation of the spell. We were planning to have her use the scroll with UMD. I think that transformation just forces me into the same position as any other non-spellcasting class with regard to scrolls and UMD.

What's the plan if the worm doesn't want to come out of that cavern? It won't do me much good to be a large dragon if we have to go in there. If we're going in, I could dismiss transformation and try to bombard it from a distance.

Might be hard to unfurl the scroll with them iron thumbs, though. ;-)

The Overseer GM means the rest of the House get to enjoy the benefits from the luck bonus you all earned earlier when you found the hobbit bobble-head.

If it doesn't want to come out to play, maybe Wynn can just fire arrows at it.

Does anyone have Spring Attack type nonsense where you could get in and attack without staying in there?

The Special is scheduled to end on May 14, so we have about six days to achieve another success.

Having achieved the House's goal for Relic successes, our efforts now help fill the deficit in Ritual successes the House needs for maximum mission (and Chronicle sheet) success.

We've gone from a poor situation to engage it to a worse situation to engage it. I think dismissing transformation and hucking fireballs hoping it comes out is probably our best strategy. How do you plan to do so? (It isn't dismissable). You can automatically dispel your own spells, if you have a scroll of dispel magic.

I could summon a lot of stuff, but it'll eat, dispel, or otherwise blast down whatever I send in.

I don't have many ranged options. I could drop a flame strike on it at range and that's about it.

Bristor, Archaememnon, and I could get in there in melee. Two of the rooms look like they can accommodate Large creatures. Probably Dim Door to get Archaememnon into melee range in the southeast room.

I think I would need a Freedom of Movement for both myself and the horse to avoid the Swallow Whole problem.

Julian and Wynnreyell could be down one of the corridors to shoot it.

Bristor, Archaememnon, and I could get in there in melee. Two of the rooms look like they can accommodate Large creatures. Probably Dim Door to get Archaememnon into melee range in the southeast room.

I think I would need a Freedom of Movement for both myself and the horse to avoid the Swallow Whole problem.

Julian and Wynnreyell could be down one of the corridors to shoot it.

Do you have scrolls? I started looking for summons with FoM and I didn't find anything :(

I could cast grease which would make your CMD 10 higher for grapple, or just make you slide that much easier down the nightcrawler's rotting gullet.

Arch could use her turn to go check out whats what, and return to a reasonable starting location. It could have readied something, e.g. finger of death but at least you have a +4 from death ward and a +5 from transformation. If you scout it out, you could use our telepathy to tell me where you want me to dimension door the melee contingent next round, and you could execute a round of full attacks on it.

I think all of us are flying right now, so going down into its hole isn't really a problem, beyond the possibility of being eaten.

I do not have such scrolls this time around. It looks like Bristor has a couple of spell slots left. Then again, he could probably solo this thing if buffed and if he keeps his spell slots for himself. Inquisitors are pretty crazy.

I'm just going to deal until it comes out or transformation wears off, whichever happens first.

By 'deal' I think you meant delay. (Damn that auto-correct!)

yes, that.

Ok so what is our plan?

Peter has a fly speed of 40, so can double move 80' in to take a look, but I don't think I'd close the distance this round.

I'd imagine the nightcrawler likely has a readied attack of some sort. Peter's death ward has about 3 minutes left on it, and Hendric's doesn't have much longer than that. Particulate Form has 13 rounds left on it I think.

No idea. Seems like a silly situation. In the heads of the characters we are just keeping things busy while allies disrupt a ritual, right? So we are actually doing our job in that sense. In the larger "game" of the special, it sounds like the house is in trouble of not getting enough successes - was kind of hoping that'd get resolved while we were setting up to fight but no luck I guess. Anyway, that's taken the wind out of my sails. Someone tell me what to do. I'm willing to run in there en masse if that's what people want to do.

It seems to me the only reasonable option is to try to dimension door all of our frontliners in to trade full attacks with it. I'd be willing to bet it can't stand up to a full round from all of you. To accomplish this we'd need foreknowledge of its location, which means we need to scout it out. I'm willing to double move on my turn, using my 40' blightsight, arcane sight, and fairly good regular senses/knowledges to try to find location where we should dimension door, but it could move at that point. Maybe we should all move closer, and hopefully we either get within a 5' step of Wynn making a full ranged attack (and its out of range to aoo or attack, besides magical attacks), or we get to the point I can dimension door all of you to it to full attack?

Anyways, i'll double move Peter up, until I notice it or something that calls my attention to something. If someone has a better plan, post it here or in gameplay in the next few hours.

Ok, I'm on board.