GM TOP #10-14: Debt to the Quah (Standard, Foxes) (Inactive)

Game Master Pete H.

AP's are so dang hit and miss, mostly being miss. I've only been selected for one out of several applications and it died before our first combat. I loved the character concept I had for that one too, it's frustrating when a PC you invested a lot into falls completely to the wayside.

I am GMing an AP right now and, to be honest, it is a struggle.

Annnnnd Chapter 1 is live! Hopefully nobody's wildly out of character. Set generally somewhere between Ikari's ordainment and Onna's death, which I think might be a mild timeline inconsistency but................... whomst cares :D

Annnnnd Chapter 1 is live!

I think you have a solid grasp on the characters so far. Looking forward to seeing where this goes (especially if you are maintaining a "G" rating. I mean, we're Pathfinders. Violence is bound breakout in our vicinity, possibly of our own creation.)

I dunno if I’m maintaining a G rating, buuuuut that’s where we’re at for now!

If things get spicy enough I’ll have to figure out a way to get it to you guys off Paizo ;P

Ha! That was a fun read :)

When the cute bard is flirting with you but you’re a gay disaster

Alright, posting this in all my games. A tree company came out yesterday to grind a stump and cut our internet cable. The earliest the cable company can make it is the 20th, so if I am holding the group up please bot me. If I’m your GM, I’m really sorry! Play will resume when I get the net back.

It is possible I’ll get small windows online to make posts now and then, if so I’ll see you all online. Thanks for understanding.

Man that sucks! Hope it's sorted quickly.

We'll be here.

I've returned to work today! The first week back is always a doozy, apologies in advance if my posting is sub-par or I miss a day!

A swift return to your internet and minimal frustration to you and your family!

Aight, I'm back but have dinner to make and a room to finish painting. Best case scenario I'll have a post up in a few hours. Worst case it'll be tomorrow morning (~15 hrs from now). See ya all soon!

I believe I have neglected to declare which of the skulk are included in Ikari's caravan bond. Technically I think Hiiragi would still be in, since the effect has no duration. I would like to include either Toshi or Onna: though neither is likely to want to be enlarged, there's also the ability to get fatigue removed at range.

GM, would you be happy to 'retcon' this inclusion? (Otherwise I need a minute once we're out of this haunt effect).

I don't believe it will effect anything inside this challenge so go ahead and make your choices now. And even if it does, it won't be a large effect.

I suggest Hiiragi and Onna - Onna would do more damage enlarged, if it ever came to it, whereas Toshi's accuracy would be much reduced.

Inclusion, YAY!!

I was today years old when I learned about Onna bugeisha (also here). Onna was going to pick up the long-spear at 5th level. A naginata might work just as well. I would love to say I knew about the warriors all along, but sometimes its better to be lucky than good. Kismet and all!

I knew about samurai-ko favouring the naginata, but had never heard the term onna-bugeisha before.

I'm a big fan of the Legend of the 5 Rings setting (Rokugan). I used to play the L5R ccg, and I have a Rokugan D%D campaign already written up. I ran it once, got to level 5-6 before a TPK ended it (do not storm a shadowlands fortress when most of your samurai haven't turned up). I would love to do it again via PbP one day, when I have capacity to do it justice.

Now I realize I’m an idiot—I love puns, love onna-bugeisha, love naginata. How did I miss this one?!

I’m so glad you didn’t though!!

(Playing a samurai in another PBP who carries both a nodachi and a naginata around. Did you know the Samurai class has bonuses with wakizashi, katana, naginata, and bows, but NOT the nodachi??? It’s a crime, is what it is!)

Just reading through the elf/vegan interplay.

Can I just say how much fun I have in this group? Thank you all for being great role players and story tellers.

Okay, I have to get back to actual work now.

My roomie got me a nine-tailed kitsune necklace made of fluorite for my birthday today and I am LOVING it

My brand is increasingly becoming Foxes Everywhere and I am so into it

Happy Birthday Hiiragi.

In other news I want to thank everyone for upholding the RP when I have not been quite so engaged. I have a hard time getting into character and have some personal issues. I have mentioned them on the boards in various games and they are not important here but thanks everyone.

Ragi's birthday! Congratulations on surviving another orbit around the sun. No easy feat in 2020.

I hope you have more of a celebration planned than a keyboard, but, ya know, pandemic.

Have a glass of something to liven your soul tonight.
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And ice cream. (Just not together) Or together. Its your day. Do whatever the hell makes ya happy!

They say people who have more birthdays tend to live longer ;)

So far my celebration has been enjoying my gifts (my wife and my friend did an art collab of our OCs, but also I got Konohana Kitan 5-8, the DVD, Ghost of Tsushima, and more)!! Also she made a taco pizza and a cake and I am just pleased as can be c:

^^sounds like an awesome birthday :)

Many happy returns!

Thank you much!!!

ALSO I just learned that the word “shenanigans” derives from the word “sionnach” so her name is EVEN BETTER

Itami's wand is actually now the wand of "Does it have SR?"! Part of hitting level 4 was sacking Sleep for Magic Missile as a spell known, so he'll be casting them himself if this goes through :)

Holy crap this is bad :o

That golem thing can throw a cage every round (or at least every other round). We really need to retreat to fight the blobs one at a time, buff and heal up. But Ragi's trapped! And that cage isn't easy to break.

Not sure what to do tbh.

It is quite a challenging fight. The saving grace I’m seeing on how this is doable is that most of the attacks are low damage. Knowing stuff about these things would help with tactics, but I’d say this is definitely a winnable fight.

Oh jeez I kind of expected the cage to be a one-time thing

Maybe it has a limit? Like 3/day??

Anyway retreating into the hall is looking better and better but I gotta bust outta here first.

We may have to reverse those tactics and all pile in. Fight these things like we did those harpies - stick and run inside the big room, one or two of us using healing wands / spells whilst Itami magic missiles and those who still can do melee.

Otherwise anyone on their own in a cage is in big trouble.

True, but if we can get outta cage range and deal with the blinking doggos alone...

Also worth noting, the Harpy fight is when Hiiragi started falling for Onna!

Who’s next? :D

Thing is, the cage is effectively a double grapple. You have to escape from the bones that are constricting you, and you have to break the cage as well. That's too many actions - at least one standard to escape the grapple, at least one standard to break the cage by STR (unlikely, we're foxes) or two solid hits to break by hp damage - and the cage seems to be AC18, so that's not a pushover.

Liberating Command is a big help, since it gives you a chance to slip out of the grapple with an Immediate action.

But because it takes so many actions, I fear we'll just go round and round - one of us breaks out, and then immediately someone else is stuck in another cage, just like now.

I think we have to pile in.

It's definitely tricky and worth a bit of strategery to figure out a solid plan. I'm pretty confident you all can win, but this isn't an easy fight so some bad rolls or tactics could sink one or more PC's.

Not getting any info from the knowledge checks super sucks. :(

Remind me to put Diverse Training on Ikari if he makes it out of this (it's the GM Stars boon - l star training gives you the ability to make a skill check as if trained 1/scenario with a total bonus of 3 + your GM star total). I have to use my downtime to do so.

If one of you wished to burn an "Explore, Report, Cooperate" boon, you might be able to learn some info about whether you still need to fix up this last room or even fight the bone thing.

Not that escaping the room would be simple due to the current positioning of the big skeleton thing, but it may offer an alternative route if things keep going south.

I feel like “hey, we fixed your temple but also there’s a big skeletal dude that will probably kill you if you go in there” is gonna be a not-quite-pass tbh

I rather survive and get 1PP than die and get 2 :p

I'll burn that boon GM :)

True!

Also, nothing says we can’t leave, heal up, rest, and then come back tomorrow with specific spells prepared.

.......hey, this thing wouldn’t qualify as an Undead, would it?

Also, nothing says we can’t leave, heal up, rest, and then come back tomorrow with specific spells prepared.

Well, I mean... I have been carefully monitoring time spent on things so maybe there is a time limit for the scenario? Hard to say, some of these play that stuff close to the vest.

.......hey, this thing wouldn’t qualify as an Undead, would it?

It would qualify as... something that wasn't ID'd. :(

I'll burn that boon GM :)

Official 5-Word Answer: Defeating Enemy Won't Effect Outcome

Hiiragi, is your HP correct at 24?

d12 at first level = 12
d8 at lvl 2-3 = 10
con 12 = 3 more

Total is 25 which also doesn't include any favored class bonuses that you may have put into HP.

I think I forgot Barbs are d12’s and not d10’s! 25 should be right, I think.

I think we now pray that the enemies won't attack an unconscious fox in a cage?

I don't see us having the stamina (hp) to fight past these guys and free Hiiragi. I think it's time to retreat into the maze. Come back with our wounds healed, a Bulls Strength and a Shield of Faith on Ikari, then bust Hiiragi out, grab her and run (if we can keep the monsters at bay).

I plan to Channel to stabilise Hiiragi (it's only 1d3hp) and then retreat.

Alternatives?

I can hit her with the wand, and then fall back into the maze.

Also, would RED's move provoke any AoO's? It is leaving a threatened square while not performing a 'withdraw'. It just seems like when I try moving like that as a player, I usually get clipped. It might make a difference if it is low enough on HP that it is killed before getting into flank.

The amorphous blobs have a special ability that prevents them from getting hit by AoO’s. Yeah, I know... these enemies have like... perfectly OP abilities to shut pathfinders down. Everything seems to work to hit groups at several of their weakest points.

I’m also debating a thing about the cage ability in my head right now that would have changed how you all handled it. The problem with the cage thing is that (other than the grapple stuff) it doesn’t use existing pathfinder rules for how it traps people. It just says it does but gives no DC or action to escape other than destroying it. So it appears to leave it up to GM interpretation as to how one would escape. So I cobbled some stuff together and am thinking maybe I went too far in guessing what the cage was intended to do.

You can always check the boards for other runs of this module and see how those GMs played it!

Yeah, that would be the only place I didn't look so far. I'll go take a look and see how others handled it and get back to you all.

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The first one I checked appeared to handle it the same way as me... but the pathfinders were a bit tougher AND won initiative. It took them 2-3 rounds to wipe out the big golem and it only got one cage off (that provoked an attack because ranged) and the person grappled pulled out a mace and broke it to pieces in two rounds.

The second game treated it like literally JUST a ranged grapple attempt (and even forgot to do damage). That was super easily defeated with a single escape attempt and the pathfinders had also won initiative so got a bunch of attacks and AoO's on the skeleton thing before the first cage even got tossed.

The third also completely treats it as a ranged grapple, though at least it got the damage added.

The fourth also treats it like a grapple. I'm beginning to see a bit of a consensus, though I'm quite skeptical considering the text of the ability clearly states that the cage still traps the target even if it isn't grappling them.

But what I'm seeing (sadly) is that ALL four of these scenarios appear to be high tier or have several much higher level and powered PC's with the group. All also had Initiative won by the PC's (at least vs. the cage tosser), which just goes to show how freaking powerful that first initiative roll can be...

So, I have a thought of a small adjustment to the cage that doesn't negate it's power, but at least gives you all a reasonable chance to manage it. That post is pending.

Okay, so one of the major issues with the cage is that it grapples AND traps the player and the only way OUT requires lots of damage* and also prevents the PC inside from using their fancy 2-handed weapons.

*not what this group is known for... what IS this group known for? It isn't big damage or skill checks... maybe being cute fuzzy dog haters? :P

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So my solution is simple and combines how some of the GM's in the other games have managed this fight with how the text actually reads.

Essentially the only change is that if the cage is NOT grappling you (because it failed, or because you escaped) then it is a simple move action to lift it up so you can step or move out from under it. This still requires a move action to lift it up, but any adjacent player can take the action. The cage would then just take up that empty space until destroyed.

Now, that said, I don't see a major reason to retcon anything because your current plan of falling back is now going to allow a full escape so you can heal and reset and plan.

That is, assuming you all take a couple logical actions. Ikari lifts the cage off unconscious and now ungrappled Hiiragi and drags her out of the room, soaking the AoO from the yellow dog (he has enough HP to survive so I won't even roll it) and Toshiko grabs his dropped spear and follows after.

The blob-dogs and skeleton thing will fall back to guard the entrance/exit because that is literally what they were made to do. You all can heal up and reset for another shot at them, or at least a shot at getting past them.

Anyone not want to take this route? Let me know. Otherwise take your actions and start posting how you all heal up and plan for the next go.

I like the keeping everyone alive route!

Thanks for doing the research.

*gurgles affirmatively from the floor*