GM Badblood's Scions of the Sky Key - Part III - The Golden Guardian (Inactive)

Game Master Lance K

Please use this thread for any out of character discussions, including rules questions or general side chatter.

Scions of the Sky Key - Google Slides

Thanks again for running. This is Bask. He has a couple of mechanical things to note. He's a Divine Hunter hunter, so is a lawful good worshipper of Sarenrae and has a celestial lion companion. He also has a pretty cool charity boon called The Final Warning

He mostly uses his scimitar to flank opponents with Salim, dealing non-lethal damage where possible. As Salim has spell resistance it can interfere with helpful spells which can be a bit annoying

The slide link in my signature works but the one I posted in the forum does not, so here it is again:

Sign in Sheet

Bocke Reed is diligently scribing some scrolls when a messenger arrives from the Lodge asking him to report to duty.

Profession (scribe): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Bocke wraps up a final sentence and carefully rolls up the papyrus, making sure the ink dries before it's rolled up.

He grabs his longbow off the wall and his quarterstaff off of his mini shrine to Nethys.

Guido is leading a round of drinking songs and insists that the messenger must join in!

Perform sing: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22

I need to double check some things and buy him a cloak of resistance. When do we plan to start?

I should have the starting post up by tonight.

Alright, I will try to stay up and get him updated so he can be played.

No real hurry. There's a bit of introduction and background before any rolls need to be made and I'm seeing that there are a few people who haven't signed in yet. (Hint, hint)

Sinaryn works on shipping any excess black powder supplies before sailing to the meeting destination.

Craft (Alchemy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

First post is up. You can introduce yourselves now or after you're finished asking any questions you have from Allahe.

Still need to update my botting section. I have not played him since he last leveled.

I will get that done a little later, just noting it here so people know it is still out of date.

Dropping her chain belt beside a large, lidded basket on the shore, Laafdahni slips into the cold, choppy water on a windy day. Once the water is up to her waist she sinks below the surface. Shortly, her face breaks the surface as she makes her way back to short with a flapping fish the length of her arm held firmly by the gills. Plunking it into the basket, she returns to the water for another catch.

Profession (fisherwoman): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

The fish knocks over the basket and flops back into the water.

I love that people are describing their day jobs!

BTW, as you have figured out, hot weather will be a factor during this scenario. Slight spoiler, but you won't have to worry about it until AFTER you depart from Fort Bandu. For your reference, here are the rules on weather.

Hot Weather Rules

The rules in this scenario are slightly modified, but if you get a chance, review these so you know what to expect.

I am going to be getting a wand of some sort before leaving the lodge.

The three options are Endure Elements, Mage Armor, or the practically unheard of Serren’s Swift Girding.

I assume that Endure Elements would allow us to ignore the hot conditions. It protects up to 140 degrees F and lasts all day. This is by far the easiest solution if it allows us to skip the heat Fort saves.

I assume that Mage Armor would be as if we weren’t wearing armor.

Serren’s Swift Girding would allow someone to travel without armor and then put it on in a single round. Most of the day the person could travel without armor. I am very tempted by the wand of Serren’s Swift Girding just because I never see it in play.

GM, please let me know if you don’t think one of these solutions would work for some reason.

Does anyone have a better way to handle the heat?

Edit to add:

...and reading the gameplay the GM has already stated Endure Elements just handles it. I have a +7 UMd but everyone except Guido and Bocke have it on their spell lists.

I will also be picking up 2 weeks food.

It is getting late, so I would like until tomorrow to decide which wand I pick up with PP.

Endure Elements is probably the most straight forward and it sounds like Bocke is also willing to get one. You'll probably get the most use out of it because you can also use it for cold weather scenarios.

Oooh, I do love Serren's Swift Girding, but its actually better as a potion for those rare instances where you can get attacked at night. Every heavy armor user should carry one of these on them at all times. I used it once this way...I don't remember if it was with my cavalier or my samurai. On the other hand, since it affects 1 person per level, it could really be a great spell for a wizard to learn because they could suit the whole party up with a single spell.

Yeah, it looks like a few of us are okay with picking up a wand of it and we have some users too! Easy fix right there.

Serren's Swift Girding is indeed really cool!

I agree that Serren’s Swift Girding is a great spell for a wizard with an arcane bond. They can draw the spell through their arcane bond any time it is needed but don’t need to waste a spell slot normally.

Since we have two people doing wands of endure elements, assuming that others will share their wands I will pick up a wand of Lucky Number instead and share that with the group. This has the advantage of being on his spell list.

At this point ONE PC can make a Kn: Geography, Local or Nature check or a Survival check. Any one can feel free to contribute to the conversation but be warned I will only be accepting the FIRST skill check I see (scenario rules).

——

I have +11 Kn: Local but no longer have a Reroll.

Synarin has +8 in all knowledge skills.

Is there anyone else in the race for a good skill here?

Not Bocke.

Bask has survival +11, and a re-roll available. He can also give himself +2 to survival for a minute via a hunter aspect, though if it's about knowledge of the jungle that might not necessarily apply I suppose.

Alright, I think that puts you in the lead so far Bask.

Laafdahni's definitely not your gal for this one.

Fortunately, Bask (on his reroll) did pretty good. We will have to see if it was enough.

My spellcraft is +10 and I can use my shirt re-roll if it goes south.

Using heroism is fine. Also, Guy, you can keep your reroll since the roll you spent it on was inconsequential. There was no information you could get from talking to people around town.

My spellcraft is +10 and I can use my shirt re-roll if it goes south.

Sounds great, go for it! Regardless of whatever mechanic is used, I think it looks better when it is different people in the group showing what they have.

Using heroism is fine. Also, Guy, you can keep your reroll since the roll you spent it on was inconsequential. There was no information you could get from talking to people around town.

Thanks!

Absolutely going to take a backseat on this roll and seethe quietly. HAHA. Don't want to get us in too much trouble and she had her fun poking the Aspis.

But I do speak Draconic if it is needed to translate and that can help the roll.

Great job on the role playing for this part of the scenario everybody!

GM Badblood,

Starting with the next update could you please add a note to the combat just before the round counter with a reminder of Inspire Courage from Guy?

Inspire Courage: +2 competence bonus attack, damage. +2 morale bonus charm, fear

I think this would help people remember it.

Sure, I can put that on the initiative tracker.

Bask, I don't who you've been playing under, but that sounds unnecessarily priggish. In my opinion Salim is trained in Acrobatics and would use that skill to avoid putting itself in danger. If I was throwing an animal at the party with Acrobatics, you can bet that I would make use of that skill if it made tactical sense and I don't see why you shouldn't be able to also.

I don't know...some GMs really get uptight about animal companions and they can be wildly arbitrary and inconsistent in this area. Don't get me started on horses...Okay, basically my gripe on this is that most GM's won't even consider letting you bring a horse into a dungeon but then have no problem whatsoever when someone wants to bring their large sized anklyosaurus or dire wolf to a fancy dinner party.

One thing, would it be possible for you to include a link to Salim's page in your character's status bar or throw a basic stat block (HP, AC, DR/energy resistances) into your posts? Mainly just so I can easily see if an attack hits and how much damage it deals?

One thing I have taken to doing is create an alias for an animal companion. I also have an alias I use for summoned creatures. I put a simple stat block on the profile.

I find doing this helps everyone figure out what actions the summon or animal companion took.

I've only had one GM say not to animal companion acrobatics to be fair. Salim even has the "daredevil" archetype that gives up share spells for an acrobatics boost.

I do have an alias for Salim, I'll use that. My last game was on discord so I forgot about it, and the lack of a lion avatar hurts me

There is a Leonal under Outsider but that humanoid face can be a little disturbing, lol. It would be like having the cowardly lion with us.

some GMs really get uptight about animal companions

To be fair, I have played with some people who use their animal companions in a way that makes me understand why some GMs may be super harsh.

This doesn't seem remotely close to those situations.

My apologies for missing my turn, and thanks for botting me. I had started my post yesterday, but kids interrupted partway through, and my brain somehow got stuck on the belief that I had completed my post. I'll be more conscientious from now on.

No biggie! Hopefully that was something close to what you'd have done anyways!

She usually starts a fight with Color Spray, but that works, too. It's hot enough out that she may have wanted an excuse to blast some ice around.

Guy uses his wand to help heal the two who are injured.

<snip>
[dice=CLW wand, hurt miner #1]d8+1
[dice=CLW wand, hurt miner #1]d8+1

Reading it over again, I realized that I hadn’t changed the target on the miners.

Please, assume I did one charge on each miner. Let me know if they need more as in my experience most NPCs can only take a small amount of healing.

Would I have heroism up or not?

Absolutely! I let you know that you could throw buff spells up without triggering initiative. I see you were wanting to cast that before moving in.

Bocke,

Just wanted to say that Magic is Life trait can be very nice. I have it on one of my Bloodragers and I always use Endure Elements from a wand just to get the stabilization benefit.

Yeah, I took it more for flavor than anything, but I think as I was leveling him up to 3, I re-noticed it and thought I should try to get some mechanical benefit out of it.

Bocke's an archer, so he doesn't go down very often, and it hasn't come up yet.

We just found a magical +1 Longspear, which is a simple weapon with reach.

Who wanted it?

Not Laafdahni. She only has 8 strength, so I doubt she can even carry it without becoming encumbered.

Bocke can wield it, but not very well. It would be a nice backup weapon if nobody else wanted it.

If you have the room to use a longapear you can usually use a bow. I wouldn't be surprised if no one wanted it as this is a party with a lot of ranged attackers.

Bask uses a scimitar, for religious reasons as much as anything, and he only gets the benefit of his divine fighting technique with the scimitar. Go for it Bocke!