GM ZD PFS2: #2-01: Citadel of Corruption [Game day IX] (Inactive)

Game Master Z...D...

@Aktuh - Okay...expanding on your plan and looking at it in detail, here's one way to execute it.

There's no way to avoid an AoO. Aktuh will have to dodge 1 hit to get into the chamber, and another to get out. Which is why getting out is highly unlikely. Aktuh may go down on a non-crit hit, BTW.

Right, but Anjo can try and eat the first one. If Aktuh doesn't make it to the cave, this all falls apart. So Anjo is more than willing to take the first hit. We can't risk you getting taken out before you reach the cave.

Also, if Mindartis doesn't revise his move and pull Zallara out, she may end up getting hit again, that would give you a window to escape. But...she may die outright from another crit.

Sorry. I was trying to take in all of the information that I did not notice the Initiative. I thought that both Mindartis and Zallarra have a round to get far away as possible. If the GM will allow it, Mindartis would like to drag Zallarra with him.

I'm a bit confused with the dragging thing. I can't quite understand the rules. What I know is that I can just leave my bow for now because dragging requires two hands. How about the distance that we will cover? Will it use my land speed?

Mindartis, to replace the bird it will take 7 days of downtime, but no additional cost.

Link

Sorry. I was trying to take in all of the information that I did not notice the Initiative. I thought that both Mindartis and Zallarra have a round to get far away as possible. If the GM will allow it, Mindartis would like to drag Zallarra with him.

I'm a bit confused with the dragging thing. I can't quite understand the rules. What I know is that I can just leave my bow for now because dragging requires two hands. How about the distance that we will cover? Will it use my land speed?

I'll allow the retcon since no dice were rolled.

Looking at the rules, while dragging, you move 50 feet per minute.

Looking at the rules for overland travel. 100 feet per minute is equal to movement speed of 10.

So, looking at those rules. It seems your movement will be dropped to 5.

For the round, it would be stand, interact to grab Zallarra and the stride to drag her 5 feet out of the way.

What about using the shove rules, or some variation thereof? The idea being Zallara let herself be pushed along.

I'm not sure how useful 5' is in this situation.

I could always adjust the DC if she is willing to be pushed.

But, if you could not tell by the back and forth, Aktuh has definitely gotten the ire of the skeletal cyclops

Oops. I thought Raznik would be able to take one round of damage from the thing to keep kiting it. I thought wrong.

But, if you could not tell by the back and forth, Aktuh has definitely gotten the ire of the skeletal cyclops

Yes, I got that feeling, but wouldn't want anyone to distract him :). Might as well move on if we are certain Zallara isn't an immediate target.

A friendly GM reminder. The Step action may help you all in these trying times.

The GM having mercy by not moving the reach-AoO-murderbot one more square to the NE also helps. It's noted and appreciated.

I don't know if the GM planned this, but the cyclops can't even Stride-Stride-Strike Aktuh on his turn either. So Aktuh only needs to dodge 1 AoO to leave the room, and his chances of surviving have dramatically increased.

Will this be the second time in two games that I've looked up how many AcP it takes to resurrect a character, and then miraculously survive? Right after a message from our sponsors ...

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*rips the book in half*

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No purchase necessary. Long-distance charges may apply. Infrequent, but severe side effects may include eternal nausea, inversion of limbs, and servitude to the Dark Lords.

... Aktuh unmutes the TV.

If everyone has a speed of greater than 20', there's a case to be made for just running. I don't know how long it will take for that secret door to be secured, but if there's doubt, err on the side of getting 4/5 out. The worst thing would be for the cyclops to pick us off one by one - Aktuh in the chamber, and then whoever by the door, etc.

Yes. I underestimated it's speed. I should have just crawled away instead of standing up...

Now. Crap. I'll have to step twice to not die but that doesn't leave enough actions to cast Soothe on Raznik...

Yeah, have to step twice to get out of the 10' death radius and soothe is a 2 action spell with only a 30' range. I would have had to sit where I was, cast it with extend range and hope he rolled a very low number to hit me...

don't know how long it will take for that secret door to be secured, but if there's doubt, err on the side of getting 4/5 out.

I'm hoping gravity will bring the door down with purpose. After all, someone trapped the creature in here.

@GM - Maybe Mindartis knows if the door will come down with a slam when he figured out how to release the door?

I'm really hoping we can slam it with the door and either kill it outright, or pin it.

Thank you for the info GM. And I will have to change my downtime to replace Mialee instead of earning income.

The door does not slam hard enough to kill it. But it will be able to lower enough in time to keep it from getting out.

To make sure I am understanding this right, you are readying to stride towards the door one the BBEG completes moving.

The door does not slam hard enough to kill it. But it will be able to lower enough in time to keep it from getting out.

But would it be trapped / pinned? Or would it simply just step out of the way with no damage?

My thought was to Ready a move after the BBEG gets near the end of its movement. Since its a Ready Action, I am under the belief, we would still get our normal action, after the cyclops finishes its movement. At which point, Anjo can try and trigger an AoO, Aktuh runs out, and then Mindartis lowers the door.

You prepare to use an action that will occur outside your turn. Choose a single action or free action you can use, and designate a trigger. Your turn then ends. If the trigger you designated occurs before the start of your next turn, you can use the chosen action as a reaction (provided you still meet the requirements to use it). You can’t Ready a free action that already has a trigger.

If you have a multiple attack penalty and your readied action is an attack action, your readied attack takes the multiple attack penalty you had at the time you used Ready. This is one of the few times the multiple attack penalty applies when it’s not your turn.

Once you use the ready action action, your turn ends. You will not able to act anymore until after the BBEG completes his turn.

Answering you question about the BBEG, yes, he would indeed be trapped where he begun.

I think we have the same understanding. Let me clarify what I mean. This is how I read it:

1. PC uses Ready on their turn.

2. The BBEG starts its turn...

3. PC's ready action triggers, PC gets one action.

4. BBEG completes its turn.

5. PC's turn starts.

So step 4 concludes with the BBEG inside the tomb, and then Anjo and Mindarties get their full turns.

Answering you question about the BBEG, yes, he would indeed be trapped where he begun.

I was wondering if the door closes fast enough to pin the cyclops under it, doing some damage in the process.

Okay, then we are on the same page about the order of events.

No, the door will not close that fast. It took a full round to open.

Gravity assist? :)

Welp, I think that's it for our goblin. Shame he couldn't go out in more of a blaze of glory, but it fits with the rolls we've been getting most game.

@Raznik, are planning to spend the ACP (40 points) or Fame (25 fame) to bring him back to life.

Wow, the dice rolls have been killing us, literally.

@Aktuh and Mindartis.

Anjo will run up and expose himself to an AoO. DIce gods willing, he survives, then runs out. This allows Aktuh to hopefully leave without getting hit.

IF ANJO GET"S KO"D... Aktuh will need to move to the West side of Anjo with one move, then use two moves to drag Anjo 5' to clear of the door.

Mindartis should be able to make it to the door mechanism with two total moves given Mindartis moves 35ft per move. With one move from the Ready and then three move this round, Mindartis shodl be able to then move up and trigger the door.

Hopefully that's clear. Anjo will move now and face the grim reaper.

If for some reason, the cyclops doesn't swing at Anjo, Anjo will stop and pop. Hopefully triggering the AoO. If that happens, Aktuh will once again need to move past Anjo and then pull him out of the door path.

I'm not quite sure how spending fame and acp work. Is there a difference in the two options? Is it just that acp is collected across characters whereas fame is just for a single character? Raznik does have enough fame.

As a side note, I recall that I slotted the Resist Corruption boon. This is suppose to give me DR 1 to evil. Was that taken into account when Anjo was injured? It might have been, but I thought I'd double check, in case that 1 hit point of damage matters.

On second thought, if I have 29 hit points, I guess there's no way the creature can get that high of an odd number. It's either 28 or 30.

@Raznik, Fame will be going away soon. They are getting rid of that mechanic. You track that on your chronicles, well until it phases out.

ACP is spent on your my boons page. You will need to assign a character and then click purchase. It should allow you to download a boon chronicle for that character.

@Anjo, I'll keep that in mind.

Sounds like I should spend the fame while it's around. So yes, I'll spend 25 fame to keep Raznik alive.

@Raznik, sounds good. I will mark it on your chronicle.

Aw man. I hate it when someone dies, especially when it's pretty much pure dice death.

Sorry, Raznik, I couldn't think of a way to get a heal to you last round. Even though the thing was focused on Aktuh I would have had to cast Soothe full round and figured there was no way it would just ignore me doing that within it's AOO range...

Yeah, sorry, Raznik. :( And Mindartis. :(

This is, surprisingly, the first time I've been in an adventure with someone dying. That goes for PF1 and PF2. The big difference here, is how much the game is dominated by dice rolls on account of the +10 crit factor.

When did Raznik use his las Hero Point?

This may sound crazy, but we could rest up and try a do-over. With Magic Weapon on both Mindartis and Anjo, we might be able to kill it in two or three rounds. If we tie ropes across the entrance to slow it down.. Maybe pour oil down and light it?

As a member of VIgilant Seal, Anjo would be willing to try again.

I think we should think about it very carefully.

We will be down Raznik (level 3) and an animal companion; we struggled even with them, and I don't think the enemy gets downgraded. So we'd be fighting a pretty strong enemy with us at 60% strength or something like that, and I'm guessing the cyclops has more than 60% of its hit points.

If we do this, we should be planning to retreat all the way back, across multiple maps as necessary. If we stay 55' away at the end of our turn, he can't hurt us on his turn (he'll still get an AoO, though - we'll have to rotate through triggering the AoO).

I do think the vote to retry should be secret ballot (PM the GM). If the vote isn't unanimous, we shouldn't.

I find this scenario frustrating for the unprepared. But I have to give my hats off to Anjo and the GM. Anjo for the out-of-the-box thinking and to the GM for the challenge and understanding to go with our strategy. I'm fairly new to Pathfinder so I've yet to experience character deaths but this scenario really put me on the edge. Gave me some lessons on character prep and strategy. Thank you.

Technically, this would have to be discusssedIC. I just do It OOC for the speed factor. Obviously we'd all have to agree.

Going over the battle, here are some thing the PCs would note.

1. We should have had Magic Weapon cast on everyone before we opened the tomb. If Zallara cast it on everyone, that would be a huge difference in damage.

2. Aktuh can make the cyclops his investigation and get Devise as a free action. He would also have Magic Weapon and he could use Zallara's sling instead of his bow and avoid and resistance penalty.

3. Anjo with Magic Weapon is going to have 3-4 attacks per round, each doing 3d8 and the first two only pay the resistance bonus once. Alternatively, he can use Hunted Shot and then Ready an action to move away each round.

4. We'd have to be able to slow it down. Find a way to make difficult terrain in front of the door with rocks or ropes.

5. If Zallara casta spells before we opened, she could contribute with cantrips like Acid Splash.

Yes, it'd be a risk. We'd be at the mercy of the dice gods, kind of like every adventure. If Anjo and Mindartis can't roll higher than a 10, we'd be screwed. The big difference for me, is Magic Weapon. Mindartis got one attack and that was it. With three of us using it....

But yes, it has to be unanimous. If one person is out, then we should scrap it.

It is one of the more brutal scenarios I have ever run. A couple first edition scenarios come close, but this BBEG is one tough SOB.

I pulled punches where I could with the boss fight. Mainly by not using its special abilities.

But...I'll put it to a vote. If you all want to continue, it will be like hard mode, everyone needs to consent. PM your responses.

If one person says no, I'll wrap the scenario.

@GM - is it possible for the PCs to use the rocks or rubble to make difficult terrain? Anjo would not want to attempt this unless that were something the PCs could realistically do.

I guess the alternative is to lead it outside. Is there a big enough space that we could just run around it?

Can we go buy items and come back? Or is this just with what we have on hand?

@Anjo, the only real thing I can think of is the stone tablets. But as you recall, it is a pain to lift them.

The BBEG may or may not follow you. If it does, please remember, there is also a 20 shaft you all have to climb out of.

@Aktuh,just thinking in character stuff and how most leaders "should" think, if the VC catches you coming back with a dead agent or less agents than he set you out with. He would want a debriefing and would most likely send a different team.

Honestly, I'd love to kill it as much as Zallarra does but even prepared it could easily kill one or more of us. I say let them send a more powerful team in. If we had a tank who could take it's attacks for a round or two the plan would have a very good chance of success. Otherwise, I think we're underestimating just how much damage that thing is doing to us...

If we can't slow it down, and we can't keep our distance by fighting it outside, then I have to agree. The risk is too great. The dice have a mind of their own and may not cooperate. Unless Aktuh has a thought on how to immobilize it, Anjo will agree to move on.

I've gotten a couple of responses and we are calling it here.

I will work on chronicle sheets and reporting this weekend.

No idea how to immobilize it, but if we had enough caltrops, we might have been able to make the middle of the room difficult to cross, and then danced around the edge chipping away while it was stuck in the middle.

GM earn income, 8 days: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
GM earn income, 4 days: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Primary Objective: The PCs fulfill their primary objectives if they create a complete map of the entire complex and clear it of threats. To do this, they must earn at least 4 Exploration Points in area A; groups with 12 or more Challenge Points in Levels 1–2 or 23 or more Challenge Points in Levels 3–4 must instead earn 5 Exploration Points. Doing so earns each PC 2 Reputation for their chosen faction.Success

Secondary Objective: The PCs fulfill their secondary objective if they earn at least 20 Research Points in area B3 and discover the link between the ancient cyclops ritual and the demon lord Urxehl. Doing so earns each PC 2 Reputation for their chosen faction. Failed

Treasure Bundles
-Area A6, page 7: 2 Treasure Bundles for defeating the dragon spirit encounter
-Area A7, page 9: 1 Treasure Bundle for finding the lapis lazuli
-Area B2, page 10: 2 Treasure Bundles for defeating the abyssal fungi
-Area B3, page 10: 2 Treasure Bundles for earning at least 20 Research Points
-Area B4, page 12: 3 Treasure Bundles for defeating Valgomorus

Link to Chronicles

Game has been reported.

Thanks for playing along. See you on the boards.

Looks great, thanks. I thought we needed 24 Research Points for the Secondary.