#4–13: Fortress of the Nail - GM Nowruz (Inactive)

Game Master noral

Discussions here.

Player: Watery Soup
Character: Lai Tsuan (in Tien culture, the family name is the first name, and the individual's name is the last name - so she should be addressed as Tsuan)
PFS #: 2358909-4
Level: 6
Classes / Levels: Ninja 5 / Swashbuckler 1
Race: Human
Faction: Exchange

Things you believe I should know about your PC:

1. Tsuan has completed #4-09 (The Blakros Matrimony) and #4-11 (The Disappeared), and intends to chase down Tancred Desimire (#5-23 Assault on the Wound?, #5-24 Vengeance at Sundered Crag).

2. Anyone who's played with Tsuan before probably remembers her as a sarcastic, uncouth, impulsive ninja. Her personality is in the process of changing; her multiclass is intentional (I'll post more about it in Gameplay) and her icon change is also intentional and reflect a certain level of discipline and respectability that she's trying to cultivate.

Are you new to PbP?: no
Have you played or GMed this scenario before?: no / no

This game will begin on November 4th, 2020.

Otha and Hawthwile will join us and then we are complete with six PCs! :-)

Player Name: Otha
Character Name: Mythryndyr
PFS Number: 239913-2
Faction: Liberty’s Edge
Slow Tracking? (Y/N): No
Day Job (please roll now): Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Special Notes/Abilities: Nothing extraordinary. Myth’s got the Deadeye Bowman trait along with the Evasion and Uncanny Dodge abilities; his favored enemy is Undead +2.

Hey Tsuan...seems like we just finished the special...

Is it better to have played The Disappeared or play a Dark Archive PC in this? I do have a 5th level Dark Archive PC if we go low tier.

Player Name: TriShadow
Character Name: Malaz Bourreau
PFS Number: 151777-1
Faction: The Concordance
Slow Tracking? (Y/N): No
Day Job (please roll now): Intimidate (Caravan): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25
Special Notes/Abilities: Occultist shinanegans. Make blade heavy. Make blade 'Bane'-d. Get big. Hit for buckets of damage. Cross fingers it's dead so I don't get hit. Repeat until it stops moving.

Purchasing a Pallid Crystal for 3,300 gp

So, should I bring in my 5th level archer instead? It looks like low tier and I don't want to boost it up to high tier with my 9, if it will boost it, that is.

Edit:
Actually, we're smack in the middle at CL 7.

Malaz 6
Lai 6
Rhyk 8
Otha 6
Inga 9
Grimdog? 7
equals 42, divide by 6 and we get CL 7.

Which tier then?

Characters

Malaz 6
Lai 6
Rhyk 8
Otha 6
Inga 9
Hawthwile 6

equals 41 divide by 6 and we get CL 7.

I am not sure. We have to play up with 4 player adjustments then, right?

Or /roll4initiative goes low tier.

What works for you guys?

From what I’ve heard, this scenario isn’t kind to characters playing above their tier. Personally I would prefer to go low - I unfortunately don’t have any characters available in the 8-9 tier.

Player Name: Hawthwile
Character Name: Torku
PFS Number: 264524-18
Faction: Exchange
Slow Tracking? (Y/N): No
Day Job (please roll now): Sleight of Hand, Boons: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 14 + 2 = 25
Special Notes/Abilities: Also an occultist, but perhaps one with more... finesse, per say. than Malaz. Similarly, he’ll want to Bane his weapon before hitting things - but he also aims to make himself a difficult target to hit back. He can also channel the spirits of his blade’s previous wielders, using them as spiritual ally or to bolster his own heroic abilities.

He’s also an incredibly sour puss, so feel free to ignore him or let me know here that he’s being a bit much for you and I’ll tone him down.

Yeah, since we're six, it's high tier with four-player adjustment.

I can work with either, though it should perhaps be noted that Rhykevance is far from optimized.

Also, I accidentally first dotted in the gameplay thread with Sälpä, who's the wrong character and would die horribly if he tried to show up. Sorry about that. Feel free to delete him from the character tab.

”Or you could just change out of them,” a sour voice adds from behind a large dusty tome. ”So either you can’t because they’re glued to you or some equally ridiculous premise, or you don’t actually want to change and would prefer to pretend you do by complaining loudly and disturbing everyone around you.” A red-skinned face with small horns glares over the edge of the book. ”Either way, shove a cork in it or go somewhere else.”

I was so looking forward to seeing Torku in action again! ;-)

I'm pretty sure if we're at exactly CL 7, we get to choose low or high.

Nope, I was wrong.
Edit:

Starting with Season 4, scenarios were designed for

six characters and contained methods to adjust for tables
with four players. When the APL of a table is between
two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario), a party of four characters must play the lower tier without
any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven
characters whose APL falls between two subtiers must
play the higher tier with the four-character adjustments
found throughout the scenario.

I don't have any other character, so I'm playing Tsuan whether we're high tier or low tier.

The root of the awkwardness is that APL 6.5 gets rounded to APL 7, which is high tier (with 6+ players in Seasons 3- and with the 4-player adjustment in Seasons 4+). So if we have four level 6 characters, it's quite possible that the majority of the party is out-of-tier*. I won't belabor the absurdity of that system, but for us right now for this game, if we play up with (6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9), both of the in-tier players will need to have asskickery to spare.

---

* Maybe I'll belabor the absurdity a bit. If we had 6,6,6,7,7,7, we'd go high tier with everyone out of tier!

I'm going to bring in my 5th level zen archer, then. I'll get his stat block written up later today.
Please delete Inga from characters tab.

Oh yes, I entirely forgot. Rhykevance has an arbiter inevitable familiar from Improved Familiar. Banewarden generally stays away from combat, but is a useful additional pair of hands to juggle scrolls and potions and suchlike. They have Int 11, truespeech, and a constant detect chaos.

Thanks!

Can you guys make a kn nobility or local check here as I could give you some additional information but don’t want to clatter the gameplay in this scene.

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Knowledge (nobility): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

Knowledge (Local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Local (untrained): 1d20 ⇒ 3

Torku got it.

Here the ranks;

The Hellknight orders possess a complex rank structure; the most pertinent ranks-from highest in authority to lowest-are the following.
Lictor:The general ofa Hellknight order.
Vicarius: A spell-casting leader of a Hellknight order (rarely used).
Master/Mistress of Blades: A colonel of a Hellknight order, equal in rank to a paravicar.
Paravicar: A leader of a Hellknight order's signifers, equal in ranktoa masterofblades.
Paralictor: A high-ranking Hellknight officer, similar in ranktoa major.
Maralictor: A mid-level Hellknight officer, similar in rank to a lieutenant. Maralictors with titular concerns or duties-such as arms-maralictor, field-maralictor, or gate-maralictor-are oflesser rank.
Signifer: A Hellknight spellcaster.
Hellknight: A rank-and-file soldier in a Hellknight order. . Armiger:A Hellknight in training or a Hellknight squire.

Paxal isn't trained in Nobility or Local. Could he have used Profession (soldier) for the check?
Profession (soldier): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Even if he could, he is unfamiliar with the Hellknight rank structure.

Sorry guys.

Just realized we did not have a map.

Can you place yourselves please?

Thanks

Maps & Handouts

Map seems to be view only.

View Only for me also.

SORRY! Now can be edited!

I am able to access it now. But Slide 4 is uncovered and I'm not sure we're supposed to be able to see it.

No issue with slide 4. Assume you received a map in advance. :-)

Hey, Rhykevance. What armor are you wearing? Your gear/possessions tab isn't working. I have a crazy idea for after this battle.

+1 mithral full plate. I'll see if I can fix that...

As soon as you are ready and buffed etc. we will jump to HELL!!!

Hell!?! Ohhh, wow.

I will go with Heightened Awareness and See Invisibility (my only long term buffs. Each will last an hour.

Torku just needs to apply resist energy (fire) to himself and we're good to go.

Rhykevance goes with just shield from his wand, just before stepping through. Anything longer-lasting gets to wait until we see what we're stepping into.

Nice! Tsuan has been to Heaven and the Shadow Plane, so I feel like she should put a few ranks on Knowledge (planes) at this point.

Tsuan is always buff, so she's ready to go whenever.

Also, just so it doesn't come as a surprise later, Tsuan has Pressure Points so she should have been doing STR damage on all her hits with precision damage. I just forget she has it so I havem't been apllying it.

Please place yourself and indicate buffs in the tagline. Please also update your stats in the tagline if buffs changed them.

Thanks

Planar Traits adjustments:

Tsuan is NG, and takes a -4 penalty.
Tsuan doesn't cast spells.
Tsuan's Vanishing Trick and Shadow Clone ninja tricks are supernatural abilities, not spell-like abilities, so she'll be able to use them normally.

Tagline updated.

Tagline updated.
Neutral = -4
No spells effected

However, it looks like the penalties are only for the 'mental' stats. There is no effect on rolls for physical violence, correct?

Added addendum in tag line to reflect -4 on mental checks...not a spell caster...placed token...

Token placed and ready. -4 to mental checks stinks, but it is what it is.

Hmm...Just saw Torku did the resist fire. Can I spend a point of focus before going through to enact Energy Shield (fire). If not, I can spend two points of mental focus to do it as in immediate action upon stepping through? Absorbs a total of 30 points of damage, duration 1 hour/

However, it looks like the penalties are only for the 'mental' stats. There is no effect on rolls for physical violence, correct?

Physical violence and Profession (barrister) work normally in Hell.

Since Paxal adds his Wisdom modifier to AC, is that affected?

Just mental skill checks. :-)

All other mechanics work as usual.

This is really a fierce opponent. To be honest, I think it is not really fair to have such a challenging beast at this level. :-(

I am writing this so you all know that you have to take this fight seriously from the start please.

Guys, help me with the fire damage from the lava. I’d rather you do not get any fire damage when you just pass through but what do you think?

Any PC who steps in one of the molten pools, however, takes 2d6 points of fire damage each round until she vacates that square.

@Myth and Rhykevance: I think the haste did not affect Myth after all, correct? If that is the case we would need to retcon the Myth's damage last round I think.