Volcano's Land - Mercury Morn

Game Master Miner Cotren

quick aside -

I have a much more liberal interpretation of Message that goes something like this:

--The pointing at each person only happens at the beginning of the spells

--For the duration, the caster can initate a whisper to everyone, and receive a reply

--This is why there is so much verbiage about the message taking indirect routes, etc -- if you were pointing at the person, there would never be 3 feet of stone between you, etc

--So basically it is a weird walkie-talkie spell with a limited distance that travels only through air, and only a certain distance, and it has to all go through the caster (which is Osna, so that works well)

Does that make sense?

I've always interpreted it that way as well.

All find with me. Osna will use the message cantrip that way.

Just to be sure, the tracks are going left or right ? Osna will scout following the tracks anyways.

Tracks are going to the left, same as the hissing sound.

Ok thanks, I was not sure.

You are very welcome. I always heartily approve of clarifying questions.

Sorry for the delayed post over the week-end. Election Sunday in France and I got asked to run a poll station all Sunday. Finished later than planned and went straight to bed. This will repeat next week-end I fear.

No worries - thanks for the update!

Finishing report cards and final projects until Thursday.
I'll try to focus tomorrow during break to get a post in.

I'm in the exact same boat! Final grades etc are due today, and then I will have more time.

Good luck with that.
Well, to be fair, there shouldn’t be any luck involved, just hard work. :)

ehhhhh, just assign the grades randomly. :)

Grade: 2d20 + 60 ⇒ (19, 15) + 60 = 94

Wow, very swingy init rolls!

Ok, Osna, you can act whenever you are ready.

Phon Vos needs a round just to move down the tunnel, so its ok if you don't have time to update (or please do so if you do!)

The way I'm running Iniga is she will basically follow Wamblee's lead, and most opponents will ignore her (she's not going to be drawing weapons or providing a flank partner or casting spells or anything like that, she is almost completely passive right now)

I'll post for Wamblee after Osna acts.

Wow, quite the sneak attack to start our first combat off!

for your convenience, swarms:

swarms on pathfinder reference doc

Also, since combat is a place that can go from fun to slog in mere days, I will typically try to post once per day in combats and bot everyone who has not posted. I'll try to take a good action that helps that party, but I'm not necessarily going to plod through spell lists, etc. I'm usually open to a redo if I make a grievous error.

Get something up when I get home. I don't use my computer on the weekend typically.

So if I were to apply "Flaming" to my weapon via Sacred Weapon, would they be immune to the damage? Would the fire just go through? What would happen?

Fire-based enemies, so at best the fire would do nothing, at worst it would heal them.

I guess let me rephrase, I can use any Energy. So what happens to an energy enhanced weapon against swarms? Half damage? Full damage? Negated Damage? Partially halved/negated?

Ah, sorry.

Let's see here, these are Tiny creatures in the swarm...

Tiny swarms are take "half piercing and slashing" weapon damage, which implies they take full bludgeoning. So I'm happy to go with:

1) Fire/ ice / acid damage would also be halved if delivered by a piercing or slashing weapon (less effective delivery)

2) Energy damage delievered by bludgeoning is taken full.

3) Any spell that hits a single creature (or even multiple targets) will not effect the swarm (so no acid arrow) but areas work very well (ex: fireball)

Shouldn't we have had an Aoo when the swam moved into our space?

Excellent question, but the way this ability works, they were basically "summoned" into your spot - they weren't a creature to get an AoO on until they coalesced on top of you.

If they do move after they've popped into being, then you will get AoOs as normal.

Also, I put a link to the Current Battle Map in the "campaign description", so the link should always be conveniently at the top of the Gameplay page from now on!

Here's the info I'm sure you've gotten throughout the campaign so far:

1) The stitching and runes used on "Fake Marg" was similar to techniques used by Efreeti Tango (but advanced in some way?)

2) The glassware came from a represtative of House v'Apore

3) The yellow liquid is a) a mind control serum and b) Volcanic is origin/source/magic

4) You traced the 'maker' of the "Fake Marg" (a stone-like construct covered with skin) to this place via your last question of Speak to the Dead.

And speaking of keeping track of the plot...I'm most of the way done with getting the "Campaign Info" tab in order.

--Everything beneath the first spoiler is the core info of the setting, hasn't really changed much since we started

--The first spoiler has the stuff that gets updated more frequently (places you've been, NPCs, and the Campaign Diary). I've gotten the first 4 or 5 pages of the campaign summarized. I hope to get the rest down in the ext few days and finally be current!

Going to be away until the 5th for holidays. Sorry!

Thanks for letting us know!

I didn't feel like writing it all out, but he also told you the name of the contact, etc - I'm not trying to kill him before you get your answers. (he's still alive!)

Anything else you want/need from this fellow? I know inteorrgations can be long/tedious in PbP, so I try to be more open about what the stakes are, what info you get in general, what the results of your rolls are, etc, so that things don't get bogged down.

I'm trying to keep the scene interesting, and right now you have an angry salamander on your hands. :)

Heading out of town for today and tomorrow - I will respond to Samen sometime Sunday night or Monday morning. And Phon Vos should be rejoining us around that time as well :)

Side note - I count that combat as a win for the party. If I was doing XP, you would get some. I'm far too lazy to do that, so I always go with milestone. I check the campaign log every once in a while, and give a level after enough narrative/combat/choices/etc have been achieved. That being said, I like the idea of doing a few more combats so you can get used to your characters before we add on another level.

I guess longer note now, this is about the 6 month mark of the campaign, and it's a decent indicator of how often I do combat. I don't do a ton of combat, but when I do I try to make it interesting (and try not to let them drag). More will probably come now that we are getting into the story more.

I'm always open to talking about expectations and making sure everyone is having fun -- since this is the six month mark, it's a good time to let me know

a) are you having fun?

and

b) anything you would change?

If you are more comfortable with a PM that is fine too. (and all of this is strictly voluntary anyway)

----

One note I definitely have for myself is to work on the pacing -- with school getting over etc as a teacher, there were definitely some dry spells on my end. I'm sure summer will be fine, and here's hoping for a more sane 21-22 school year :) :)

Personally I'm having fun and I like your unique perspectives, and how you intereact as a group. Looking forward to more!

Forgot to respond to Samen's knowledge planes:

--Salamanders are natives of Ingiscoeli, the home plane of Volcano

(this involves what you would expect - high resist vs fire ; vulnerable to cold, etc)

--There are three breeds that you know of:

-Wrymlings, the tiny creatures you saw in swarms
-Single headed snakes, very low intelligence
-Two-headed snakes, the leader of the lesser creatures

--You also remember vaguely that they live in a city (or...nest? pit?) called Incus, but you have no idea what such a city might be like.

a) are you having fun?

and

b) anything you would change?

Sorry for taking some time to answer.

I also hope from my side that Osna is not taking too much of the spotlight (due to the scouting and knowledge of the city). If that is so, please tell me and I'll adjust.

As for interactions with the different characters, I know we've only scratched the surface and I'm looking forwards to discovering more about each of them.

I, too, am having fun with the game. It's taken us a bit to find out what objective we're steering toward, but I'm curious to see how things continue to develop.

I really enjoy the inter-party relationships and the different perspectives we all bring to the problems we face (for example, the current situation).

Thanks for the replies all! I'm having a ton of fun too and I'm glad you are as well.

(feel free to chime in Phon Vos, but only if you have the time!)

I'm having fun, I'm just trying to still get a feel for my character and the world.

I'm pretty strongly considering recruiting one more to our table - I've found four players to be more conducive to RP and keeping the flow going. I'm pretty sure I asked before if any of you know anyone from around the boards. If not, I'll likely put up a recruitment thread on Monday.

Recruitment thread has been made:

Here

Feel free to drop in and chime in about what the party's current skill set is, etc if you'd like to.

quick question -

Could all of you let me know what sort of passive abilities you have?

Examples:
Samen's amulet glows near elementals

Osna has Cloud Gazer, allowing him to see through fog, mist, etc.

I'd like to have a little sticky note with these things as a reminder --- let me know if I missed anything (besides darkvision of course)

I simply loved everything about that post, Samen.

Thanks! Sometimes it's fun being socially clueless.

Hi All,

Welcome our two new players,

Gabriel Izalith and Abnaki d'Cardi!

Introduce yourselves please (everyone, not just newcomers)! I'll let you know when you will appear in the narrative (soon!)

And when you get a chance, please make sure your character sheet, name, and picture are all finalized, and I'll take a look.

Also, taglines are a ticklish thing -- see this doc for a template that I find useful for PCs to use. Thanks!

TAGLINE TEMP

Abnaki, the Power of suggestion trait is indeed a bit too goofy for my taste - thanks for saying in your submission that you are fine with swapping it out. Let me know what trait you pick instead.

As I said before, I'll look over final submissions, etc. My main goal is to have both of you well integrated into the Happy Swords and the party in general after we get done finalizing the parts of your backgrounds.

Dotting for now to get it in my feed. But hello everyone

Hello Gabriel and Abnaki!

I am Samen. I interact more successfully with elementals than other elens, I have a Smoke elemental girlfriend, and I have sworn to do what I can to protect elenity from any of the Greater Elementals (gods). Specifically, Moon has just shown up in our world, corrupting an entire city full of Sylphs.

Speaking of Moon, I will post a quick synopsis of the biggest "happenings" in the last few months for our newcomers!

Dotting as well, will get a profile up and active after work today!