GM MG's (PFS2E #1-03) Escaping the Grave (Inactive)

Game Master Mighty Glacier

There's probably a million things I got wrong when I had to bot people, take into account their items and Bulk and actions, having to start the encounter and roll initiative for a dozen characters and having to control both a friendly NPC and the BBEG.

If you see something that looks odd, it's quite probably a mistake: point it out!

Even if I'm not fully healed up we could hold on to the scroll and possibly do a 3-action AoE heal which would also hurt undead since that seems to be the theme of the area, that way it will still top me up later while also healing others if they need it during a fight. I'm hoping a potion and a medicine check will get me to a good spot.

I'll say this here too (because it's quite easy to miss things when the GM posts 3 consecutive posts): you can use your healing items retroactively at the start of the battle. Just say something along the lines of "back at the dean's quarters, I used my scroll of heal with 3 actions" or whatnot.

Was waiting to see what the others thought today but I guess we all took a break, lol.

Something like that. I guess Outpost signups was a factor in that.

@GM - for me everything looked good! I made Xun actions assuming that Zombie will go north 3 squares and attacks Roots. I hope that Onyx will tank (and die) from Skeleton and the rest of the party will have time to put the statue down and go to fight.

Quick update:

It's starting to looks like we lost Kló as well.

I'll write a Gameplay post later today or tomorrow.

Yeah not sure what's going on, haven't had issues with the website in awhile. Also thanks for the reminder about Outpost signups! I might even make a second character and run two games, just so I can get some more achievement points lol. I really want to play a Leshy. :(

@GM - It could make sense to delay Klo for now (it makes the most sense if he wants to put the statue down). I hope he is all right and will be back soon.

@Folks - what is our strategy here? Are we focusing on the skeleton knight and ignore the zombie? So far we have a bit spread the attacks. And I wonder whom should I focus on next round, and how GM should bot Klo

@Arfsnarf I think inspire courage gives +1 to your magic missiles. @Sky Inspire courage also adds +1 to the damage of each of your attacks (not that it matters this turn).

I would prefer that we focus on the skeleton, personally. He seems particularly dangerous, plus he has a shield, so he probably had shield block. So the more attacks we can pile on him, the better because that's an ability that can only be used 1 time per round.

Yeah with how small the area is I didn't know if I'd find a good way around the zombie just in case it's a fighter with attacks of opportunity, plus I was actually hoping to just knock it out in one round anyways but alas, my old friend the number One decided to come grace me with its presence again.

Yeah, the skeleton has armor and a shield, so he's probably going to be hard to hit. Only my first attack landed. The fact that it'll be a lot easier to hit is a good reason to pound on the zombie. If I survive the round, I could switch to hitting the zombie instead. The faster we bring one of these undead down, the better we'll be.

Darnit, still getting in the habit of applying IC to things that aren't attack rolls (weapons, spell attacks).

Does Inspire Courage apply to spells like magic missile? I honestly don't know. I get that it would apply to things like produce flame because you're making an attack roll but it feels weird to me for it to apply to other types of spells.

Well the INspire Courage says: add +1 to attack rolls, damage rolls...
So I think it should be added to the magic missle.

@GM - maybe Klo can produce flame and toss it at the closest enemy?

p.s. Now I realized that my root magic would be useful for that fortitude save, but it is stuck on paper-mache Sieglinde back there :D Damn!

I think inspire courage gives +1 to your magic missiles.

Does Inspire Courage apply to spells like magic missile? I honestly don't know. I get that it would apply to things like produce flame because you're making an attack roll but it feels weird to me for it to apply to other types of spells.

From my rules-research, it appears that it does give the bonus on the spell damage, but only +1 per target, not +1 per missile.

(1)

If you shoot more than one missile at the same target, combine the damage before applying bonuses or penalties to damage, resistances, weaknesses, and so forth.

but alas, my old friend the number One decided to come grace me with its presence again.

Don't worry, Nineteen is not far~

paper-mache Sieglinde

Hah! Thanks for the mental image!

Thanks for the heads up about the flanking bonus stuff, Roots. I was trying to find it to make sure it was +2 and it wasn't anywhere and I was confused, I knew there was a bonus, but that makes more sense now.

It's a weird adjustment but I think it's easier to remember, because other circumstances like being prone or being surprised also give the flat footed condition.

When the Zombie has fallen I finally stopped being that nervous about that fight, now with the skelly gone I might eat something again :D

Jokes aside our unorthodox team composition and PC that are dropping from the game made me a bit nervous.

I just came up with the idea for non-lethal since doing either doesn't put me at a disadvantage, but that wasn't the party's decision so don't feel like you need to follow my lead on that.

So yeah, this just about concludes the scenario. A couple things:

Post and roll your Downtime activities, please!

You're all in Standard XP progression track, correct? No one is doing Slow mode?

I'll fill out the chronicles later this weekend. It's looking real good for you guys: both scenario objectives (gathering relics and identifying remains) seem to be completed. That means full Reputation points!

You did miss 2 treasure and one chronicle item, though. I won't go into detail here, but the way the scenario handles time-usage is... questionable. Suffice to say, don't feel bad about missing the treasure.

If you have any thoughts on the scenario or my GMing performance, I'd like to hear them!

Earn income, task 0, DC14 (Fortune-telling Lore): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24 Nice, crit success

Yeah, I remember it has a weird way of determining treasure bundles. Did we lose something because we missed taking the tavern sign? (I didn't want to say anything about what we needed to grab because I'd GMd this before).

Earn income, task 0, DC14 (story telling): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 Crit success!

Xun spends the week preparing a tale of Bryrigar Hassen and Gibb Potsmasher and their final fights. The tales were received well and Xun found himself telling them for taverns full of Pathfinders.

He also wrote a song of Sky, Arfsnarf, Roots, Kló and Sieglinde their heroic deeds behind the enemy lines. Bravery and brotherhood, but that song did not get as much popularity... or did it?

Ok Regarding the scenario... I loved it! I find this scenario to be one of the best PF2 that I played. It had a well-defined goal, amazing feel (the scenes descriptions were awesome!). I enjoyed the fights they felt challenging, and the whole idea of trying to do things quickly gave a certain urge to do things. The tasks that Pathfinders were ordered to do seem important rather than: follow this letter and kill all of the kobolds in your way! I also enjoyed that we were given false leads, like the armor on the floor, or that the dossier contained plenty of names that we never found a trace of.

I can't say it enough I loved it!

From the technical standpoint, I think the setting when we need to decide who does which skill check requires a level of coordination that I don't usually find in PBP. But I don't know how this could have been solved. For sure we as a team had some gaps in skill checks (1 person with Society, Religion, etc.):D But I think we did well all-in-all.

@GM - I think you did a great job running this scenario! You posted frequently and kept things moving, I felt like you had plenty of work especially in the skill-check phase. I liked your posts and responsiveness. You definitely got a place on the list of GM's I enjoy playing with! Bloody good job mate!

@Team - thank you all for playing. I liked your PC's a lot. I felt like each and every one of you was a distinct personality that could have been seen in your posts

Roots - really nice RP of a leshy character and his problems of qualifying what could be important for others. I really enjoyed it!

Sky - I enjoyed your take on monk being the magic warrior. It gave your character a distinct feel. Oh and nice tanking!

Arfsnarf - I loved your fortune-telling stone! It was hilarious! I am a big fan of goblins who are bizarre odd creatures and I am a fan of Arfsnarf!

Klo - I liked your take on who an agent could behave on his first mission. I liked his personality, his uncertainty in some situations. Nicely done.

Sieglinde (but I doubt that they will read this) - I liked this PC, nice doubts related to the guilt of the undead.

All in all - after a game I was able to remember a couple of distinct qualities of every PC, and I thank you for that. For me, this game was very enjoyable, and thanks to all of you.

So again great thanks for GM'ing and playing this scenario!

Yeah, I remember it has a weird way of determining treasure bundles. Did we lose something because we missed taking the tavern sign? (I didn't want to say anything about what we needed to grab because I'd GMd this before).

Don't forget to post your downtime activity, Roots.

Ok Regarding the scenario... I loved it! I find this scenario to be one of the best PF2 that I played. It had a well-defined goal, amazing feel (the scenes descriptions were awesome!). I enjoyed the fights they felt challenging, and the whole idea of trying to do things quickly gave a certain urge to do things. The tasks that Pathfinders were ordered to do seem important rather than: follow this letter and kill all of the kobolds in your way! I also enjoyed that we were given false leads, like the armor on the floor, or that the dossier contained plenty of names that we never found a trace of.

I have to agree that, all in all, the scenario is fun to play (and GM!): any complaints I might have are just small gripes.

@GM - I think you did a great job running this scenario! You posted frequently and kept things moving, I felt like you had plenty of work especially in the skill-check phase. I liked your posts and responsiveness. You definitely got a place on the list of GM's I enjoy playing with! Bloody good job mate!

Why, thank you. It was my pleasure GMing for you. Indeed some parts of the scenario required a bit of work for a PbP GM, since the scenario kind of encourages splitting the party. Fortunately PF2E's exploration mode rules offer some help.

GM wrote:

, found at the veranda of the college, who might be Raelyn Mumblewort. (Any thoughts on that?)

I think that was our guess based on Klo findings

Right, did we miss some more obvious evidence along the way? It felt a bit more like process of "best match" and elimination.

Anyway, this scenario had a really nice persistent mood in the background. The constant threat of undead ambush and the giants approach at a distance really imposed some consequence to lingering in any place or taking too much time overall.

interesting to find out the necromancer would have had more undead drones in the end. Does the module have further details about the undead gargantuans if we'd have taken too much time, or do they forever remain a distant reminder to "get moving"?

Also, I'm curious if there was a possibility to subdue the necromancer and get info out of him as an agent of the Whispering Tyrant. E.g., what is the power structure among his forces, what are his coming goals that the Society should be aware of, etc.

Xun, always good to play with you. Xun is a thoughtful bard, seems a bit more of a group leader than aloof type storyteller. Glad you liked Arfsnarf. I think the fortune-teller schtick will need to level up soon, and perhaps have him making bold predictions about specific characters that, say, he can't let go of the whole scenario. That way it'll keep his beliefs and what's important to him more present throughout a scenario.

GM, thanks again. Apologies for my difficulties in breaking old habits around posting. It is good to know what GMs prefer, I just have to fight my fingers sometimes :D

interesting to find out the necromancer would have had more undead drones in the end. Does the module have further details about the undead gargantuans if we'd have taken too much time, or do they forever remain a distant reminder to "get moving"?

It does, actually.

Also, I'm curious if there was a possibility to subdue the necromancer and get info out of him as an agent of the Whispering Tyrant. E.g., what is the power structure among his forces, what are his coming goals that the Society should be aware of, etc.

I like the way you think!

GM, thanks again. Apologies for my difficulties in breaking old habits around posting. It is good to know what GMs prefer, I just have to fight my fingers sometimes :D

No worries! Well played.

Thanks for running!

Herbalism Lore: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Roots spends his downtime looking for herbs and roots for the healers at the encampment.

I really enjoyed the scenario! As with PbP it's always difficult managing how to do things and keep everything moving smoothly and running on time, and with the servers going down and causing us to lose people as well as a few days, it was definitely a bit more difficult than normal. You posted much more often than I've noticed that GMs do for a PbP so that was a real treat as well. I enjoyed everyone else's characters and it was sad to see our group composition slowly dwindle over time, but I'm glad that we were able to pull it through.

Downtime: Magic Warrior Lore: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

No rush or anything but I just wanted to check in, did we get our chronicles yet? I wasn't sure if they were posted up somewhere I didn't notice.

Hey Sky,

Yeah, we are still waiting for the chronicles. I also checked this thread yesterday ;)

Here are the chronicles!

Hey @GM, my chronicle looks good... but Isn't the money part a bit low? The earn income is ok, but the GP gained is 11.2 gp, and when I look at the scenario it is not something that I can divide by 2.2 gp (amount of gold per treasure bundle for lvl 2 character).

Now as I said before I never GM'ed in PF2 so my understanding of money on chronicles is very poor. But shouldn't lvl 2 PC's get a different amount than lvl 1 PC's (sorry Roots ;))

If I got it right, we found 8 treasure bundles * 2.2 = 17.6 gp for lvl 2
8 treasure bundles * 1.4 = 11.2 gp for lvl 1. BUt I could be completely mistaken :D

Hey @GM, my chronicle looks good... but Isn't the money part a bit low? The earn income is ok, but the GP gained is 11.2 gp, and when I look at the scenario it is not something that I can divide by 2.2 gp (amount of gold per treasure bundle for lvl 2 character).

Now as I said before I never GM'ed in PF2 so my understanding of money on chronicles is very poor. But shouldn't lvl 2 PC's get a different amount than lvl 1 PC's (sorry Roots ;))

If I got it right, we found 8 treasure bundles * 2.2 = 17.6 gp for lvl 2
8 treasure bundles * 1.4 = 11.2 gp for lvl 1. BUt I could be completely mistaken :D

Argh, you're right; I forgot to adjust gp for character level.

Also I realized that the PDF-editor I used doesn't actually edit the pdf file. I need to find another pdf-editor. Gimme a sec...

Okay, here are the (fixed) chronicles! (Same dropbox link.)

Thanks look great! Downloaded! Again thanks for the game!

Oh, I like the new system of just paying the PC based on their level rather than the tier of the scenario they're in. Chronicle looks good by the way! And thanks again for running this one!

Looks great! Thanks for the game all!