Outpost IV: PFS2e 2-13: A Gilded Test PbP (Inactive)

Game Master James Martin

Good day! This is my discussion thread for PFS 2e Scenario 2-13 A Gilded Test. Please dot in, leave your information below and be ready to get playing when OutPost IV begins!

Name:
PC Name:
PFS Number:
Faction:
Class/Level:
Anything the GM should know about your build/character:
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of:
Anything else?

Name: Chadius
PC Name: Miladistra
PFS Number: 133608-2002
Faction: Verdant Wheel
Class/Level: Sorcerer 2
Anything the GM should know about your build/character: -
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of: -
Anything else? Miladistra has an animal compaion: a wolf by the name of Deroff

And here is Miladistra's animal companion.

Stepping off the boat from Katheer into Oppara, Tao scolds her cousin Jesselle "Go return the captain's compass to him right now!" who stands aghast that she had even noticed. Crossing her arms while she waits (but smiling until just before the little cousin returns before putting on a stern face) she takes the earliest sights of the high rooftops and architecture of the "Gilded City" before she quizzes the young one "What did he say?" to which Jesselle replies somewhat defiantly "He told me I could keep it!"...

Name: rainzax
PC Name: Tao
PFS Number: 2366390-2006
Faction: Radiant Oath
Class/Level: Oracle (Ancestors) / Champion (Paladin) 4
Anything GM should know?: Lots of moving parts - will do my best to keep GM informed!
Expected Absences: No
Anything else?: Tao first adventure was alongside Hookie some time ago! She has lost her accent since then, as well as undergone an Evolving Destiny...

Name: Jacob W. Michaels
PC Name: Brynsil "Grams" Lustershale
PFS Number: 83959
Faction: Horizon Hunters
Class/Level: Champion 2
Anything the GM should know about your build/character: Nope
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of: Nope
Anything else? Nope

Name: Mitch
PC Name: Aldonza Delamorte
PFS Number: 142569-2005
Faction: Horizon Hunters
Class/Level: Swashbuckler 1
Anything the GM should know about your build/character: Devil-may-care harlequin, with the heart of a killer
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of: Nope
Anything else? Not yet

Looking up from her tea is a familiar face. ”Tao!”, cries Aldonza. ”Come, join me!”

Name: Mighty Glacier
PC Name: Jack of Diamonds (stylized as Jack♢, Jack♦, J♢, or J♦)
PFS Number: 150675-2001
Faction: Horizon Hunters
Class/Level: Rogue 2

Anticipating Aldonza's question "Morosino wanted to stay in Katheer - I left him with some folks we met years ago travelling across the the prairie back home" smiling with a single eyebrow raised "Jesselle - come introduce yourself now to Miss Delamorte!"

Sporting her new "pirate's compass" the young varisian cousin shuffles up strident and beaming and - To Tao's utter surprise! - curtsies while tipping her wide-brimmed hat and spouts "Milady"

Tao shoots her Swashbuckling friend a look as if to say "Youth these days!"

Team - Tao is a Protective Mentor if we end up in High Tier - meaning you get more than the usual Hit Points if we Level Bump!

”Oooo!”, says Aldonza, her long-nailed fingertips touching her throat. She stands from her table outside the cafe, and gives the two of them an elaborate bow. ”Charmed, I’m sure!”

She flags down a waiter, and gestures toward the empty chairs.

Whoops, I just realized Grams is still 1st level. I thought I'd applied a GM credit to her, but doublechecked and that went to another character. So, should be:

Name: Jacob W. Michaels
PC Name: Brynsil "Grams" Lustershale
PFS Number: 83959
Faction: Horizon Hunters
Class/Level: Champion 1
Anything the GM should know about your build/character: Nope
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of: Nope
Anything else? Nope

Name: Deevor
PC Name: Nikebei
PFS Number: 12784 - 2003
Faction: Envoys Alliance
Class/Level: Barbarian/2
Anything the GM should know about your build/character: Is a cook!!! So weapons are used in food preparation!!! The spirit of his grandma and other dead great-aunts, guides her cooking!!!
Any expected absences during the game period the GM should be aware of: None at the moment
Anything else? Nope ....

FYI - Outpost starts soon but this scenario won't drop until the 24th, so we will begin then. I will still run and we will still finish, but I wanted to give you a heads up. Thanks!

A Gilded Test Slides

The slides are up! Please fill in your information and I will get the gameplay thread going as soon as I've had a chance to read over the scenario!

Thanks!

Since it looks like Tao is taking the front spot and others have lined up there, I put Grams all the way at the back in case anyone comes up from behind.

Jack♢, do you pronounce that as Jack-O, Jack-Diamond, just Jack, or some other way? Just curious for my brain to read it right. :)

Personally, I hear a little ding! sound effect when I read and mentally pronounce "Jack♢". If that's not possible, I suggest "Jack-O". Or treat the "♢" symbol as a denotation for emphasis: Jaaack~

"Jack♢" is the preferred variant in writing; "Jack of Diamonds" or some variant is acceptable if copypasting the unicode diamond symbol is impossible.

In spoken dialogue, feel free to use whatever:
"Hey Jack♢, get over here!"
"Hey Jack, nice job stealing that!"
"Hey Jack-of-Diamonds, you dropped a card!"

Just so we’re on the same page, we’re confronting them in the alley, right?

Miladistra, are you trying to Create a Diversion, or make our pursuers think you got spooked, or what?

I have the same question - then again, dice have now hit the table so... we improvise?

Imagine Kermit the Frog flailing his arms as he runs offscreen.

Miladistra is pretending to panic and run down the alleyway. Hopefully our pursuers will drop pretenses of subtlety and blindly follow us.

You definitely have time to sort out what you'd like to do in this situation for the future. In this case, this encounter is flavor text. The text as written has the tails running off once you spot them. I can't think of any PFS table where that would happen where the PCs wouldn't give chase. Seems a weakness in the scenario. I decided honesty is the best policy when you've been caught red-handed.

Just want to pause a moment here and say I really appreciate Deroff's mental dialogue - reading it has me rotflmao on more than one occasion!

Faction: Radiant Oath
GM Glyphs: One to Deroff
Ally Boons ("Jesselle"): Expert Hireling, Hireling
Advanced Boon: Convention Hero
Achievement Boons: Bequeathal (Convention Hero), Practiced Medic (2/8 days), Protective Mentor, Radiant Wayfinder
Chronicle Boons: Big Game Hunter (□□□), Fruit Basket (□), Sand Slide (□□□), Team Player (□□□), Traveler of the Spirit Road (□□□)
Retired Boons: Multicultural Training (Lirgeni), Practiced Medic (□□□□, □□□□), Protective Mentor
School / Items: Scrolls / Mesmerizing Opal which is given to Jack♢
Additional Preparations: Saoc Astrology

Oh, and Aldonza doesn’t have a Wayfinder

Okay, not what I expected. So all of us are fighting, at the same time? Is there an opportunity to place bets?

Is there an opportunity to place bets?

Great minds inquire alike.

GM - if "making preparations" includes casting a 1-minute duration "debuff" spell, Tao will cast Bane prior to joining The Octagon!

Feel free to make preparations. The scenario doesn't give a time limit. It doesn't seem to allow for bets mechanically, but flavor-wise I have no issue with it!

I presume that I haven’t gained Panache with those rolls, correct?

Not yet. Keep going, though!

Did I gain Panache with a 15?

I'm not entirely sure how the Panache system is supposed to work. I care less about the roll than the role-play. I'd say yes, you gained panache.

GM - I am not seeing the other crossbowmen on the map? Is this because they are Hidden?

Team - here are the rules for Seek and Point Out!

I'm not entirely sure how the Panache system is supposed to work. I care less about the roll than the role-play. I'd say yes, you gained panache.

FYI, RAW:

I’m a little unclear on the layout. If the green rectangle is the bridge, would I be able to run up behind the Red guy next to Grams?

It's not the bridge, it's the area of the bridge battle. The bounds of the melee area. The map is accurate.

With regards to Panache, thanks for the clarification! I will use that rule from here on out.

And Jack falls back unconscious, now at Dying 3.

BTW, should that have been dying 2?

I was only wounded 1. Yes, I went to dying 2 when I got critted by the trap, but once I recovered back up, I only got wounded 1.

Anytime you lose the dying condition, you become wounded 1 if you didn’t already have the wounded condition. If you already have the wounded condition, your wounded condition value instead increases by 1.

I believe you are correct. The Dying 2 from the crit confused me. So yes, only Wounded 1 now!

Tao slashes at Green and opens a wicked wound on him!

GM - Tao has struck this same man twice, Here and Here...

I apologize, I had the first one hitting Red for some reason. In that case...

Okay I think I sorted this out! Apologies again, and thanks to Rainzax for keeping me on the straight and narrow path. Hero Point for observation!

Aldonza’s nutshot was nonlethal.

GM - a reminder that a Regular Failure / Miss pops a Mirror Image!

"Once an image is hit, it is destroyed. If an attack roll fails to hit your AC but doesn't critically fail, it destroys an image but has no additional effect (even if the attack would normally have an effect on a failure)."

And that, probably Missing twice on her most recent turn Here, she has also already Missed once Here.

Thank you! I missed that on my scan of the spell! In that case...

Thank you for keeping ne honest. Learning a new system is always a learning experience, but when the pandemic hit I hadn't played 2e in forever (my home groups decided to play Starfinder! Which is fun, too!) and work was so busy I pulled back from PbP for a time, so it's been an adjustment to get back in the right mindset for the ruleset!

And I'm sure no one who you used to do PBP with was at all resentful (or recently pulled a doppelganger of one of your characters on your former party...).

;)

Ooo, really? I'm a villain now? Awww. That's flattering!

I mean, mistakes happen, but also not trying to be "that" player...

But having a blast!

And super curious to see where this story goes next!!

You're being a great player! I will be the first to admit that I'm learning as I go. If you see any more errors I make, feel free to call 'em out. I am grateful for your help!

Ooo, really? I'm a villain now? Awww. That's flattering!

Nah, it was your Dreamlands doppelganger. Who was dispatched quickly, along with everyone else's nightmare versions. :)

Tao would get right to healing folks but I am unclear who is injured and by how much...

Nikebei, Miladistra and Deroff are unharmed.

Grams is down by 2

Aldonza Took 11 damage I think.

Jack:
- went to Dying 2 from the bear trap.
- then I healed for 11 HP
- then Tao healed for 12 HP
- So he should be at 25/26 HP, Wounded 2.

Looks like:
-Tao can focus on Aldonza
-I should help Jack's Wounded condition.
-Grams can heal herself and help Aldonza (or heal Jack if I crit fail)