Glad the summary helped. I'll create another summary once we finish this floor
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here's the summary as promised
travel+ground floor
Selik is your contact for the mission, and so far has largely been level-headed.
One room remains on the first floor
Upstairs
that there was a Asmodean cleric named Linneus Narikopolus who spent years creating an artifact, the Covetous Flame, that could grant wishes. Annavinnia tells that Linneus was an ancestor of hers from several generations ago. Approximately 200 years ago
The artifact's appearance isn't detailed within the documents, just the name and primary function.
The documents do occasionally make references to Zirzip who is described as Linneus's familiar.
Drizzic also notices that there is a specific arcane sigil traced within the margins countless times throughout the documents.
Last but not least --
Pacing
We're probably ~2-3 weeks out from finishing up. Just depends how quickly combat(s) go. After this combat you will be in the final section.
As always-- questions/comments/concerns are welcome here or privately. Cheers.
|
@GM - awesome summary, I am loving it! Great work for writing it down
@Eithrim, @Arlo - Xun was allowed to use Counter Performance for the Will save. This allows you to use either my performance roll rather than your Will save. If you look closely GM removed the need to roll Will save from the turn tracker section. Just FYI.
The attacks may or may not have MAP or similar penalty, but you really wouldn't know that.
Regardless, overall the party did significant damage last round and things are looking much less grim atm.
|
Yeah, we seem to be having the upper hand now, looks like we don't need to retreat anymore.
GM, is there a reason why the ghost was unaffected by the Heal spell? The spell specifically says it also hurts undead, so I was just wondering. Don't need to know if it has specific resistances, I'm just confused.
short answer - my mistake! thanks for questioning me and my apologies
longer answer - I was looking specifically for negative healing trait not realizing that the damage is spelled out with the undead trait already. The ghost had undead trait but not negative healing. It seems most undead have negative healing as a redundancy.
|
Honestly, MAP and accuracy are just mechanical terms. We don't see the numbers, and while iterative attacks can be flavoured as accuracy, I see them more as a mechanic for game balance. For me, MAP doesn't exist in-game.
That fact that it's harder to hit on subsequent attacks would not be invisible to the PCs or NPCs. In fact, it factors very heavily in why everyone does not attack every action in every round. How you want to describe this in IC terms is entirely up to the player, but it's fact of reality as realized as the sky being blue or water being wet.
|
|
Can I just say how much I love Zarta Dralneen! She is like Machiavelli in a dress. She is such a great NPC material. I would like some characters to be more frequently seen in PF2 scenarios :(
Why wouldn't we take the artifact back to her.
And @Arlo I think you have it right. For some reason, I merged the initial ghost with Annavinia's ancestor.
In response to Xun, Arlo says, "Hmm, I'm not sure. Zirzip said* all the wishes got corrupted. I don't know if it's a good idea to bring a death-artifact back to the Society. Maybe it can be purified or something, but still. It's clear the artifact doesn't work like it should."
Arlo stops dead in his tracks.
"Wait, let's think about the bigger picture. The ghost said he wanted to be avenged. We probably do this by destroying the artifact. That means Zirzip gets freed and can leave. He'll probably stop killing random passersby. Yeah, it'd be a shame to destroy a wish-granting artifact, but look at what it has done so far. I think the temptation is too big to let it gather dust in Zarta's vaults."
* I'm not sure where it was mentioned. Thought it was Zirzip, might've been someone else. Annavinia's journal?
Also, just to get things right: The ghost we saw wasn't Annavinia's ancestor, right? Just a random victim? Otherwise things don't really make sense. In the summary the GM said it is Linneus, but then his speech doesn't make sense: he'd be referring to himself. Or maybe he serves the artifact?
The way I have interpreted it and confirmed for the group is that the initial ghost was Linneus who you also identified as Annavinia's ancestor. This was implied when asked here. I would agree that the initial speech doesn't seem to make much sense at face value but I was and am aware of that when presenting this to the group.
At the conclusion I'll be happy to put behind spoilers any explanations but for now I'll let the group sort it out. Overall you're doing great regardless if you can make sense of some these last remaining things.
To clarify, the latest errata updated Magic Weapon so it can still be used on a +1 weapon.
Page 349: Some corner cases in magic fang and magic weapon. In magic fang, change the Targets entry to “1 willing creature.” Change the first sentence to “Choose one of the target’s unarmed attacks.” Change the last sentence to “The unarmed attack becomes a +1 striking unarmed attack, gaining a +1 item bonus to attack rolls and increasing the number of damage dice to two if it had only one.” This makes the spell less restrictive and more versatile. In magic weapon change the Targets entry to remove the word "nonmagical" so you can still cast it on a +1 weapon to get the extra striking die.
Moving here for visibility.
R1 Navarre struck and killed Zombie1 with first action. OOC said Navarre was going to climb dais. I responded that climbing requires 2 hands free so Navarre would need to put away the guisarme (2nd action) and then step towards dais (3rd action) before being able to attempt to climb.
So R2 Navarre is at base of dais, he is 15 ft from Ascendant on the grid and that's ignoring that the Ascendant is also currently flying at 30ft from ground level (10 ft above dais). So out of reach and unable to strike the Ascendant.
R2 Without any flavor text or OOC I was left to guess what Navarre was doing. First action was to draw guisarme so I assumed my last post was read that it had to be put away and then step towards Dais. I see a strike and there is only one valid strike in range, Zombie3 so that is what I assume is happening. "Maybe protecting Anjo or the NPCS?" I asked myself. I'm not a mind reader so the best way to avoid this is to give me the slightest bit of text in terms of who is being targeted or what is being attempted. Otherwise if I see an untargeted strike and only one target in range I assume it's being made against the only valid target.
apart from that, the Dais is a DC 16 athletics check to climb. The dais is 20ft tall. Keep in mind that an athletics check 24 would've been a success and would have been 5 vertical feet of movement. So essentially what I'm saying is that it would be impossible for Navarre to have been able to stow weapon, approach dias, and climb 20ft in R1 and equally impossible for Navarre to strike the Ascendant in R2 even if Navarre had climbed 5 ft in R1.
If the intent is to climb the Dais then Navarre's R2 3rd action could've been putting the Guisarme away again instead of demoralize. I can't take back the strike vs Zombie3. R3 Navarre will need to climb the 20ft which likely will take 2-3 actions. This combat is pretty specific about the terrain and the DC to climb, I unfortunately can't handwave this. Part of the challenge of the combat will be how the team collectively handles a combat where the Ascendant is (currently) on a dais 20ft above ground level.
|
|
@Navarre I think you missed the point of the last GM post.
The dais is 20ft tall. At the end of your last round, you stowed your weapon. So this round you need to at least do two climb actions (success of a climb action move you 5ft upwards, critical success 10). When you are up you need to fetch your weapon witch would be another action.
Correct Xun and Anjo.
|
|
Arlo - I always assumed that they do. But since you asked I did some investigative work:
The IC states
You and all allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saves against fear effects.
Attack rolls rules states
When you use a Strike action or make a spell attack, you attempt a check called an attack roll. Attack rolls take a variety of forms and are often highly variable based on the weapon you are using for the attack, but there are three main types: melee attack rolls, ranged attack rolls, and spell attack rolls. Spell attack rolls work a little bit differently, so they are explained separately on the next page.
The same roughly goes with damage rolls. So my interpretation of the rules says: IC does add damage to spells.
@Arol - while we are at it, if you have a spare action would you mind trying to recall knowledge about the Ascendant? It is a religion check (most likely), and knowing about its resistances would be awesome ;)
Unfortunately I hoped that Occultism will give Xun plenty of opportunities to identify enemies, but I am still waiting to meet a creature which Xun will be able to identify :(
Hi all, well done again! Since I'm sure a few of you may have some questions (Like What was Selik's deal?) I will give spoilers below. I'll put it behind a spoiler and I'll try to touch on a lot of those things. The scenario is not repeatable so there likely isn't any risk to reading this unless you just don't care.
Selik was meant to be your one unwavering ally. Apparently to a fault. He was written to step in and help guide the group if needed, however, since the group guided itself without issue he never really need to step in. This led to him being suspicious but really it was just him observing the pathfinders and see how you react to situations.
Dehliana murdered Kellvan. You caught her with her stash of stuff including the red dagger and she admitted to the mask and coin but denied seeing/using that dagger. It was a lie. No one really pressed it after that or sense motived. I think had we lingered on it you would've figured it out eventually, but with things going long and you werent at risk of losing any rewards I pushed past it or rather, didn't remind the group of the outstanding murder.
Why did she kill Kellvan? Kellvan was sent to the trading post to inspect unspecified crimes. He was meant to investigate a string of frauds in surrounding villages-- the frauds Dehliana was doing with her seances. She admitted as much with her purse of coins, but you didn't know that that was what Kellvan was investigating. Coincidently Kellvan's and the pathfinder presence made Nordvick terribly nervous because he was worried he was going to be caught having helped Zirzip for all these years. But the primary investigation of Kellvan was the frauds. Dehliana suspected this and killed Kellvan over it.
Annavinia legitimately did not know that the wish-granting artifact had previously been created, nor did she know her ancestor was behind everything. She had been trying to negotiate with Zirzip for weeks so that he would provide instructions on how to create the artifact.
Why didn't Zirzip just tell Annavinia about the artifact? And was Zirzip really killing people? Zirzip was trying to kill his master. He was not able to do this directly due to his contract so he spent the years trying to lead other individuals to the artifact and get them to destroy it or wish it away. But they always got greedy and made a wish that turned against them. Zirzip couldn't tell Annavinia about the artifact because she was so set on having one herself--she surely would use it rather than destroy it.
The opening seance after dinner there was a ghost. It seemed like it was written to have been a different ghost (other than Linneus). However, I didn't think that it made sense. Dehliana couldn't do an actual seance. Just a cheap trick of displays (all NPCs were Lvl 4 and she knew some spells to enhance the seance). So either the ghost was the body Nordvick recently dug up, or it was Linneus. I personally interpretted and tried to portray it as Linnceus. One of you touched on the wording that the ghost warned against the devil who serves a cruel master. In my interpretation, yes, this is referring to Linneus in 3rd person but it makes sense. Zirzip has been spending ~200 years trying to destroy the artifact and Linneus didn't want to die. So he was making the enemy out to be zirzip hoping that the group would kill zirzip and then Lineus could continue to live. Linneus wouldn't have wanted you to question it past that.
From there on after, everything you encountered in the mansion was Linneus's doing. From killing the housekeeper, trying to drown Muzzo et al., animating the statues, the wraiths, etc.
Zirzip, in fact, did no harm to the group the entire mission.
Zirzip's deal to the pathfinders wouldn't have given you much more information than you already had. Drizzic's crit success to decipher the documents gave plenty of information on how to successfully locate the Covetous Flame (the candelabra). Zirzip's help would've been to just help point out clues that you missed since he can't directly act against his master. But you found all the clues.
Dehliana would've turned into the Ascendant regardless of what you did. There was a fail-safe written in to trigger the encounter even if you identified her as the killer and then killed her.
And yes, that last encounter is hard or meant to be. I waited to pass out hero points for that last encounter because when a monster has +17 to strike and 1d6+9 B, 1d6 Fire, and 1d6 evil damage then that can really go sideways.
I think that covers most things, but if you have any questions let me know and i'll answer behind spoilers.
Otherwise thanks again for playing and make sure to give me your downtime (let me know if you're doing anything non-standard like using a boon for a higher than normal task level). I'll be adding a link to chronicles in the campaign info when they're up (probably 24-48 hours), and i'll also post here in discussion.
In the meantime, here are the numbers for planning-
Lvl 3 - 38gp earned
Lvl 4 - 64gp earned,
lvl 5 - 100gp earned
everyone earned 4 faction Rep plus additional 2 vigilant seal Rep.
|
Muzzo will spend some time after this mission teaching other pathfinders to fight beneath the waves, given that aquatic combat wasn't exactly a well-known skill for drylanders. Sadly, his first group of trainees nearly drowned before the goblin remembered that not everyone could hold their breath for 3 minutes straight.
|
|
Thank you for the scenario! It went great! Really liked how you brought it to life.
I think you wanted to try out Foundry. My opinions on it: I think it worked great for this game. The small claustrophobic map and light/darkness really added to the experience. But there were some hoops to jump through (mainly just extra clicks and such), compared to using Google Slides, for example. Not enough to make it a downright bother, but I think I do prefer Google Slides for regular games. But that's just my opinion. How did you like it?
And yeah, the Striking Rune is pretty strong, especially when you combine it with Power Attack. Not sure if I'd call it a screw-up, but it does make lower-level characters feel a little useless.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Gm redeux thank you very much for directing this game it has been very fun and interesting, also the use of Foundry has been a very pleasant discovery for me that has made me acquire it to prepare my own games, the plot has been interesting and exciting and the group that we have put together for her has been a lot of fun. I hope we see each other again in new games. A pleasure to have met you all.
Hi all, there's your chronicle sheets. Please download a copy for your records. I generally don't delete stuff but it could happen down the road. Let me know if anything needs fixing! Session has been reported on paizo already. If you don't see it then let me know and make sure I had the right PFS/Char number on your chronicle.
I'll leave the campaign up until EOD Monday to give everyone time to get the chronicles.
-------------------------
Awesome job GM. Rolled my Lore in he game forum. Are you gong to run another?
Thanks! And not immediate horizon unfortunately. My job normally sees a slow-down in spring/summer but this year I've been tasked with a new project that has been keeping me on my toes so need to figure out how to balance my existing games before taking on another game.
On a side note, the game balance is TOTALLY out of whack for players on either side of the Striking rune. I think Paizo screwed that part up.
Yeah, the striking rune can be a big swing in power. I have seen that with my 10str scoundrel rogue who was rolling 1d6+0 and now that I'm level 5 my damage has gone up quite a bit between striking, sneak attack (and more ways to flat foot). In general though anytime a high-tier character is playing in the low-tier it ends up shifting the balance quite a bit. Fighters in particular make this even more obvious since they get Master proficiency at lvl 5. Not sure I would call it a screw up but it is a downside to the sub-tiers in order to help more tables "make". Tiers 1-3 and 4-6 might've been nicer to prevent that but then would be harder to gather tables.
Thank you for the scenario! It went great! Really liked how you brought it to life.
I think you wanted to try out Foundry. My opinions on it: I think it worked great for this game. The small claustrophobic map and light/darkness really added to the experience. But there were some hoops to jump through (mainly just extra clicks and such), compared to using Google Slides, for example. Not enough to make it a downright bother, but I think I do prefer Google Slides for regular games. But that's just my opinion. How did you like it?
Thanks! And yeah, I think overall google slides is better. It's free. It's accessible. It's simpler. And people are familiar with it. Foundry has a lot of strengths when used for live-virtual table top (VTT) and I haven't yet been able to fully leverage all of it for PbP. For instance one hurdle I have with PbP is I want to easily show art. In live sessions I can just use a shortcut to show all the players the art. But that doesn't work in an asynchronous environment so to show art I either need to do a "theater of the mind scene" like the introduction, or I need to coach players on how to find the art (which even if you know where it is, it is still more work than just going to the right slide in google). The other thing I wanted to do was set up some automation-- letting you move between floors automatically; making it so whoever activated the drowning haunt was automatically locked into the room. Those are things I can do in a live session but it requires a GM to be logged in for the permissions so less ideal for PbP (I could set up a raspberry pi to just sit in the game but didn't get around to it).
From the GM side alone, It is really nice though. I already use it for VTT games which i run a lot more of. So I already have all the art pretty much done. Foundry already provides all the statblocks for everything including most PFS scenarios. Maps easily import with watermarked PDF. And It's easier to just roll from foundry. Players could see this too if they built in their PC's and we used Foundry rolling for everything.
Now Is that worth the hassle to the players? I'm undecided. I think for pick up games I'd rather keep it in google slides. For a dedicated group such as an adventure I think it might be OK. Particularly if I was doing play-by-discord where it is easier to share art in-line. Basically though it's just a matter of trying to figure out how to leverage all of Foundry's strengths to make up for the extra clicks.
[dice=Hell Lore ]d20+11
Gm redeux thank you very much for directing this game it has been very fun and interesting, also the use of Foundry has been a very pleasant discovery for me that has made me acquire it to prepare my own games, the plot has been interesting and exciting and the group that we have put together for her has been a lot of fun. I hope we see each other again in new games. A pleasure to have met you all.
Thanks! And glad to hear you're giving it a try. If you need help with it check out the Foundry discord. There's a bit of a learning curve but an active community to help get started and in the end I think it's worth the investment if you're running live sessions.
---
Thanks to everyone else for playing. It's been a pleasure! and let me know if you need anything!
Cheers
Ray/Gm redeux
|
|
Tiers 1-3 and 4-6 might've been nicer to prevent that but then would be harder to gather tables.
So then it's more of PFS oversight than Paizo. I think you're right. I imagine with enough feedback, PFS will start keeping it at 1-3 instead of 1-4. This is s new game, so PFS will have to reexamine the tiering as a result.
I can't think PFS GMs would have trouble filling tables in PF2. Don't musters fill-up in a matter of hours?
Online they frequently fill quickly. Particularly Play by Post and to some extent virtual table-top. But we have the luxury of having a large player base. Local areas may only have a few active players so they can struggle to fill and the players that do sign up may only have a level 3 instead of a level 4. This is in part why the minimum number of players for a table to "make" was reduced to 2 players for games where pre-gens can be played. 2 players + 2 pregens.
So yeah, it's a PFS thing and not a PF2 thing. It's not a perfect system from all angles but at least at the moment it's the best answer that can accommodate the most number of players and help smaller groups build themselves up.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ok, first and foremost:
Big thanks to @Gm for running this game. I loved each and every part of it! Great setting, I liked feeling trapped in a building with a ghost interfering with our doings. I liked the scenario, I liked the investigation and yeah I missed who was the guilty one. Or the most accurate would be the tunnel vision to prove that Annavinia was guilty :) (I was so certain of it, so certain :D).
Great paste, I don't mind that the scenario took longer. With the number of things to do in the trading post, it does not surprise me. Good NPC description, that I liked. Yeah, I also felt like Selik could have a more distinct personality. I am fine with him being above suspicious but I do feel like he could be more though, quick in judgment or something like that. Just make him leave a mark on the story.
Fights - I loved the ones with ghost (fight number 2 and 3 ;)) distinct effects that made them unique.
The final fight - I think if GM would bring the ascendant down with the 5 Zombies they would suck us in and spit us out! The first is that Ascendant is a beast, the attack modifier and damage output are insane. But I checked the scenario afterward and his saves are insane as well. I think there were no chances for my spells to succeed at DC19 will save (which is a maximum at my lvl). Insane!
@All - I loved your PC's, a great bunch to be trapped in a trading post with a hobo ghost!
Regarding Foundry - I liked it. I can see great worth for setting it up for AP etc (or few scenarios played one after another). There were moments when I had to first move Xun to see where everyone is to make a decision, and I liked that. The fog of war is something that I miss in google's presentation.
Xun will take a bow and continue his travel through the world telling the story about an odd team fighting with the devil to uncover the truth. A story that will not be repeated by many, but would pay for food and bed in few inns ... Thanks for the game, I hope to play with you some more in the future!
Chronicle downloaded!
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, I echo Foundry's comments - seems great for a live group, or a more steady group for PbP.
The Ascendant certainly feels like it's stronger than it should be, but it doesn't feel unbeatable. Its tactics with hovering out of reach and pushing down climbing people is nasty, but I like it. It's more dynamic than "I just stand here trading blows."
Bosses in general have good saves, you're typically expecting a success most of the time, only very rarely a failure - though I see this one has especially jacked up saves.
And yeah, great group! The Bard and Cleric combo worked really well, I feel. Though I certainly need more experience with second-level spells, they still feel a bit off.
This is something I discovered two days ago and I think not everyone knows: You need to spend an action to fly. If you don't, you fall to the ground. Can't recall if this happened during the encounter, but it might be useful to know for others who want to run this scenario.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
@Redeux - Great job on running this game. I had a blast playing it with Muzzo, who got a kick just running around opening doors. I'll happily play with you again ;)
@everyone - great job! I enjoyed the characters, the roleplay, and the way you put up with the curious, voracious goblin.
I look forward to seeing you all again very soon.
Archiving campaign. if you need anything from me, please feel free to send me a message. Thanks!