[SFS/Shifty] Frozen Ambitions Arc (C) (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

OK team,

@Mujina - sorry to hear mate, hope things get better for you.

@All - Will pause us until 10 May. That will give people a chance to take a break and get things sorted, and hopefully Squizzer has some bandwidth by then as well.

I will leave the thread open - see you all on the 10th.

Chronicle looks good; thanks, Shifty!

Thank you, all, for another fun game.

So is mine thank you. All I need to do now is to level Ayoka to third.

What scenario were you thinking of using for a filler?

We’re going to hold til 10 May, it looks like we then move straight on to the grand finale and don’t need to fill.

Just FYI, one of my tables SFS 1-16 just finished so I have Buddy's chronicle that gets him to lvl 3 ;) Ready for 10th of May (well I need to level him up still)

Sweet! Jim Crase is back 10 May and we can kick off - cool looking scenario, really interested to see how we all finish up this arc, we started in Aug so by the time this finishes we will have been at this 10 months!

@Jim - We all back and good to go?

I got back last night...ready as of today.

I was about worth squat yesterday...got done with a 16 hour drive over 2 days...that always wears me out (especially when people think they should be driving 85+ MPH (Approx 137 KPH).....)

Yeeeeeeah I know that feeling - it gets very fatiguing!

Ouch! I remember once doing 12-hour drive from Quebec City to Toronto (with a detour for 4 h of visiting and sightseeing). It was brutal. So yeah I feel your pain Jim.

Good to have you back!

Shifty,

My chronicle was correct, but the reporting seemed to have a slight issue.....you reported it on 56565-11, not 56565-711....and while William 'the Redblade' (my pirate character) would LOVE to have Sci-Fi weapons and armor back in PF days....it might break the game a little ;-)

lol - fixed

@GM - the next week I will have a spontaneous vacation. I am not certain if I will be able to post on daily basis, I should, but I can't say for certain.

I will fill the botting section for Buddy if you would have to bot me.

Cheers - have a good break!

Lost our broadband modem in a lightning storm. I can post via phone, or on Monday when I get to work...and the modem should be here by Friday evening.

Please bot me if I'm holding things up for the next few days. I'm going to be taking care of a family member if they feel ill from the second covid shot.

Getting there team!

This is a hard combat, but it wont be the hardest...

Huh, I wonder if we have what it takes to finish the scenario ;)

Meaning the easy fights were hard, how we will cope with the actual hard fight?

To give some perspective, you are dealing with 50+ hp creatures, so D3's (vs good saves) at a time need to beef up a bit.

Do we know if Szama is ok?

I don't know, but I hope so. Hasn't posted in any campaigns in almost a week now.

Sorry, I'm okay, just been extra busy at work, and my parents have been in town with us since this past Saturday for the 4th. Jumping back in now!

I think the best way for us is to keep moving, and not exchange blows in close combat. They have a crazy to-hit modifier and can easily full attack. I prefer for them to waste it on moving, or shoot (as it should hurt less).

Sorry but I don't know how to help Ayoka here,

The guards will pretty much murder the party - if you don't stop Ainveln I am pretty much certain you will TPK here.

If you track that they have around 50hp each, and Ainveln has many more, it probably brings it into focus :)

Personally, I am a bit disappointed that this fight is exactly the same guards as before but with Ainveln ;) It means that either the previous encounter was too weak, or this one too hard ;)

The guards will pretty much murder the party - if you don't stop Ainveln I am pretty much certain you will TPK here.

I am unsure how to interpret this just yet, besides that we are at a disadvantage.

Anyhow, My proposal for the fight:

Strategy:

1. let us try to drag them away from Ayoka, and then either shot her with healing serum or let her burn 1 RP to come back to 'life', then she either stabs herself with serum (hopefully she has one) and come back to fight, or flee
2. Let us focus on one guard (grey one), if they don't have healing, and we take him down, we can try to convince the other to leave the fight and help his pal.
3. Then we focus on the gnome.

Tactics:
Each round one move south, one shot. If they stop and exchange shots with us, then we need to find cover/fall prone. Maybe the healing serums that we found, will make the difference.

Escape plan:
When Joe is down to the last healing serum we run.

Thoughts?

Or maybe we should all concentrate on the gnome, damaging him as much as possible in a short time? It's possible that his allies might flee or surrender if we deal with him.

I agree with Squizzer - go for the gnome.

I've also checked my ACP. Body recovery and a raise is possible, but yes .. her epitaph can read "She gave her life for a tree"

Gotcha...will go for the gnome with my awesome 1d6+1 damage.....sigh.

The problem I think we are having is we are all level 3....and 5 players. Buddy is likely the most damage output character we have. Because of that we basically tapped out out almost all of our 'power' abilities earlier fight (the Fey fight was brutal....the 2 mercs was most annoying).

I know that in late season 3 (and considering I just ran 4-01), and season 4. I think the Powers That Be decided to make certain that a low tier combat wasn't a walk in the park if there was a mix of low and high (example, 3 lvl 3's, a 1 lvl 4 and 2 lvl 5 is 3.8 APL, so play down). That example is probably more what they are prepping these fights for. I know that the level 1's (and one lvl 2) I ran in 4-01 almost didn't make it....I think EVERYBODY had most of their RP gone (most had zero, a few had 1-2) and was walking wounded by the time the last encounter happened.

With us losing Mujina....that hurts the skitterforce because of the number of players in addition to all of us being lvl 5.

This might be one that the skitterforce should attack the gnome...and hope that makes the merc's willing to flee because they won't get paid?
Also...we probably should split up, and almost move so we don't get full attacked (the -4 to those two attacks are almost certain to hit our wonderful AC's....sigh).

And let us all pray to the RNG gods....we have had bad rolls lately....maybe something will turn it around.

Yeah, I've just been thinking about how different this would be playing if I had hit level 4 and could have 2nd level spells and the spell slots that comes along with. I'm also regretting my choice of 0-level spells. Hazard is fun and flavorful, but it's only a d3 and save negates. Pretty brutal when you're up against the limit of your spells like I am now.

Yeah, agreed. We are basically the minimum power party that could be doing this scenario without 4 player adjustment. We've used up resources pretty thoroughly on the earlier fights because of it, and so now we're underpowered with no spells.

Please remember that I have a giftable reroll that carries with it +1 from my one nova. If you fail a save on a nasty spell effect, that just might save us. (I only have one, though, so let's save it for something that matters)

I regret it a bit, as previous scenarios were mostly not problematic. I could have thrown some money on the problem, get more grenades, better weapons etc. Maybe it is a teaching moment for Buddy, don't take scenarios for granted.

Regards novas. I also have .... a friend with novas. Guisepelia Nandell Eve Shirley since she has 4 names she also got 4 novas (fighting for the fifth one as we speak), maybe that would give her 5th name. I hope for Barbara ;)

And I have 1/5 of the first nova which is something, we can't use it. But it is something :D

I'm not sure how novas are going to help, but I've got three.

I figure we keep it for saves....or if we feel there are no more coming (we see the gnome casting spells).....we can use it to make attacks hit. We really are having bad dice on the to hit rolls....

I'm not sure how novas are going to help, but I've got three.

Maybe it is like a jar of dirt in Pirates of the Caribbean ;)

- Is the Jar of dirt going to help?
- If you don't want it give it back.
- No ...
- So it helps

It's my nova that adds +1 to the results of that reroll, that's why I mentioned it.

What Buddy was suggesting earlier was a sound strategy, avoid the toe to toe and try stay out of stabbing range. Everyone ran up though so that kinda changed things.

Regarding saves from spells, if I get adjacent to an ally, I have the Spellguard feat, which will let me add a +2 to my ally's save as a reaction and take a penalty to my saves until start of my next turn, so it could help a bit. I also have 1 Nova, so I've got a reroll in my back pocket in case it's needed.

What Buddy was suggesting earlier was a sound strategy, avoid the toe to toe and try stay out of stabbing range. Everyone ran up though so that kinda changed things.

Yeah, I call it the charm of PBP, it is hard to get agreement on the strategy. I really hate where Szama is at the moment. He should get out of there! Unless he wants to be fertilizer for the trees!

Planning on it, although my plans may not matter much when the guards decide to come finish the job this round. I just had to try that grenade, and I'm glad I did. Getting a crit on an area attack is always fun!

That proves it .... Ayoka needs better armour .....

It was a rather brave dash into the middle of a blender... :P

Buddy is on fire with these rolls :)

It was a rather brave dash into the middle of a blender... :P

Before the fight has started I wanted to write: 'let us stay far' and don't do anything stupid. And then I saw Ayoka dashing in :D, which was brave, and all in ;)

Regarding rolls, yeah it was a good 2 rounds for Buddy, it is so heartbreaking when you roll 1 or 2 on d12

So is the guard threatening to kill Szama if any of us do something?

How do we want to handle the situation? I'd feel bad if I attack and that means other characters start getting killed off, unless we'd all agreed to that risk.

It would appear that Szama is in a rather perilous position, yes.

The way I see it, we're going to have to let the guards kill the tree but hope Ayoka can quickly stabilise it and inject it with healing serums as soon as they leave.

I wonder...if I 'shoot' the tree....and get through it's hardness....I could inject it with a sedative...maybe putting the tree 'unconscious'....it might make them think the tree dies????

As much as I would like to take both guards with one shot, or take down the guard next to Szama the chances are slim. Trees can be replanted, well Szama can be resurrected :D, but no it will not be the skitter way.

Did the guards attempt that Fortitude save against the smoke grenade? There's a chance they fail and that would mean they can't act on their turns, so no readied attack on Szama and no sword strike to the tree.

They are armoured up, suited and sealed - like you are. They were patrolling and expecting an attack when you arrived.

At this stage you'd be relying on a miss from a readied attack.