The Journey of a Thousand Miles (Jade Regent AP)

Game Master Sensen

Hey guys, how do we divvy up loot? I looked at the loot list and updated it with tabs for Atsuko and Ritti. And I attempted to copy-paste a blank version of one of the other character tabs in them. I'm not sure whether we should include any starting cash or gear value. Please let me know on that or adjust our tabs as appropriate.

Also, if controlling the loot list is assigned to someone and I over-stepped by tweaking it, I apologize.

No problem, maintaining the sheet is time consuming and having more hands around is always welcomed :)

Thanks for creating Ritti and Atsuko's tabs! I have added the automation that looks for claimed items in the Treasure tabs so they appear automatically in your tabs.

You only need to add your character name on Treasure:L column ("Currently in") with whatever item you take from the common treasure. Write your name there when you have already edited your Profile to include the new gear. If you are not sure if you want it or you have no time to edit your Profile at the moment, then add your name to Treasure:K column ("Claimers") that way we remember someone has interest but has not fully reclaimed the item yet.

That's all need. What we do is people just pick items they like, please feel greedy, then we sell whatever no one uses and split the coin equally. If there are conflicting interests over an item, the one who has claimed less wealth gets it.

Your personal tabs are there just to help you track how much coin you have remaining (and available to purchase) in a convenient way, but if you prefer you can totally ignore it and just track the coin in your profile (though I advise you against for it is very easy to forget party splits on the way, and the coin in the sheet is super fast to double check if something is wrong, while in your profile might become nearly impossible once we are in the late levels).

Cool! Thanks for the info and handy-dandy tool!

I'm a pragmatist in combat, so I believe in distributing items to max our chances of survival in the heat of the moment and then we can re-negotiate stuff once the team is safe.

So, in the case of the ninja cat-suit, I'd love for Ritti to use it temporarily. But I know it is worth a fair amount of cash so if the team would rather sell it once we are out of trouble, I will gladly turn it over if the sales price on the suit would enable you guys to buy stuff on your wishlists. My point is that I don't consider something 'mine' until we are all back at base and agree with the distribution of goodies.

By all means, please take it and put it to use! Using the adventure items might not be numerically optimal but it just makes things more memorable. APs are designed to be taken by four non-maxed characters, so there is room for fun non optimal decisions.

If by/when we are selling you decide you don't want it any longer, or when you decide to slot a different item there, you can always return it to the stash, but just unmarking it as claimed :)

Will do!

Final question... how do we change the quantity? I have myself down for an Amulet of Natural Armor but all 3 appear in my inventory. Is it OK to just duplicate the line item three times with a quantity of 1 each or do you have another method?

Yeah, that's what I usually do, I duplicate the line and remove one so I have a line with 1 I can claim.

I'll reach out to Atsuko and Andochtuir today if they don't reply.

I am at a meedical congress atm, i'll post late tonight when i get back. Probably in six or so hours from now.

I'll give Atsuko a few hours before botting her.

I can't wait! I think I'm going to be coated in green guy goo and rock dust after Torra hammered him flat... or he's going to be really pissed off. Either way, it sounds fun. :)

Have I said I love your combat descriptions? :)

Well, there is that.

I wonder how scorched zombie might smell. Something similar to spoiled roasted chicken maybe?

Go go go Ritti and Torra, you have the green boy at the corner!

I wonder how scorched zombie might smell.

A mix of pork rinds, kitten farts, and angel tears. XD

I work in social services and this is our busiest time of the year due to the holidays and winter coming on. I've been slammed at work for the past few weeks and I doubt things will let up for another couple of weeks.

I'll post when I can, but please bot me if you need to.

Understood, and thanks for letting us know.

I'll try to bot Andochtuir later today, but it's a busy day for me, so it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Sorry for the delay, everyone. I've been tremendously unfocused for the past couple days, and I'll bot Andochtuir later today if he doesn't post.

I do not think you can ready an action while out of combat Ritti. It is a special initiative action, and you cannot alter initiative when it has not yet been rolled.

Ah. I wasn't really sure if we were technically out of combat or not at this point. Either way, we'll see what happens! :)

If that is the case, let's just hope the necromancer does not have a similar idea to blast our heads on entrance :)

I wanted to bold a certain part of rope trick that might be relevant:

"When this spell is cast upon a piece of rope from 5 to 30 feet long, one end of the rope rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground, as if affixed at the upper end. The upper end is, in fact, fastened to an extra-dimensional space that is outside the usual multiverse of extra-dimensional spaces. Creatures in the extra-dimensional space are hidden, beyond the reach of spells (including divinations), unless those spells work across planes. The space holds as many as eight creatures (of any size). The rope cannot be removed or hidden. The rope can support up to 16,000 pounds. A weight greater than that can pull the rope free."

Since the spell states the rope cannot either be hidden or removed, the latter of which I assume includes various means of 'destroyed', it should be impossible to simply cast this and hide in it forever with no way to get to the person on the other end. it seems completely broken for a second level spell to allow an entire party of 8 to walk in whenever and have it lasts for hours per level, completely untouchable, long resting and do whatever they desire. What has this guy done to get around the very intentional RAW weakness of this spell included specifically to prevent such godmode tactics?

But this is no rope trick spell Andochtuir, it is a fugitive's grenade.

Among other things it clearly states When the smoke cloud dissipates, so does the smoke rope[...], which is why the GM interpreted it as not reachable.

I'd have to agree that the extra-dimensional space can't be entered. With Rope Trick the space could be entered because there's a rope I suppose. But without a rope, as in the case of the Fugitive's Grenade, there's no means of access.

It's a small extra dimensional space, not an invisible box that's open on one side.

It seems moot, at this point. The GM decided how the scene played out.

Ah, right. Apologies, I thought/assumed the grenade made the smoke cloud and he then cast rope trick while obscured since rope trick was mentioned as the spell right after.

Well, that's an incredibly broken item then especially since there's no stated duration and someone can argue you could stay inside of it forever if desired. Tough I guess the CL3 crafting required makes it RAI to last for 3 hours.

I suspect it only lasts three hours, yeah. It'll drop him out once that comes. Or he might drop out before then, but given that you very nearly dropped him to 0 HP, he'll probably stay holed up there for awhile longer.

I'm giving you all a chance to reply before moving us forwards, lest things jump right into combat before you're all ready.

Things have gotten a bit busy with the family and such, so I won't be able to post as often. Apologies, everyone.

Sorry to hear that. Real life comes first take care of them, and I hope it is something fixable.

Alright, hoping to get back into the swing of things today.

Whew! past the holidays now so things should be getting back to normal and I should have free time again.

Happy New Year everyone!

Out of curiosity, have you all sold all of the jade statuettes you've gotten?

We have a raven jade statuette (marked for selling next chance)

And we recently got more jade statuettes here which I guess we will sell when we can.

Alright. I'll have to roll some stuff, I suspect...

I'll bot Andochtuir today if he doesn't post soon.

Ping for Atsuko and Andochtuir

I'll bot Andochtuir if he doesn't post later today. I've already reached out to him via PM.

Three weeks now since he last posted. I am worried Andochtuir's lack of responsiveness is negatively affecting the campaign and slowly dragging down the hype for the rest of us.

If this does not change soon, maybe we should consider moving forward to avoid putting on further risk the health of the campaign, which I have been enjoying very much so far.

I'm having fun in the game as well. Maybe we should default to botting Andy unless/until he surfaces? I know GMs have plenty to do, so I am willing to bot Andy if that would help, Aganhei.

I'll bot him shortly. Sorry, it's been a bit of a hectic time for me this past week.

I wanted to attack and step back so Atsuko could go in and participate in the combat, but it is not clear to me if I have a fully empty square.

Man, they should have a policy that they never again hire a person who delivers a map with a diagonal wall xD

You can move one square upwards, Yuto. I'm pretty sure that's open. Maybe. It's definitely messy.

On another note, intuitively, Strangler shouldn't work on constructs, who, after all, don't need to breathe. However, there's no sign that it's related to breathing mechanically, just... well, flavor-wise. Does anyone know of any rulings there?

Absent any such rulings, I'll assume it works, because it's the same as a sneak attack, which constructs aren't immune to.

I do agree, it is just sneak attack damage, which constructs are not immune to. Fluff wise, I picture it as Ritti pulling a limb or strangling the neck, disjointing the metal/wood/stone joints until the bolts/strings jump out, irreversibly damaging it on vital points.

I did a quick search on the boards and I didn't see anything exactly on point. But look at these two feats side by side:

Strangler
Prerequisite: Dex 13, sneak attack +1d6, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike.
Description (Flavor) Throttling the life out of enemies is second nature to you.

Mechanics: Whenever you successfully maintain a grapple and choose to deal damage, you can spend a swift action to deal your sneak attack damage to the creature you are grappling.

Purely using RAW, the mechanics works. The flavor text is colorful, not really descriptive of how the feat works. Now let's compare that to...

Chokehold
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +6 or monk level 5th.
Description (Flavor): While grappling, you can cut off an opponent’s air and blood supply.

Mechanics: While you have an opponent up to one size category larger than you grappled, you can attempt a grapple combat maneuver with a –5 penalty on the check. If you succeed, you have pinned your opponent and hold the opponent in a chokehold. When you maintain the grapple, you also maintain the chokehold. A creature in a chokehold cannot breathe or speak, and thus cannot cast spells that have a verbal component. An opponent you have in a chokehold has to hold his breath or begin suffocating. Any creature that does not breathe, is immune to bleed damage, or is immune to critical hits is immune to the effects of your chokehold. When the grapple is ended, so is the chokehold.

The mechanical act of specifically choking someone is quite specialized (with a higher level requirement - by BAB or level) and requires a dedicated feat that lists the effects and who can't be choked. And it kind of makes sense. If Strangle acted liked Chokehold then I could chokehold any spellcaster and prevent them from casting even Verbal only spells.

I admit I'm a bit biased on the decision but I think RAW supports Strangle working as I've tried to use it. And the existence of a specific feat that does choke someone out (along with all the rules and exceptions) suggests Strangle doesn't do that.

That's my two cents on the matter. The choice is yours.

Yeah, I agree. I think you're fine, since it seems mostly flavor rather than the explicit choking out, etc.

I'll bot Atsuko and Andochtuir if they don't post by later today.

Question, Suishen can cast see invisibility three times a day. As Yuto I do not want to infer too much, but as a player it seems like the right moment for the sword to use that power. Can I have that cast?

Also, does it work only on the wielder or can it be passed to use on someone else?

(it is usually a personal reach spell)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to drop by and note that my real life commitments have lessened a bit. I've been absent a lot recently and I've talked to it over PM to Yuto and Aganhei and feel I owe a bit of an explanation on why I've been active on two other pbp's recently and not this one. The truth is that I've simply prioritised it less with the still available time. There's a few reasons for this , chiefly that I didn't like this book much on terms of what has happened in it; it felt/feels a bit like a wild goose chase for an npc with a lot of dead ends/red herrings while the the caravan and its many npc's, which I assumed would be pivotal to the AP, is/are sidelined entirely.

I don't think this is in any way Aganhei's fault or that of the players, just that the setup for a good adventure feels a bit... lacking at present? Anyway, I don't want to discourage anyone and am not opposed to continuing as a player, though I'll be honest and admit that should real life become busier again, this will probably be the AP I'd cut first of my still remaining ones. If anyone feels that is unfair to other players and that you'd prefer I step out for a much more motivated one, that is fair and I'll do so.

Something that I've also thought about and which might help a bit is that Andochtuir has been a bit, well... mechanically boring (all he really has is auto attack) and doesn't seem to synergize well with the party. When I orginially made him, the idea was to synergize with both the main divine caster and Riftun, a hardcore support bard who both had (many more) spells/spellslots to enable sneak attack. But we lost one right afterwards and the other one a while later, and his main class feature, sneak attack, has seen very little use since. His reach investment also hasn't worked out that well in an AP filled to the brim with assassins who can just acrobatics around him in circles.

I've been considering retiring him in favor of a different character, likely a full divine caster that might fill in the missing gaps, as support is also a role I prefer playing over a backup tank/bruiser. Though, that would of course depend on how you all feel about this and how attached others are to Andy.

Kind regards and hoping to hear your thoughts.

I appreciate the blunt honesty!

Taking the subjects in reverse order... if you want to change out your character, I get that. But I think it may be that this slice of the adventure is a big culprit. We are in tight spaces and it is more about skullduggery and skilled ninjas jumping out of every bush because we are about to lock horns with the BBEG. When we are out of this building and into the wilds of the ice (probably with Frost Giants and who knows what else) I think your gigantor/reach build will likely work a whole lot better. And I am always happy to be a flanking buddy... which the current building doesn't make easy. I'm not discouraging you from changing your build but I'm guessing he'll be a lot more fun to play in upcoming portions of the campaign. Just my two cents.

I don't think you should step away from the game unless your heart just isn't in it at all. And if your intention is to post more regularly, then I can't complain that this isn't your favorite game at the moment. We all hit rough spots in games. If you feel you can power through it - either with Andy in the hopes that we'll be done with ninja frustrations in the near future or with a different character... then I support your willingness to keep playing.

I've already said a lot of what I want to say in this vein, but I agree that this is probably one of the weakest adventures in the AP, because you're kept from interacting with the supporting cast in a lot of meaningful ways - though that might be my fault more than the AP's, because I was not as good about it as I wanted to be.

That being said, I do want you to do what is best for you, Andochtuir - if you feel like swapping your character out is the best option, go with that. If you want to drop the game altogether, I will not stop you. Things get rough sometimes, and RL is an ever-interfering specter that we all have to deal with. Whatever you choose, I wish you the best.

Finally, I will note that this is the last battle in the adventure, and it might be a bit of a doozy, but after this, you'll be free to head north once more and get back with the good NPC stuff.

Follow your gut, Trevor. I had a game where I thought that swapping my character mechanically might get me more invested, but it turned out that the AP wasn't right for me. I haven't been super enjoying this dungeon crawl either, and they're even trickier in PbP. I'm looking forward to returning to the overland travel with the caravan and more RP instead of slaughtering minions.

Either way, I enjoy playing with you, no matter the AP or the character you choose.

All fair points and very understandable, Andochtuir :) We all prioritize games to some extend, and we all have had periods of time with less time available.

Jade Regent is always rated among the most wonky APs for the distance between what they promise and what they deliver, a list I always see lead by Second Darkness.

Maybe this is a personal opinion, but I find dungeon crawls like the current fortress always easier to play in PbP, as the limits to what can be done are defined and things can work more streamlined, without exhausting delays to decide where to go forward. This opposes to the previous section, where the open nature of the urban investigation and the difficulties of discussing at length the options between the players is a drawback for PbP, specially when you have to track the discussion through the days, and you cannot double read the GM to see if the proposed line of activity is going to play fun or not.

About mechanics though, I have another impression. Andochtuir is very carefully thought and well built. He is the most versatile of all characters that have been around here, our main damage dealer, main tank, main healer, with a solid weight in the party's skills and as a face, and some utility spell and buff here and there. He has things to shine at every situation. So the problem must be somewhere else.

If you like more to play full casters, that may be a thing. Also, to have a story more involved with the AP might help. Looking forward to our trip through the wilderness, an Ulfen druid devoted to see the caravan through the Northern ice wastes wilderness as a guided, forced to abandon Karlsgard for some gritty business, and with some secret hooks to blossom at Tian Xia looks like something very fun and involved with the AP looking forward.

Regardless of what you decide, all adventures suffer of some periods where the emotion decays, and requires some push through to get back into the good parts. The only problem is if you do not thing anymore there are those chances for emotion in the future.