This is the discussion thread.
Please post your essential informations here unless you've already done so on the recruitment thread.
Player name
Character name
Pfs number
Faction
Day job roll
Initiative bonus
Perception bonus
Hey everybody! I probably won’t be able to gameplay post today on account of Easter. If I do, it won’t be until tonight. Looking forward to the game!
Absolutely not a problem! I too am just making preparations and do not expect people to be able to post until Tuesday.
Campaign short description edited to include a link to Google Slides, now featuring the pictures of Venture-Captain Muesello and the less mysterious lady by the fireplace, Lady Gloriana Morilla.
The same link will be updated and include future maps once we get to that point.
@Tinker: This might come as an odd request, but could you adjust your writing to be in the present tense? It feels odd when one is writing in the past tense.
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I would like to add Skim to my spellbook. As I understand it, you can pay half again the cost to scribe the spell to pay for access to the spell for scribing, rather than having to buy a scroll to scribe from, right? So the cost to add that to my spellbook would be 10gp to write it and 5gp to pay for the source, for 15gp total, right?
I would also like to purchase a wand of Comprehend Languages for 2pp.
Also, question. A wizard officially begins play with *all* level-0 spells in their spellbook. Does that include spells from sources other than core? Specifically, can I be assumed to already have Scrivener's Chant in my spellbook, assuming I own that source?
1) Did not know about that, but it sounds logical.
2) What you described is correct. If you know of a spell you could have, you have it. And of course I'm always trusting the player and assuming them to own/possess required sources.
I'm going to assume there are no Taldor/Sovereign Court characters here, so no faction mission briefing.
So some basic rules are going to be listed here, since this scenario has some special ones.
As already stated in the briefing, you have two hours once the door close behind you and the musical performance starts. Incidental actions will not be accounted towards the time limit (movement from one point to another for example). I will keep the true amount of time hidden, while you can have other means to have an approximate provided by me.
You conduct research in each room; not shelf or book or anything like that. Depending on the room size, it'll take more time to search it through, naturally. The sizes are small, medium, and large. Alone, searching a small room takes 30 minutes, medium takes an hour, and large 2 hours. This time is divided by the amount of PCs doing the research, and no more than four PCs can search a small room at the same time (7½ minutes), and five PCs a medium room (12 minutes).
Each room has a set number of "clues" which you can collect; if you ever receive all the clues from a certain room, I'll mark the room as "thoroughly examined" so you know not to waste time on it.
You have use the following skills:
* Knowledge (history)
* Linguistics
* Any text-based Craft or Profession check (such as Profession [librarian] or Craft [bookbinding])
* Some areas might allow other skills as well, they will be revealed
A character may use another skill, but I'll have to apply a penalty ranging from -2 to -5, depending on how good or bad the application is.
Henrikuaxian's skim spell will not decrease the amount of time by 4, or give him the +8 bonus listed. The scenario is pretty straightforward with magic as aid, and it'll give a +5 bonus to all checks to search for clues. This, I feel, is a good mix. Henrikuaxian is, after all, not reading just one volume but looking through numerous books.
And there's no need to aid another, it will happen automatically. The highest roll is the main roll, and everyone else that succeeded in the DC improve the main roll by the standard +2.
You can choose to use more time to search a room by spending half the time to do so. This will yield an additional clue provided the room still has those left.
Are we waiting for him to leave, or are we beginning research in this room?
I'll make a post soonish detailing the room.
@Bocke: Can you provide me with the information below? You may include it in the first slide instead if you so want.
Player Name:
Character Name: Bocke Reed
PFS #:
Day Job:
Initiative:
Perception:
Faction:
Last evening I was too tired to update, this morning I had serious neck pain and an aural migraine (?), and swamped with lots of email to answer and blah blah.
Stay tuned, I'll update once I've cleared all this nonsense. :)
I will never penalize a player for playing their character. A foul-mouthed, doomsayer dwarf spouting obscenities is fitting, and it'd be non-immersive if he suddenly started to behave properly.
Carry on!
I examined the scenario a little closer, and some other GM might have taken Makras's reply with another tone and, well, this would go down south fast.
I feel like I need to remind you all:
You are in a secret library of the Lion Blades (adding some knowledge about them shortly), without permission, with a huge crowd above you. Essentially being burglars, you mustn't make much noise. Once you leave the place, will the Lion Blades notice your stay?
I will tomorrow morning UTC+2, so in about 14 hours from now.
Don't hesitate to post daily, even if it would be just banter or mindless musings. It helps a lot to know players are active.
Your enemies are very unlucky! The big lion stumbled about so magnificently.
I try to update as frequently during weekends, but these posts eat up a lot of time to make with so many moving parts going on.
I'm off to the dentist! Might not update anymore today.
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Now that I'm lobbing about an illusion, it might be a good time to ask this question - I have the feat Effortless Trickery, which allows me to maintain concentration on one illusion spell as a swift action. It specifically calls out that I can take my move and standard actions to maintain other spells normally, but it does not specifically call out that I can cast another spell while maintaining concentration on the one illusion spell with my swift action. Since the normal rules say you can't cast another spell while maintaining concentration on a spell, some rule that the feat does not override that specific limitation, while others rule that the limitation only exists because both maintaining concentration and casting a spell are standard actions, and thus you can cast another spell just fine.
So, if I am concentrating on my minor image with a swift action, can I still cast another spell with my standard?
I immediately found this: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rk5x?FAQ-Effortless-Trickery-Clarification
It's a s%++ty feat written badly. I'd rule that you cannot cast another spell AND concentrate on the illusion spell. You could, however, use swift action to concentrate, and then start casting another spell. It would provide a bit longer duration for the illusion, I assume.
I could imagine you being able to flank an enemy with your illusion, provided the enemy fails the spell DC to disbelieve the illusion.
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Sorry, I don't think I'm understanding your ruling, as it seems contradictory?
1) I cannot cast another spell AND concentrate on the illusion spell (which is a swift action for me)
2) I can concentrate on the illusion spell (with my swift action) and start casting another spell
What is the difference? Agreed that it is a poorly written feat...
How I understand it, it doesn't allow you cast another spell while concentrating on an illusion spell.
But you could, of course, first use you swift action to concentrate, then with your standard action start a new spell. The concentration would end, however, once you start a new spell.
Concentration: The spell lasts as long as you concentrate on it. Concentrating to maintain a spell is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Anything that could break your concentration when casting a spell can also break your concentration while you're maintaining one, causing the spell to end. See concentration.You can't cast a spell while concentrating on another one. Some spells last for a short time after you cease concentrating.
This last bit (emphasis mine) is what contradicts with Effortless Trickery. It doesn't create an exception to this.
This document is absolutely superb!
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It is not actually entirely accurate. It still includes the statement that being tied up in a grapple makes you helpless; it does not.
It also states that it is unclear if you can use greater/rapid grapple on the turn you initiate a grapple; you cannot; Mark Seifter has cleared this up.
Additionally, it states that if you fail to tie up a conscious creature, you maintain control of the grapple; you do not. You roll to maintain to tie up; failing the check means you failed to maintain the grapple.
Finally, not an inaccuracy, but it is interesting to mention; maintaining a grapple can be done at any point in your turn. You can take your move and swift before you take your standard to maintain if you desire.
Mark Seifter did a great Arcane Mark video on grappling.
Otherwise, the chart is pretty decent, it just needs a few updates and minor fixes.
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OK, I'm having a hard time keeping track of the odd rules of this scenario, so I want to kick up some discussion to plan out what we are doing.
The grand library that we researched first has not been marked as "thoroughly examined", so we still could look more in there. It would take another 2 hours divided by the number of folks doing the research to search again for more clues there (20 minutes if we all do it).
The small room we are in right now can be searched in 7.5min-30min depending on how many of us search it (max 4).
The small room in the south can't be searched I don't think? But we can talk more to the blind lady, to try to get something out of her.
There are still 4 closed doors we have found but not explored (2 in the east, 2 in the west), as well as this secret passage.
We have a total of 2 hours, and have so far spent how long, that we know of?
Right now, are we looking to continue exploring, or do we want to get busy researching?
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I think breadth is going to be better than depth in terms of searching - we should try and casually examine every room, and only thoroughly search if we have time. I'm worried that we're going to find something in the last room that we'll wish we had beelined to.
I think we should search the lion/dog room, and if the other team didn't search the room with the blind lady, we should search that as well (or talk with her to get information).
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It does seem like a mission where you literally can't do everything which is why I suggested splitting up. Hopefully we can quickly scan for the most interesting collection and dive into that rather than spending time on less important collections.
Basically it might only take 5 minutes to at least see what all the rooms are we can work in. Like it was stated above, I don't want to find the most obviously best collection and not have time to search it
Take a look at the clues you got; they are aids you can use to find more clues. Some clues are relevant to the mission at hand, some are just there to help you to find them.
I did find a PFSprep for the scenario which included a complex way of calculating the time spent to research a room if PCs join midway the research... so it can be done. 10 minutes to search a small room with 3 PCs, and you could search two rooms at once.
Your hourglass (I guess Henrikuaxian had one?) show one hour is nearly full. Time to flip it. Midway, that is.
Intriguingly no, the note in Hidden Vault "Grave Consequences" is not Sovereign Court's faction mission, but it's for another faction.
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I went back to the initial briefing, and I am confused. Are these two asks different asks, or different ways of wording the same ask? Does "Lines of Succession" fulfill one or both of these objectives? Should we go ahead and make a copy of it? How many "normal pages" long is the scroll, for purposes of trying to copy it with Scrivener’s Chant?
I am sending you in with the express purpose of uncovering more information about the Shining Crusade, the sustained war against the Whispering Tyrant a millennium ago.
Historically, Taldor is the authority on massive military campaigns, but most texts have undergone extensive revision to serve some political agenda or another. Entering this hidden archive is an excellent opportunity to learn from the real mistakes of the past and apply those lessons to the Mendevian Crusade.
As I've followed your advancement, I too have noticed many confusing aspects. Let me clear things up.
There are TWO missions at hand. In order for you to even access the secret, hidden library, you are to retrieve a document (which was not detailed in the initial briefing, it seems) for the patron, who is Princess Eutropia, Grand Prince Stavian III's only child.
The other mission is to find any information that's relevant to the Pathfinder Society's struggle in the Worldwound against the demon invasion. This includes mainly stuff about the Shining Crusade. Basically every clue you find counts towards this end as far as rewards go, I can tell you that much.
Scrivener's Chant, in essence, makes note making not count into the time it would take to copy texts. It is assumed you are not making full copies of books, only certain pages you know are relevant for your cause.
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Is this scenario anticipated to finish before PaizoCon? No pressure either way - I have signed up for scenarios but would be willing to cancel.
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I see four rooms that we haven't explored - the two doors in the corridor with the blind lady, and the two by the entrance.
I believe we have succeeded at our patron's goal, which is the "Lines of Succession" document.
I see two clues called "Cryptic References" and "Grave Consequences" that are likely to be two of the clues towards the Shining Crusade goal. I don't know if we were told how many to expect, but we should at least make a cursory search of the remaining 4 rooms for any other clues.
I don't know how the "Taldan Cipher 1" fits in. It may be a third clue towards the Shining Crusade goal. The number suggests there's a second part, which we don't have.
We have 3 miscellaneous clues left over, two +3s, and one reroll. We should definitely use those up.
Assuming that a 6 Diplomacy is going to fail (and Intimidate won't help long-term: as soon as we leave, she'll alert the guards), unless someone else can convince her to leave us alone, I think the jig is up - we're not going to be able to pretend we weren't here. The only other gambit I can think of is to pretend some of us (the ones she hasn't met) are Lion Blades and "arrest" the others. She seems likely to see through that ploy.
I can certainly put a step on it to finish it by then (it's 28th of May, right?). Just don't trigger additional combats!
You are correct that the patron's quest has been completed.
Taldan Cipher 1 is for a faction mission, detailed here. I now realize Paizo's boards are really bad at revealing URLs within the text...
I've been holding back with that diplomacy roll in case someone else wants to intervene, but lacking that, I'll go with that.
Also, I'll open all the unlocked rooms and write their descriptions. Something I should have done from the start.