PFS2: Breaking the Storm by GM Redeux (Inactive)

Game Master redeux

I think I must have misunderstood the way that the 2 rounds of prep worked. The reason that Astrid used the scroll of Fleet Step was to increase her move to 55 for a minute and allow her to use Sudden Charge to charge in from 110 feet away. Seeing Jakoby attack in the prep rounds make me think that I could use Astrid's two remaining actions in the prep round to do that. As a reminder Astrid used 1 action to retrieve her scroll, 2 to cast and 1 to draw her sword, leaving her with 2 more actions. Can she do a Sudden Charge in the final moments of the prep round to close and attack and then start the combat adjacent to the green cyclops?

Sure thing

TBH i hadn't foreseen Jakoby's attack either. The encounter is a bit awkward in that it is written in that you literally run right into the Cyclops and firestorm. Once the group decided to do a mix of "hurry but still scout ahead" i tried to adjucate that as best as possible. I probably should've just set up the initiative sooner but was operating under "cool things should get to do cool things" which is why Amada was able to scout ahead and then we had this awkward limbo land of non-initiative.

My sincere apologies for any confusion that caused. Essentially boiled down to me trying to balance how the encounter is written and how the group decided to approach it (very clearly not intended by the adventure)

Sure thing

TBH i hadn't foreseen Jakoby's attack either. The encounter is a bit awkward in that it is written in that you literally run right into the Cyclops and firestorm. Once the group decided to do a mix of "hurry but still scout ahead" i tried to adjucate that as best as possible. I probably should've just set up the initiative sooner but was operating under "cool things should get to do cool things" which is why Amada was able to scout ahead and then we had this awkward limbo land of non-initiative.

My sincere apologies for any confusion that caused. Essentially boiled down to me trying to balance how the encounter is written and how the group decided to approach it (very clearly not intended by the adventure)

That's fair and I definitely appreciate it, its apparent in most PFS scenarios that Scouting/Invisibility is not usually taken into consideration.

How did Astrid miss the first time with a 24 but hit the second time with a 23?

How did Astrid miss the first time with a 24 but hit the second time with a 23?

FF

He would have been flat footed for the first attack due to Astrid's rogue dedication giving her surprise attack when she uses stealth to roll initiative.

He would have been flat footed for the first attack due to Astrid's rogue dedication giving her surprise attack when she uses stealth to roll initiative.

It's good practice to clearly post Special Abilities such as that in the posts in which they may be relevant, so they do not become overlooked!

Astrid Gertasdottir wrote:

He would have been flat footed for the first attack due to Astrid's rogue dedication giving her surprise attack when she uses stealth to roll initiative.

It's good practice to clearly post Special Abilities such as that in the posts in which they may be relevant, so they do not become overlooked!

Well I did mention and link it it my prep post.

Astrid's preparations

Yeah I'll get that with next update. Thank you

As a small FYI i should be around for most of today (Thursday, GMT-4) but tomorrow I'm having outpatient surgery. Nothing serious or to worry about--something I've had to deal with before. But I may not be able to post tomorrow (Friday). I hope to be well enough to post Saturday onward.

Seems me and Astrid were posting simultaneously. I'm okay with going before or after in this instance; tl;dr all that would change on my turn is I would have started with Hunt Prey vs Pink, Commanded an Animal after, and then moved Necalli into Flank before trying to attack vs Pink as listed in the optional action. True Strike > First Attack with Amada would have been vs Pink instead.

EDIT: Also, shoutout to my trash d20 rolls this round, lol.

Talk about all these nat20's on saves :)

Sorry. Not sorry!

@Zac - just needed the save/block but if white is still standing when it is your turn then I'll use those rolls!

Red Cyclops:-79, Bloodied, FF until Q's turn, 2d4 persist bleed, Dazzled

I hate to be a party pooper but if these monsters are undead then they are immune to bleed and therefore also immune to the dazzled applied by the bird support ability. I discovered this when playing my ranger with a bird.

GM redeux wrote:

Red Cyclops:-79, Bloodied, FF until Q's turn, 2d4 persist bleed, Dazzled

I hate to be a party pooper but if these monsters are undead then they are immune to bleed and therefore also immune to the dazzled applied by the bird support ability. I discovered this when playing my ranger with a bird.

iirc, looking over the Undead trait, nothing about Undead inherently states that they are immune to Persistent Bleed damage. I think its a thing that's handled per-monster this edition, it's just that undead tend to be immune to it more often than most other monster types.

My turn is coming soon-ish as an aside, gonna work on it after wrapping up dinner. It's been a busy weekend.

So for some reason the immunity to bleed isn't attached to the undead type itself but it is under the damage types that you can find they are immune to bleeding.

Bleed Damage
Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don't need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you're healed to your full Hit Points.

Damage Types

Cyclops Bodak?? or Cyclops Seer??

Amada believes these are Cyclops Seers who possess divine insight and are capable of detecting life around them-- a power granted from their removable eyes.

Quinoline and Jakoby believe that these are actually Cyclops Bodaks whose deathly gaze can draw the life force out of living creatures

Thanks all, Been having a bad reaction to the anesthesia from my surgery so missed that-- Had checked the immunities and the Undead trait (which by now, you most certainly know they are undead) and didn't see bleed mentioned there.

They are immune to dazzled in general, or they are immune to the dazzled specifically enacted by the bird?

(Quinoline added dazzled to some bombs earlier, was not sure if that went through or not.)

Hope you are feeling better!

One other note: I (as a player) have noticed that the raining fire has not targeted Quinoline. I think Quinoline would have noticed, too. Is there a reason for that, or can she roll some kind of check to see if there's a reason for that?

The dazzled condition inflicted by the
Bird's support ability is dependent on the bleed condition. Since undead are immune to bleed they never get the dazzled condition from the bird companion.

Re: Fire storm. No check needed - The feeling would be that it is truly random. Quinoline is just very lucky!

Re: Dazzled - Dazzled only works if vision is their only precise sense. From Recall Knowledge Amada seems to think they have life sense granted from their removable eyes (dubious knowledge). The longer the fight goes the more you're convinced that they do have an ability to sense where you're at.

and thanks for the get wells - mostly just been dealing with a lot of nausea which i didn't have last time I had anesthesia a few years ago. Been fun, but slowly getting there.

Okay this is getting a bit annoying. If I use occultism to aid another to disable the firestorm could I use it to assist someone using a different skill or would they have to be using occultism? For example, could I use occultism to aid Quinoline's attempt to use Arcana to disable?

Not sure what the rest of the party has in the name of out-of-combat healing, but Amada (after spending his first ten minutes refocusing for a Focus Point) has Assurance Medicine combined with Ward Medic/Continual Recovery, allowing him to auto-roll DC 22 for 2 party members at a time over ten minute intervals. Given enough time I could heal the entire party that way automatically in increments of 2 2d8+10 heals (Average roll is 19 HPx2, assuming average dice I could have the entire party fully healed in around 1.5 hours by doing Refocus, Zac/Amada x3, Zac/Quin, Jakoby/Ro x2, Ro/Greezgux x2 without additional assistance from the rest of the party)

Sadly I'm only Expert at Medicine until 9, but by then I'll be auto-rolling DC 25 vs 4 targets at once per ten minutes, which may be relevant in Part 3.

@Astrid, for future reference you could use your relevant skill (like occultism) to aid Quinoline's arcana attempt. That would be fine.

And while the firestorm was frustrating, i have to say the group did a terrific job against the Cyclopes. Things could've been much worse, specifically if the group started failing the saves

Quinoline also has Assurance (Medicine) for DC 23, but only Ward Medic and not Continual Recovery (I made a bad choice way back in Level 4 or something on the assumption that she wasn't likely to have more than 10 minutes to spare). Also note she also has Godless Healing, which gives her +5 hit points on any Treat Wounds on her.

Also, just so the party is aware, Quinoline can make moderate elixirs of life, which are way better than the name suggests (5d6+12 [avg 29.5] healing, +2 vs poisons and diseases). These are probably better saved for in-combat. I would have made some with Advanced Alchemy, but opted not to to make room for the cold iron blanches. (Speaking of which, I assume everyone has a cold iron blanch.)

I think we only need 60 minutes, plus, Greezgux can save a 1st level scroll.

Zac: -74
Jakoby: -28
Ro: -70
Greezgux: -34
Quinoline: -16
Amada: -41

Amada:
0-30 min: Zac (x3) [+57], Amada (x3) [+57]
30-40 min: Quinoline [+24], Zac [+19]
40-50 min: Refocus

Quinoline:
0-60 min: Jakoby [+38], Greezgux [+38]

Jakoby:
0-60 min: Ro [+42]

Greezgux:
Heal 2nd: Ro [+21]
Heal 1st: Ro [+10]

Not sure I understand how Jakoby's heal healed for 42, the dice seems to state 21. Other than that it seems like we can likely get this wrapped up in an hour in either case.

If you succeed at your check, you can continue treating the target to grant additional healing. If you treat them for a total of 1 hour, double the Hit Points they regain from Treat Wounds.

Not often used, but helpful if you don't have continual recovery :)

Quinoline has a (consumable) greater leaper's elixir, and she can also use her infused reagents to make non-consumable-but-limited ones if people need. She also has a (consumable) scroll of air walk. She'd prefer not to use consumables, but if anyone is completely lacking a way forward, there are backups.

I'm going to roll for Quinoline, but if anyone wanted stuff from her before she headed out, she'd have given it to them.

Greezgux has a school item of air walk he can use on someone if they need it.

Gotta love how we basically just ended up posting in order from hardest time to easiest time crossing.

Ran out of time this morning, will see if i can post an update later in the afternoon once SO and I finish some projects. if not tomorrow morning at the latest.

So these stone guys might be tough nuts to crack. The 2e rules don't really have any way to force your opponent to move other than with shove. If I shove does it have to be directly away from me or can I shove in a diagonal direction? The rules for shove don't really seem to indicate one or the other. If I were to grapple could I then possibly forcibly move an opponent to the side with second check? I've included examples of what I mean on the SW corner of the map. The small bad guy would be the starting position in those examples.

Quinoline can focus elemental damage on them if we've got enough ghost touch weapons to take care of the incorporeals. She'll do a Recall and see if they've got any weird weaknesses, but she goes dead last.

So, you want to shove them off the cliff? I too have thought of that, with my ring of the ram, hopefully it doesn't crit succeed.

@Astrid
in 2-20 IIRC we allowed a diagonal shove (one of the Salamanders over the bridge). So if monster is directly North of you then you can shove NW, N, or NE.

If you want to grapple a monster and then try to shove them to the side then that seems reasonable. So if the monster is directly north of you and you have them grappled you could shove them W, NW, N, SE, or E

GM - Firstly, is Jakoby able to discern whether or not Amada gets to re-save each round, and what potential outcomes for that save might be?

GM - Secondly, is Jakoby aware the effects that Non-Lethal attacks against Amada's body would have on the Possessing Spirit? Half as Mental too?

GM - Thirdly, is Jakoby able to discern how movement across the "rubble" in the southern hemisphere of this inside area will work? Balance? Difficult Terrain?

This is an important moment, and she is reluctant to rush foolhardy into PvP, and so is considering her options...

good questions!

1. Jakoby and Amada would both know Amada will get a new save each round. Representing Amada's continued struggle against the creature.

2. non-lethal would have the same effect of dealing half mental damage to the invidiak and Jakoby would know this.

3. I suppose i didn't really describe that well! sorry! The "skill challenge" was to either balance your way across the beams OR climb across the walls. The floor is collapsed so the only mundane way to get across is the climbing or balancing which is detailed in the 'Notes' at the end of each post (DC 22 Acro/athletics and X number of feet of movement)

Greezgux will also assist in healing those he injures

Quinoline buys her jeans here.

Forgot to say in the post, it was a 30' orthogonal burst. you can see how close Quinoline was on slide 13

Also Zac has bravery (monsters dont know this) so not frightened. I'll use those rolls when its Zac's turn

Yeah, I forgot about bravery adding in that extra + for frightened.

"... I don't die in my bed as a weak old woman surrounded by feeble children! I die fighting monsters at Valenhall as a Linnorm King with blood on my blade and a smile on my face! That's what happens!"

Gosh darn it. I really wish we could edit posts for more than an hour. This morning I came up with a slightly changed version of this speech that's soooo much better. Instead of saying 'a smile on my face' I should have said 'a battlecry on my lips.' So much more metal.

The unlimited editing is the only thing I actually liked about doing PbP on discord.

Zac's shortbow is deadly d10 so he should do another 1d10 damage to white.

Also it looks like the 1 damage from Astrid's first hit on white got misattributed to red. Astrid's first hit of the fight

So, just checking to make sure I'm understanding the situation correctly; if we jump off of the ramp, we'd fall to the ground from however feet high up the ramp is, correct; as in, ground level is 0'? And this shadow demon takes half of the damage I take as mental damage, correct?

Correct - You'd fall to the ground which is 0'. You'd take fall damage equal to half the distance. and of that damage that you take, the shadow demon would take half as mental damage (so 1/4 of the distance you fell, essentially).