[PF2/Farol] #2-09 Seven Secrets of Dacilane Academy (Inactive)

Game Master Farol

I am touched by your generosity:D Internet cookies and haunted coffee :D

Regarding Why Gnimish bludgeoning damage was reduced by hardness. And why Salaish produce flame did exactly the same damage without any weakness added?

Long story short: Symeon got 1 on his recall knowledge check, so I fed him with false information. The monster was as impacted by bludgeoning as by any other weapons.

Anyway, good job! You survived the Anatomical Model encounter, but shall you live through the next one? The mystery continuous!

Argh... I did just notice that Salaish's produce flame didn't do any more damage than the crit + the persistent.

FYI, I am waiting for Gizzard to post before doing anything with the room, so far enjoy the whispers...

Just got a break. If we get a chance to rest for a bit, Gizzard would like to clear his wounded condition.

I'm assuming we did, Symeon took 20 mins to treat wounds on you and Odo to clear damage and wounded conditions already.

Yes you did, sorry. I should have been more explicit in the gameplay. Gizzard is not wounded.

Five out of Seven done! Good job.

It's not usually a factor, but if I suddenly disappear -- particularly on the weekends, it's most likely because my internet connection decided to go on vacation. It's not often, and my connection is about 95% consistent, but it happens. Whatever happens, I won't suddenly disappear on you. But if my home connection drops (especially on the weekend), the only place I'll be able to respond will be at work. It's one of the main reasons why I don't commit to live games -- I don't trust the internet in the Philippines...

Symeon, boil more water. I just remembered, we need to add the GM to the list of people we give coffee to... :)

He's getting a biscuit and coffee of course.

We better tip the GM so he can overlook any natural 1's we roll...

GM, can any of the cutlery in the room be used as a weapon (other than bludgeoning damage)?

I assume you mean with telekinetic projectile? Yeah, piercing or slashing is available.

you read my mind...

Just to be clear:
- You know that protean could be behind most of the mysteries (or somehow connected)
- You know of the following path that you can get it:
- do the homework
- try to dismiss the halfling
- solve it with a sword
- Make it a tiramisu? But it seems that they are not interested in food :(

I believe I have a mistake in my sheet.
I have:
+4 Lore, Academia (Tr.)
+4 Lore, Pathfinder (Tr.)
+4 Lore, Undead (Tr.)
Is that not one lore too many?
Undead lore is from Background (quite sure).
But then should I not have only one of Academia or Pathfinder Lore from my training? (or do starting characters get two?).
My feeling is that I chose one then changed but forgot to delete the other?
So-- am I correct that I should only have 2 Lores, not 3?

(and am did not purchase a Lore w. Skill points, since all those are accounted for)

Just asking to save me going through the rules again to double check...

Yeah I think you are correct. You should have 2 lores, 1 from background the other grom training.

3rd one could come from feat, hireling or something

Symeon, for example, picked up hsi surgery lore from the additional lore feat. It's about the only way to get it as far as I'm aware right now.

To answer the repeated question:

yes on the case apply here as well as clue in.

Clue-in can be used once every 10 minutes. Each check takes longer than 10 minutes.

I removed Academia Lore, since I will stick w. Pathfinder Lore over that.
I imagine I picked Academia up during build and switched and forgot to remove-- sorry.

If okay w. you I'll just keep my roll and Hero Point reroll since I imagine 12 or even 13 is a failure, and if I'd re-done Medicine that would have been @1 less (all the others, Arcana, are at lower bonuses of +4 etc.).
So, just scratch it as a failure and erase the Lore for later.

If not good w. you, tell me what you prefer.

So are we just doing the homework for it? Should Argoni share the knowledge about using the bracelet to open the rift?

He's not good at Religion or Athletics; acceptable on bluff. So this is not something that he'll be able to easily do.

- Make it a tiramisu? But it seems that they are not interested in food :(

Maybe the protean might not, but would the GM want some coffee and tiramisu? ;)

Who has the bracelet? And where do we open the rift? The bathroom??

I can try with the deception/bluff check... but somebody is going to have to open the rift and shove that thing in...

Haha! I should've known this group wouldn't rush into a fight. Oh well. At least Salaish has one more focus point left.

Also, looks like Argoni has the bracelet.

GM, if we open a rift, where will it be? right in the vicinity of the bracelet or can we direct the rift so that it's right where the creature is?

Does the same character need to make all 3 checks?

Argoni, Diplomacy/Deception +6 for me. My bloodline magic can make me trained in 1 non-Lore skill for 1 minute (I'm thinking religion, which will give me +5). But we still need someone to shove the creature into the rift because I think you and I are too small to do it :)

Shouldn't have used Hydraulic Push with Tom... because if need be I could use it to shove that creature into the rift...

Looks like Odo and Gizzard have the best Athletics modifiers, with a +2 each. Salaish can add +1 to that. Woo hoo!

Odo had +7 Athletics, but then the Undead came, and his physical prowess was badly reduced when that little Goblin patched him together with acid.
Burnt up most of the muscles.

The rift will be in proximity to the bracelet. And different characters can do the checks.

I can also choose Athletics as the skill to be temporarily trained in... and I still have a hero point.

GM -- how do I use my blood magic?
Imperial Bloodline

Do I just tell you who gets the +1?

If I understand the rule correctly, when you cast a focused spell or a spell granted by your bloodline, you can apply the +1 to the recipient of that spell. As your focus spell can only target you, it will be you who will get +1 for a round...

Looks like we're kinda undertaking 2 different courses of action. When can Gizzard take another action?

Looks like we're kinda undertaking 2 different courses of action. When can Gizzard take another action?

Yep. And if you screw it up there will be third course;)

Yes you can go gizzard.

The timeline was
You did homework, which protean reviewed, when it came to argoni he decided to try the portal

I will do the debriefing and reporting most likely tomorrow... The protean was pushed into the portal.

just out of curiosity, what was the stat block of that creature? Would we have stood a chance if we'd tried to just attack it (or would it have handed us our heads?)

Earn Income: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Chronicles here. Please download them and let me know I will delete the directory within the week. The game have been reported

@Gnimish - Scholars stats added to the slides. You could have fought it, without a doubt it is an interesting fight. The creature has some interesting abilities that can make the fight challenging. But also the chaotic nature of the foe says that it attacks the last person that hurt it ;)

@Argoni - you claimed that your PC number is 2004 but it is 2002. Please check the chronicle and stuff that it is correct.

Please continue to RP to get some more clarification.

It took us 1.5 months to go through the scenario. I personally ended up liking it, it has hazard, encounters and investigations. On top of that each mystery has a mechanism of Mystery Points and PC's are always granted some explanation of a mystery but it is either Mundane or Magical (all of them are magical in fact).

The wide variety of checks is something interesting and the fact that scenario allows for other skills to be used but on a slightly increased DC is interesting.

Let me know if you liked the game and what in the way how I GM'ed you liked/disliked. I will post my notes after you have a chance to post yours.

Got the chronicle. Looks good.

Personally, I enjoyed it. A bit intimidated in the beginning for 2 reasons:

a. it was my second game; so the roleplaying aspect still scared me at first.

b. most of my companions were Investigators and Gnimish didn't have the skills for the job. I had created Gnimish as a stand-off long range damage dealer and found myself woefully lacking in other abilities.

As for how you GM'ed -- I don't think I'm in a position to judge, seeing that I've never done it myself (not in PbP, at any rate). Also my GM experience is really restricted to co-workers who have never really heard of a TTRPG before (much less played one!). If you didn't feel confident or anything, it didn't really show... :)

I also evaluate scenarios/quests to see if I can run this with my groups at work. This one -- probably not... at least, not now. My groups' idea of roleplaying is basically using the business end of something pointy (or blunt)...

Got the chronicle, thank you!

I like the specific (scene by scene) story, and also the mechanics of the scenario (various skill checks etc.).
But not the overall story that much-- I do not have the impression I was part of figuring anything out, or understanding what happened (an event, a reaction). Nothing negative, just not a feeling of having done much as a general story arc.

I was very happy w. how you GMed it and liked all the RP and interaction with all the characters and NPCs, so I had a very nice time!

But not the overall story that much-- I do not have the impression I was part of figuring anything out, or understanding what happened (an event, a reaction). Nothing negative, just not a feeling of having done much as a general story arc.

Same here... though as I said before, it's mostly from my design of the character as a damage dealer instead of a detective. It's kinda like having an MMA fighter attend a knitting exhibition.. for the most part he'd be scratching his head saying "what am I doing here?" :)

Towards the end where Gnimish was able to be useful (i.e. in the fight with Tom, which I guess has more or less 50hp) did the story pick up a bit, because now there was the anticipation that there might be something else unfriendly in the school.

But what makes this game so much fun is that we get to be creative. I mean, sure, we could have charged the protean, but there's always the other solution...

So, Farol, you running anything else?

@Argoni - you claimed that your PC number is 2004 but it is 2002. Please check the chronicle and stuff that it is correct.

Apologies, you are correct. Argoni is 2002. Chronicle looks good. And access to an uncommon item!

I think the investigators felt like we had more to do since it's very much designed for an investigator's niche. The problem with a mystery game is that it's easy to miss out on some exposition due to failed rolls or that we just didn't connect something. There probably should have been a mystery or two more solvable with strength or magic than smarts.

There were plenty of clues about the Maelstrom and chaos energy, so it makes sense that it was a protean, but the why still eluded us. Just set of pranks? Was the Scholar actually looking for something? I'm kinda hoping this is set up for a sequel much like the 1e series of scenarios had.

If we had finished the homework, would we have learned anything else from it?

I think you did a good job of GMing. Our characters were a bit more on the silly side, so we might have derailed a serious, gothic suspense-type vibe. I could see this run as a very suspenseful scenario. We were a bit more scooby-doo, so apologies if we didn't give you much to work with on that angle.

Do I get the uncommon item as well or do I need to meet the level requirement (and once I level up do I get it automatically)?

I agree that our characters were on the silly side -- heck, we were drinking coffee with Baileys Irish Cream in a school teacher's lounge! But I think that's what made it so much fun! I did volunteer at my high school library and Gizzard's remark about the Dewey Decimal system really gave me a laugh.

It would be nice that this has a sister adventure that gives some info' on the protean.

Odo goes off to train some-- I am playing Abomination Vaults, so just had the 1st AP Chronicle applied to Odo, making him level 2 (took Medic Dedication).

"Where are the Undead?!"

This was such a fun group of people to play with! Honestly, even a poorly written scenario can be a ton of fun for the right group of people, and a GM who plays along with and encourages their RP. As always, GM Farol, you didn't disappoint!

Scenarios that have a mix of types of encounters are always more interesting to me. I had a bit of trouble understanding the connections between some of the mysteries, but that may have been due in part to the PbP format. If we'd been doing all this in one sitting I would've forgotten a lot less between postings.

Thanks for the game, everyone, and I hope to play with you again!

@GM Farol: Did you intend to leave the selection boxes in the Adventure Summary blank? (for mundan/supernatural, and how we handled the protean) Does it matter? Otherwise, my Chronicle is downloaded and looks good.

You can always purchase the following items so long as you’re in a settlement of at least 5,000 residents (and scenarios might sometimes provide additional allowances or limitations):

Any equipment listed on your character’s Chronicles with an item level equal to or less than your character’s level + 2. Some items found on Chronicles are available for purchase only a limited number of times. Weapons and Armor found on Chronicles can be upgraded following the normal rules for upgrading.

Gnimish, you have access to the normal Book of Translation now. Having an item on a chronicle is the typical way of getting early access to it.

GM, I'm curious if you have to report whether the mysteries were mundane or magical. If you do, it would seem like Paizo will use those to make the sequel.

Thanks a lot for the game, Farol, is was super enjoyable!
And thanks to my comrades, with whom it was great fun!

And with this chronicle Symeon is level 3!

Ok so my notes:

- I agree that the overarching story is mostly missing. The scenario describes it as follows:
a. Someone or something puts the bracelet in the bathroom, that lures the protean to the school, he walks there and searches for the bracelet
b. As the protean likes to mess with written texts he spends some time in the library to erase and alter some of the information. He messes with the laboratory making a sophisticated echo effect to parrot back whatever was said in the room (at time related to the subject).
c. Statues are moved by Protean to mess a bit with the students, as they play team sports, protean wishes to see how they will do with different set up of the statues.
d. The shack had a story that different protean also came to the school and the two fought together in the shack were one of them was send back.

etc. Now the thing is, that there is no way for you to even learn this, as the mystery was telling you: claw marks are on the wall, it must have been a flying creature.

Anyhow yeah, I agree the overall story was a bit thin.

=========================
- I really liked your interactions as a team, that game was full of RP moments and this is something that I particularly like in RPG ;) I found the game funny and engaging. I was attempting to make a set up for it to be remotely scary, but I did it more to not change it into comedy (and comparison to scooby-doo were done before with regards to this scenario ;) - the fact that main villain can run into one doors and teleport himself to the other room does not help :D)
- I completely missed the checkboxes in the chronicle text, the answers were supernatural (you did all but one checks) and you banished the protean. And no those information were not reportable :(

Anyhow thank you all for playing, I had a blast! I enjoyed your characters and your posts, it was a pleasure to run this game! I am also glad that you liked playing it.

I will keep the thread till the end of the week.

So far I am not looking to run a new game. I looked at the current list of scenarios and there is nothing that resonates. I signed up to GM Enter the Pallid Peak (1-4) at gameday. I might throw a quest/bounty before the gameday but we will see. I could be more inclined to run 3-6 scenario, but we are entering what I like to call Gameday vacuum ;) (so this is the last moment to start a game for it to end before gameday, and gameday will bring more games as they give more ACP).

I should be running the PFS special for Gameday X (the King in Thorns), in Tier 7-8 (what a headache that will be! Six PCs with 12 unique feats and 12 unique abilities each!).
But that is all for now... maybe after Gameday.

No one posted for 36+ hours so closing this campaign