Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

Sure.

To clarify what was up with the swarm-creature... I decided that a swarm shifter would be a likely servant of Deskari, and went with it.

A shifter? Huh. Neat! Never actually seen one played. Though in this context it was definitely quite terrifying and I half-expected to get smoked. :)

That aside, posting this in all my PBP's: From tomorrow to this friday I'll be attending a congres. That means I probably won't be able to post for three days, from wednesday the 3rd to the evening of friday the fifth. I'll have my phone of course, but posting is probably limited to short messages and the discussion thread if I even have the opportunity.

See you when I get back!

See you soon, Elliot.

And yes, I did imagine that a worm-that-walks might be, frankly, terrifying. I didn't realize how much until I saw some of its stats. DR 15/-, for instance. And unlike a iich, it doesn't have a minimum level to apply... which seems absurd, really.

Yeah, the canon example of a worm-that-walks is the mythic level King of Biting Ants. I'm so glad we don't have to deal with that.

So, for the next round if I can squeeze a post in between talks, is the scimitar guy still up? The text indicates he is, but he's gone from the map.

Nope, he's down (I think it does say that, but it's in Anevia's part, and I may not have saved it properly).

Ah, right. Reading it again, he survived the first two attacks, then he falls when Anevia shoots him. However, when it gets to the glaive woman, he's described as though still dazzled by Elliot's spell instead of dead/dying. I guess i was confused by the implication that the daze was implied to be important, as if he hadn't already been felled, and that he thus might still be up. Thanks for clarifying!

Ack, yes, that was part of the whole "I forgot Anevia goes before them" thing, because when I wrote that, he was still up, and I forgot to edit it after I switched Anevia in between you all and the cultists.

I guess I'll take that...

I have a very long work meeting this morning (possibly around 3 hours). I won't be able to post until I'm done with that. Just a courtesy heads-up. Thanks!

No worries. Hope everything goes well.

Not to quibble, and I hope it won't matter now, but where did the extra 1s on Thesius's damage rolls with the dagger come from? 2 for Strength on a thrown weapon and 2 for Archeologist's Luck I get. Is the dagger, as well as the morningstar, a +1 weapon?

I don't think so, but it wouldn't change things - she had pretty low HP.

Furthermore, I find it hilarious that these ones were fighting much smarter than the other two warpriests, and yet did less damage overall, despite you having largely fewer resources. Also, Thesius remains the luckiest PC I've seen in combat.

Oh, I think I've figured it out. It's one point of extra Strength bonus damage from the alter self spell, most likely.

Shifters are a fairly exotic form of the druidic tradition, so you could make a Knowledge (nature) roll or a Knowledge (religion) roll to figure out what the half-orc was, IC. Mind you, the DC for either will be fairly high, as none of you are druids.

I can confirm it was from the Alter Self spell. Thusly it only applied to the damage roll as opposed to the attack roll. I've got some errands to run and then I'll be back to make a post.

I did consider making the Jezeldan a werewolf cleric that I've got knocking about, but that one's CR 3, and I felt it would be unfair since none of you have silver weapons, nor was there any foreshadowing that you might need them.

Of course, now that you've met a Jezeldan cultist, you may want to be ready for more to show up, who might be lycanthropes... but they're not going to have a very big presence, because I don't want to dilute the themes of the AP, so to speak.

I figured he was either a werewolf, in which case I would need the magic weapon spell, or a wannabe werewolf. Note to self, acquire a silver weapon in Kenabres.

Yeah, always a good idea to have something silver or mithral on you. I admit I often forget in favor of the more common coldiron or adamantine necessities :)

By the way, just asking this here so I could perhaps still edit the post: wasn't there stated to be a maze after the traitor crusader den too? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

I think "wannabe" is probably an appropriate term. I could've given him more bestial features with his blessing, but I didn't think of it want to throw too many "big scary" misleading enemies at you.

There was indeed a maze mentioned. And as it happens, there's a rusty iron door you haven't opened yet! Of course, Horgus has the irritating habit of being right when he has no way to know something. Something something oracular abilities something something.

And there is that other side of the luck.

I'll try to get a post up either tonight or early tomorrow, but today's been exhausting.

No worries, GM. Hope you can get some rest.

I wonder if demons can tell that Merixia is part devil?

Well, they probably could tell she's not an Pitborn tiefling - or rather, that she's not related to demons.

Dretches are pretty stupid, though, so they might not recognize that she is a tiefling,

Sorry for the delay. Long day yesterday.

I'll move us on to next round if Elliot doesn't post in a couple hours - I don't think he'll do much, so I probably should've done this before.

Sorry about that, I think I must have read the updated post count here but forgot to post yesterday...

Don't worry about botting Elliot if he's ever slowing anything down. Especially now, since he's out of resources. The only thing he can do is cast Daze or shoot an arrow, and he'd try to be relatively close to the front to support the others.

Fair enough. I'll keep it in mind, assuming our divine caster ladies don't just cut the next demon to pieces the way they did its partner.

Can I get around Elyda into the empty square to the left of the dretch?

I mean, you could, but it's a dead end of the maze - on the other side of a wall from Elyda and the dretch.

Okay, can I hit the dretch from that square?

Afraid not, sadly.

I've been remiss in not putting it on your status, Elyda, but you are still under the effects of the levitation scale.

I wasn’t aware of that (that it’s still active), so that’s good to know. Is levitating up and down considered move actions?

Uh, yes. Though I apparently missed that and gave Anevia an extra move action last round. She shouldn't have been able to shoot - not that she managed to hit, so I guess it's okay?

Oh, hey, we just hit 1000 IC posts. Well done everyone!

GM, does levitating up (or down) from her current square provoke an AoO from the dretch? If it does, Elyda won't as she's low on HP. But if it doesn't, then Elyda will activate levitate and float upward. Thanks.

I'd like to open this up to the other players, because this is actually something I'm not quite satisfied on figuring out.

Here's what I'm thinking now: Levitate does not have a range of personal - it can be cast on someone else. Then the caster has full control over the moving up and down of the person with the levitate buff. I've been assuming, by the way, that you've been passing the scale around, but I would like it if you specified on who was using it in the future.

To move the target of levitate - which can be yourself - up or down 20 ft per round is a move action by the caster. Now, I'd say that for the caster, this doesn't provoke an AoO, because it's a purely mental effort. The target, then, wouldn't be acting at all, because it'd be on the caster's turn.

Would they provoke an AoO, though? On one hand, they aren't actually doing anything, so they should be able to protect themselves of their own volition. On the other, levitation is unstable - it gives you a -1 penalty per successive attack you make while levitating (which I forgot to apply to Anevia, oops), so maybe they do provoke?

Furthermore, if the caster and the target are the same person, then does the mental effort combined with the movement provoke?

Alternately, do we just say that a 5-foot up/down movement doesn't provoke, even though it's a full move action?

This is a thing that could come up again, and I'd like to settle on a ruling with you all, just in case it does.

*looks at latest attack roll*

*sad trombone*

I'd say to treat levitate the same as walking. A 5-ft step wouldn't provoke, while anything more would.

I’m good to say that levitating 5ft up and down doesn’t provoke. Like Merixia has said, anything more than 5ft will provoke.

Sure thing. Post forthcoming shortly - though for an ultimate ruling, I'd like to hear the others' thoughts, too.

RAW, "You may not take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do not have a listed speed." However, as a DM I think I would treat levitating yourself upward or downward in melee as a form of movement amenable to the other rules governing movement. So even though you don't technically have a "vertical move speed," you have something very like it: you can move up to 20 vertical feet per round as a move action, without needing your hands free and being restricted to 1/4 of your normal move speed, as you would e.g. to climb. Similarly, there's no five-foot stepping through difficult terrain, if your vision is hampered, or if you for any reason could only move 5 feet with a move action anyway. But it makes intuitive sense to me that in any case where you can sacrifice speed for caution despite being able to move faster, you can avoid the attack of opportunity.

It's just that in the levitation case, in addition to not being able to move other than that 5 feet during your turn, the mental concentration of doing so would also cost you a move action in the action economy. So you couldn't, for example, have a turn that was: levitate 5' without provoking, draw potion (move), drink potion (standard).

There's three unclaimed CLW potions in our group kitty. Elliot could take one at present and heal himself.

Do note that Verene will be able to scribe more spells - like three or four, I want to say, given the right time - from Millorn's spellbook if you go back. It'd probably be helpful!

I was debating having you level up now, but I feel it would be more thematic for it to happen when you get back into Kenabres, so I'll probably do that.

And of course I roll a 1 on CLW. Ugh.

And of course I roll a 1 on CLW. Ugh.

To be fair, you rolled a d6 instead of a d8, so perhaps you get a do-over? :) *crosses fingers and looks at the GM*

Of course.

*Verene sadly waves a tiny There Are No Bad Dogs, Only Bad Owners sign*

Apologies for the delay. Busy week with work and in the process of moving. I'll have a post up today.

Maybe Elliot can Daze it long enough to haul it out of the way? Pity we don't have any nature types along for the ride.