Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

I didn’t mean to interfere with any special armor fitting time- I thought Elliot was helping you try it on right away when you got it and I was going to help you get dressed in the morning on the day of the assault.

Are we just waiting on Thesius? Busy weekend for him maybe. We can consider that Verene's bundle of cold iron arrows was a bit bigger then, enough for 40 each for Hedge and Jan as well. I'll mark off 8 more gold on Verene's sheet, and if Elliot or Thesius want to pay her back later they can.

P.S. I marked the two cure moderate wounds potions given to us by Anevia as on Elliot and Verene, since they are the only ones without healing options of their own; and one invisibility potion on each of Thesius, Verene and Merixia (since Elliot has one already). I know Thesius has vanish anyway, so he might not need it at all, but I figured Azira would be the least likely to want to go invisible, as she seems to take "I am the first into battle, and the last out of it" pretty seriously. I also added a sheet entry for the rod of cancellation, carried by Thesius. Obviously, people can make changes to who's holding what if they wish.

Sorry for the delay. Been not feeling well. I should be getting up a post tonight after getting caught up. Please bot me if you are ready to get something moving.

Oof, ton of formatting errors in that last post. I was rushed this morning. Well, too late now.

Sure, I'll take an invisibility potion. I lost the link to Verene's awesome loot spreadsheet, would you link it again?

I think the lesser restoration potions should go to those of us with the lowest Fort saves. That would be Verene and Thesius, then Elliot and Merixia are tied at +7. Since Merixia has two lesser restoration scrolls, I recommend giving Elliot the third potion. Azira has paladin Fort, she'll be fine. :P

Oh sure, but it's not really mine. The link to the Treasures sheet is always in Worldwound GM's status bar, if you lose track of it again. I'm updating it to include the Riftwarden cache stuff now.

Elliot does already have the potion of lesser restoration from all the way back in the first section of the underground, when we found the hanging crusader pack. I don't believe it was ever used. I encourage everyone to look at the tab labeled with their name to see everything that they are 'officially' in charge of but may not have put into their gear list in their profile. You may have some potions or scrolls you have forgotten about that could offer you some more options in combat. For example, I just checked for Verene, and she has two alchemist's fires listed that I had forgotten about, from the ex-crusaders who were going to kill Klarah. So now I'm putting them in her gear, so I will remember that I have them as an option if we happen to fight something that doesn't have fire resistance. Those would have been a good choice to use in the mandragora fight if I had remembered them.

If you have something attributed to you that you don't want to be holding, just change it to someone else and let us know. Probably Merixia is best since she has the good Strength score - sorry Merixia*. Or, I think we can safely leave things at the Defender's Heart. Verene's cold weather clothes and writing supplies are currently chilling there. If you have something listed that you would have sold or given away, you can mark that too and let us know.

*But she won't generally have to be the pack mule today. Verene prepared floating disk for a four-hour, four-hundred-pound-limit transportation system, specifically in case we had to carry unconscious people or other bulky things during this attack.

Thesius should be fine to take what has been given to him.

He'll have picked up an potion of Expiditous Retreat before they left along with a 40 cold iron arrows for the Child that is following him.

386.63
-50 Potion
-4 40x Cold Iron Arrows
Subtotal: 332.63

In regards to invisibility, Thesius has vanish. If he is needing to make some kind of check, he can boost with Heroism (40 Min duration) and/or his Archaeologist's Luck. So he should be fairly ready to help where he can.

Thanks for the advice, Verene. I added the 2 cure serious wounds potions to my profile so I don’t forget about them (again). I also had a cure light wounds potion on there too which I’ll give to Barok to use if they need it.

Short post for now. Wanted to make sure I got something up. I should be back to normal posting now.

Sounds good all, and welcome back Thesius. As described in the gameplay post then, I'll switch the wand of daylight to Verene. Thesius does currently have the bless weapon wand, as our best Use Magic Device user. Oh, we could put that on Irabeth though, for no failure chance! I don't know how important it is to make him look like solely a melee fighter - I bet the enemies aren't going to let any of us approach the Wardstone without a fight.

I also agree with Thesius that he and Verene, the only two night-blind PCs, should just use the alter self scale to take forms with darkvision right before entering the building, so no one in our group (including Irabeth and the First Children) will have any problem with light no matter what the light level is.

Thanks.

I'm coming to the realization that Thesius is over here hoarding Cure Light Potions...

He also has a potion of invisibility on him.

Re: invisibility potion, that happened just yesterday/right before we left Defender's Heart for the Gray Garrison in-game. Verene asked Anevia if we could take the potions found in the cache in her house with us on this mission and return them if we didn't use them. And Elliot already had an invisibility potion so I put these three on Thesius, Verene and Merixia. So that's why you have that one listed that looks like it's from a while ago, but is different from the one used while investigating Topaz Solutions.

We could probably abandon the feigned melee combatant strategy. I suggested it for Elliot because (with him being an actual melee combatant), it would seem entirely natural for him to charge to the frontline, and once we’re within a single move of the shard he could move over and use the rod and all the demons/cultists could do to stop him is try 1 AoO on his way. But, with Thesius carrying it and invisibility on the table, it’s probably a more effective strategy for him to become invisible as soon as we find it and then head straight for it while we distract whatever’s protecting it.

Ah, sure enough. That would be the source of the potion of invisibility.

Honestly, I think the key is not necessarily to hide one's magical abilities. I think it's more important they don't let the enemy know what they have in their possession. Worse case scenario, the ability to cover the distance quickly could be of great help.

Unfortunately, I believe the rod requires being held to be activated. That removes Thesius just chucking it at the wardstone.

I believe we have three potions of invisibility, correct? We could just see who is in the best shape or position by the time we get to the artefact. If for whatever reason Thesius is in a bad spot, someone could take/draw the rod from him and then either pass it to someone else or that person go invisible themselves and make a run for it (assuming we each slot an invis pot into our spring loaded wrist sheaths so its drawn as a swift action).

I have to say it does feel like playing the good guys when each of us is trying to be the one to make the sacrifice play :')

Thesius does not have spring-loaded wrist sheaths and I did not realize you could put potions in them.

DM Worldwound, would they be aware some demons have the ability to See Invisibility? I would think that may be fairly general knowledge in such a region, but don't want to act on that knowledge if it is now. Feel free to make a knowledge check if you would like one.

Thesius picked up the expeditious retreat potion as he feels expediency may be a larger issue for them.

Four potions of invisibility counting the one on Elliot. But Thesius doesn't even need to draw and drink his potion for a brief period of invisibility, as he has vanish. And expeditious retreat seems like a very good thought, Thesius.

Also, I can't believe I forgot to ask about getting some holy weapon balm earlier at Defender's Heart, but I will have to rectify that the next time we have the ability to shop if at all possible. It's the holy equivalent of cold iron or silver weapon blanch, and like them it is a steal of a deal for ranged characters, at only 30 gp total to add at least 2d4, sometimes 3d4 damage to each of 10 attacks and make the whole attack count as magic. It might be overpowered, actually. What say you, GM? Is this commonly available? Should we roll for it?

DM Worldwound, would they be aware some demons have the ability to See Invisibility? I would think that may be fairly general knowledge in such a region, but don't want to act on that knowledge if it is now. Feel free to make a knowledge check if you would like one.

I think that'd be within the realm of reason for crusaders to know.

Yep, definitely knows it.

Small fix: Verene's base Knowledge: Religion/Planes bonus is +12, but I accidentally put +11. So her result is 1 higher, for 34.

Given Verene's Knowledge rolls, I'm not even going to bother rolling.

Back on the wardstone thing, even if invisibility doesn't work in the wardstone room/wherever it is? Elliot does have one final trick up his sleeve to come close, if we are level 5 by then. He can just fly through the air with the flight hex and tap it. Might not even provoke doing it that way.

Your stay in level 5 will be brief, according to the AP.

Assuming Thamyris doesn't find a convenient back entrance or rooftop trapdoor, Verene supports Azira's plan. It's as good as anything else we'll reasonably be able to do, I think. Once Thamyris is back and the plan is decided but right before we actually implement it, she'll cast mage armor from her wand, drink the soothe syrup, use the alter self scale to become a kobold, and (after Thesius, if he wants it) cast shield on herself from the wand. I think that's the extent of her pre-buffing.

Thesius would like to maintain the charges on the shield charge, so he'll pass on that for the moment. He would prefer to try and use it once they get closer to the stone.

An option that may help later on for the telepathy issue is Mythic Silence which is open to Thesius and Merixia as an option as we progress.

Well, perhaps Verene will hold off on shield from the wand then, as well. She's unlikely to get into melee range with these guys. But Thesius is, so I would encourage you to not worry too much about using up charges. Protecting all the PCs who can use it is what we bought it for, after all. Each use only costs the equivalent of 15 gp, adds a nice +3 to your AC, and if it prevents even one attack from hitting you, that's saving money in that we don't have to use a charge from the cure light wounds wand or a potion. Either way, Elliot might want to make use of it, I don't know.

See invisibility exists but is pretty unusual in demons; the lower-level ones tend not to have it and the higher-level ones tend to have true seeing instead. Regardless of what Verene knows about the vermleks' senses, because invisibility drops when you attack something anyway, I would support saving the potions for once we actually get inside - for if we want someone to scout ahead, or try to stealthily approach the Wardstone, or if we have to retreat and regroup.

So how about we just use these expert Children bowman and wands we have with us and just... shoot them? :')

Attacking first from range and forcing them to come to us if they want to fight also sounds like a decent plan to me... but it relies on these two guards being very stupid or arrogant. A longbow can shoot from 100 feet away with no penalty, or 200 feet away with only a -2 penalty. A crossbow is 80/160. The older magic missile wand will have an maximum range of 110 feet, while the Riftwarden one will have a max range of 150 feet. If we attacked from 160 feet, and they just ran toward us to fight, we might be able to get them to move out of telepathy range by harrying them this way.

However, as I said, it only works if they actually run toward us. If they are at all smart, and we start sniping at them, they don't run forward to fight. Instead they just step inside the door, lock it, and mass everyone possible right on the other side, so that when we get through it, they're all ready to attack at once. Which would be bad for us. We have already seen this happen once in this game, in the traitor/cultist lair when Wenduag got away and prepared her archers to meet us coming down that ladder. If we're not right there, we can't stop them from doing this or quickly follow them inside before they can prepare.

P.S. Azira's plan as I understand it isn't that we're trying a ruse to actually get inside, leaving the vermleks alive at our backs - we're just trying to get into short range where most of us can fight more effectively. Then we drop the ruse and attack.

I don't think anyone's overall goal was to leave them behind. The invisibility question was more a matter of how to close the distance without them raising the alarm.

If the creatures are incapable of seeing invisible creatures, whether through spell or innate ablity, Thesius could potentially close the distance invisible and lock the door depending on the mechanism in play.

Based on the map, I feel like they could potentially use buildings to help keep out of view while covering some of the distance between them and the vermleks.

Long range, huh? I don't suppose there are any lit torches or lanterns near the guards? Sounds like an occasion for pyrotechnics to me!

I'll hold off posting IC until I know whether there are any fire sources for Merixia to use. Although a flaming arrow might work... soak a rag with oil, tie it onto the arrowhead, light it up and fire. It doesn't need to hit the enemy, just land somewhere close to them.

I like the flaming arrow + pyrotechnics idea as an opener, followed by a hail of cold iron arrows, if we're attacking from long range first as Elliot suggests. That plan has big upsides if they move to us to engage, but also some downsides if they behave more cautiously and retreat inside after the initial volley. No matter what we do, unless we get truly fantastically lucky on our rolls and bring them both down in a surprise round, I think we should assume because of the telepathy that they will alert other demons/cultists/etc. inside the Garrison to our presence before we can kill them. That part has to be baked in.

I guess we're waiting on the answers to a couple of questions before deciding whether to attack from range or try to approach closer before attacking.

- Does Verene know about any special senses on the vermleks? (So Thesius will know whether to bother with invisibility)
- Are vermleks smart / likely to think tactically? Or kind of aggressive/arrogant/baitable like many demons?
- Any other entrances to the building or things Thamyris can tell us? (Just for the sake of thoroughness. I don't really expect we're supposed to be able to bypass this fight.)

Verene knows the following about Vermlek senses - they see in darkness, they can smell foes, and they sense the vibrations in the ground. So, tremorsense, darkvision, and scent.

She also knows that they're not naturally interested in fighting and battle in the way some demons are, but will obey stronger ones if they're not left alone. Thus, it would probably depend on their orders, whether they retreat or not - and how outmatched they think they are.

As for the last one, I'll post that IC.

Here's some additions to Elliot's plan: to draw them over to us and keep them from immediately retreating, we give them some bait. We make our preparations/use buffs, hide behind buildings around 150-160 feet away. (This is the hardest part - approaching further with our bad Stealth bonuses. We'd have to do that anyway though. Hopefully distance penalties and Perception DC increases from being behind walls will help us here.) Azira or Irabeth steps into plain sight, shouts a challenge, fires a cold iron arrow at one. She's just one paladin, easy prey for two demons, but they won't want to stay at the door being shot at and doing nothing about it. And it's not that weird for a paladin to think she can attack a garrison full of demons alone. So they come charging over to kill her, and when they're about 50 or 60 feet away from her (or as soon as they notice the trap, if they do), the rest of us including the Children take our first shots. One of us uses an arrow, bolt or etc. that is set on fire and aimed at the ground (Verene can do this as her bolts will be Small and not doing so much damage even if they hit), and Merixia uses her pyrotechnics on it (40' radius of effect, right? So the rest of us won't have to make saves.) If we get lucky, they are out of telepathy range then, but regardless, the battle begins, and I don't think they'll be able to get back to the safety of the Garrison in time.

What does everyone think of this idea?

Realized my previous in-character post might have been confusing. 50 yards = 150 feet. Sorry about that.

Also I was mistaken about something: the smoke effect from pyrotechnics has a radius of 20 feet, not 40. So, a 40-foot diameter burst. More than big enough to get both of them but none of us. Merixia is right that it's a better choice here because unlike the blinding fireworks, it's not affected by spell resistance. It's just a Fort save. (They'll have a good shot to both pass it because it's a low DC, but they might get unlucky, and either way, blocking vision for them or other creatures peering out from the Garrison is still valuable.)

Well, let's see what happens, then. I think it's more important to keep the story moving than to endlessly plan. So we go with one archer or someone good at bluffing to be lone bait, then when they get close we attack? That's fine too. Let's do it.

realistically, there's only so long we can keep hidden. It only takes one scream from a cultist inside to warn the entire garrison, whixh I logically expect to happen almost instantly. We are not a stealthy group as the in character members have already said.

Arrows including one flaming arrow, pyrotechnics smoke, see if they take the bait and come running. If not we charge. Sounds like a plan!

One flaming arrow from one visible attacker + pyrotechnics to bait. A hail of cold iron arrows if/when they take the bait and have moved out of telepathy range. A group charge in if they don't take the bait. Sounds good to me.

Don't forget to buff if you want to, everyone. Align weapon (Thesius's morningstar?), alter self, shield, or etc.

If/since the plan has changed from me being the bait, I’d like to change my action, if that’s alright? Presenting myself as bait doesn’t really make any sense when they clearly know that I’m not a lone fool. I must have missed something in all the discussion posts because I thought the plan was to try to get them to charge me while everyone else was still behind full cover/concealment and then use the pyrotechnics trick once they were away from the door?

I think that was the iteration before this last setup. IIUC, the idea of our final plan was to have any bowman fire while the rest of the group hid and hope to draw them closer before we did anything else.

However, since they apparently saw the entire group instantly as the bowman moved into firing range, I guess that means there was no point to further subterfuge and that it's now a falt out frontal assault, with Merixia using the cloud on the vermleks to temporarily weaken them or block their sights while we rush in. Since the protrayed actions seemingly did not match the outlined plan my best guess is that everyone went to improvise when we were spotted.

Ok, if that’s the new ‘plan’ I’d rather double move towards them, stowing my bow as part of the first move and drawing Radiance as part of the second, if that’s allowed.

I think that's allowed, Azira? I don't know off the top of my head, but it seems reasonable.

And yes, you're not a very stealthy party, unfortunately.

As of last level-up Verene does have a skill point in Stealth (mostly so that Thamyris will be extra stealthy), which I just checked and was not properly listed in her profile. So I changed that. Her base Stealth is +3. Just for future reference.

I'd hoped that Perception DC modifiers (typically +1 to the DC for every 10 feet of distance between the creature making the check and the target) would help us out, but I guess not. However, we haven't even given them a chance to come over and attack yet? Ah, never mind. I guess we just charge in. Or in Verene's case start shooting. Trying to coordinate even a slightly multi-step plan over the forums is pretty much a lost cause.

@GM- I wasn’t so much asking if those actions were alright (I’m pretty sure they’re legal), I was more asking if you would let me change my action because you said what I thought would be a surprise action was going to be my first round action.

Yeah, that's fine Azira. Sorry I was unclear.

Could we have a clarification of initial and current distances, GM? It seems that we all had conflicting ideas about what the combination of the textual description and our tokens being off the map meant for how far away we actually were when we rolled for initiative. That information is important for player decisionmaking and might have changed the first three PCs' actions. It could still change Merixia's.

Whatever you decide is fine of course, but I would like to know how far to the left Verene and Varel currently are. And maybe if we ever start a combat with the tokens off the map in the future, we could have a note beneath each token that says, like, "+200'" or "+30'" or something, to indicate the starting distance between it and the edge of the tactical map.

To help with keeping track of which child of the first crusade is with who and their stats, I have created this document. Maybe worth adding to the links at the top for ease of access.

Could we have a clarification of initial and current distances, GM? It seems that we all had conflicting ideas about what the combination of the textual description and our tokens being off the map meant for how far away we actually were when we rolled for initiative. That information is important for player decisionmaking and might have changed the first three PCs' actions. It could still change Merixia's.

Whatever you decide is fine of course, but I would like to know how far to the left Verene and Varel currently are. And maybe if we ever start a combat with the tokens off the map in the future, we could have a note beneath each token that says, like, "+200'" or "+30'" or something, to indicate the starting distance between it and the edge of the tactical map.

Currently, Verene & her partner are 120 ft. away, I believe. I'll check in on the rest shortly, but Elliot and Azira ran in, so they're onscreen, so to speak.

Posting this to all my PBP's, I'll be on a one week vacation starting tomorrow. Please don't wait for me to move things along. Have fun all and I'll see you when I get back :)

Is what they are doing not casting a spell? I noted Jan’s readied action did not go off, so checking in case I need to adjust how they are readying.

Couple things:

Azira forgot to post an action for Barok from last turn.

Thesius's companion Jan's readied action would have gone off and interrupted the closer vermlek's spell-like ability. If the attack hits, it needs to make a concentration check or lose the spell-like ability.

GM, it's a bit hard for me to interpret what's going on on the map. Did the farther vermlek never reappear in Verene and Varel's line of sight so their readied actions were lost? Keeping in mind that Varel had a move action to move closer/down. That's fine if so, just trying to make sure it wasn't an oversight.

Dang it, I keep forgetting to post for Barok. I'll post for him out of order, if that's alright?

Also, GM, can you tell me where the other 2 damage I took came from, please? I'm sure I'm probably just overlooking a post somewhere but I see 3 from the attack in round one, 2 from the first attack in round two, and 8 from the second attack in round two; that would be 13 damage (leaving me at 23)?