Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

Oh, good. Let me get on that, then.

"I wasn't aware this crusade needed to be turned around. When have we ever had an actual setback since leaving Kenabres?"

This is like someone in the ER saying "Wow, it sure is quiet tonight!". Or the trash compactor scene in Star Wars. "Well, at least it can't get any worse." *trash compactor turns on* "It's worse."

Hah! I'd argue it's more like them saying "wow, i sure wish it was less busy tonight!" When there's exactly nothing going on, but sure :P I appreciate the classics deing referenced.

Side note, back when i actually worked in the ER departement we definitely had our dry spells but most of us were happy it meant apparently no one was in serious problems. Kinda like how it's a good sign the news is boring as it means there's no disasters to make the headlines. Personally I feel with could do with a lot more of that with how the world is now.

Here though, i legit have no idea what Anevia's talking about since it has been pretty much smooth sailing all the way through, right?

...Right?

*Continues digging his own grave*

Well, the next mythic monster better focus on someone other than me. :P

As a side note, I actually have been to an ER that wasn't busy once! I was very surprised, I figured there would be a long wait to get my scalp and forehead stitched up because that's not exactly life-threatening. (Slipped on a puddle of snowmelt in the kitchen, fell forward and hit my head on the corner of the pantry, resulting in a nice long laceration from a little below my hairline to the crown of my head. The EMTs, ER nurse, and ER doctor were all rather impressed at how big it was.) Don't worry, this was several years ago.

Ouch! Hope they managed to help you well. I guess the closest I got to an exciting ER visit from the other end was when I got hit with a hockey ball in the eye socket up close during a match. Those are very solid objects launched at pretty high speeds when people shoot for the goal - there's a reason keepers are in heavy protective gear. Sadly, the players aren't and when shots go awry...

I fortunately ended up with only two scars along the upper and lower part of said socket. I suppose they can look a a bit badass too so I suppose it wasn't all bad :)

Also, I'm sure Elliot will get eaten long before Meri. Being a gentleman in the world of Golarion probably means you do that for your significant other, tempting god/the GM aside. :P

Yikes, I’m glad your eye wasn’t injured! I healed up just fine. No skull fracture, no concussion, I am hard-headed in more ways than one. The scar is raised up a bit (and sometimes itchy) but it’s not visible under my hair unless you look closely.

If Elliot sacrifices himself for Merixia, she will absolutely yell at him once she raises him from the dead. And cry. Probably both at the same time.

I think that I'll allow Verene to do scrying on Staunton Vhane as with second-hand information, effectively, since you saw him in a vision. So he'd end up with a +5 Will save bonus.

Man, I don't even remember my visits to the ER. They were so long ago when I was a kid or younger.

Appendicitis before the micro incisions they can make today left me with a scar a couple inches long.

A toy gun to the face as a baby left me with a small scar on my lip.

I would say that seeing him is first-hand information and secondhand is explicitly only having heard of him. Like, if she had only his name, that would be secondhand information. But however you want to do it is fine. Verene will cast the spell as soon as we're back in the safe area of camp or have set up a new camp.

Yeah, it's mostly due to it being from a vision. I dunno, it feels more intuitive, since you saw his past self or something?

My only time I went to the ER was when a dog bit me during my volunteering at an animal shelter. It wasn't exactly a huge issue, to be honest.

Well, any way you want to do it is fine. I'm good with Elliot going on that scouting mission while Verene casts scrying (it takes an hour to cast) and then moving us to the strategy meeting, so that we have the maximum information possible going into the strategy meeting.

For the record, the demons on the towers are brimoraks, not the dretches - and one each, more or less.

Sorry for the delay. I will be trying to get up posts regularly for the rest of the week.

I'll be up at Gen Con this week, so I'll try for at least once a day. I have to start getting that habit reformed.

Have fun at GenCon!

On the subject of stone shape, you don’t have to melt the whole thing. Just melt the edges of the hole you want to make and push the middle out. Of course, how well that works depends on how thick the wall is. At least some of the paladins are cavalry, aren’t they?

The paladins are all divine bond with mounts (with the exception of Irabeth). They're a cavalry force.

I'll try to get up a post later today. Gen Con was pretty good for the most part beyond picking up COVID. So now it's quarantining time.

Sorry to hear that, Thesius. Best of health to you!

I keep telling myself I'll visit Gen Con the next year but something always comes up or I forget to keep track...

On the preparations for tomorrow, it looks like it's going to be a very long day of fighting.

@Everyone How should we prepare/prepare spells? For the first task of killing all the brimoraks on towers it seems we all need some form of flight and fire protection.

On the flying (or teleportation?) front it seems we get 2 fly spells from Aravashnial, but we'd need at least 3 more flight effects. Elliot has the flight hex and is fine casting it too if needed, though he will probably use his actual spell slots to buff our melee characters, as below. Also Sosial offered some elemental protection spells vs fire but Verene volounteered on that front so he didn't need to i believe?

On general buffs, Elliot will probably provide Keen Edge to everyone with a Piercing or Slashing weapon to double their crit ranges for x hours and then use a Mythic point for Shared Training to share both his teamwork feats with everyone again, so that flanking bonusses are doubled and when a flanked foe gets critted, the entire team can AoO them.

He only has 2 level 3 slots though, so between Merixia and Azira that's already both and each additional cast costs a mythic point, along with the shared training already costing a mythic point.

@Thesius Does Thesius have access to a piercing or slashing weapon, preparably one with a decent crit ranges? Or would you not make use of this/prefer to keep using the adamantine mace?

Oh no! Feel better soon, Thesius. Glad Gen Con was good though.

I think I've outlined what spells Verene will use in the gameplay thread already, but I can be more specific tomorrow. Basically she'll provide fly for anyone not covered by their own abilities or Aravashnial's two slots, fire resistance/protection for the party, and fire protection for the 30 or so knights who volunteer to be in the vanguard. This is for flavor, in case something goes wrong with our plan to take out the brimoraks, or there are more than we expected, or there are explosive/boiling-oil type traps laid for the soldiers inside the citadel.

Oof, that sucks, Thesius. I just narrowly avoided the covid bullet myself last week, so you've got my sympathies.

This is for flavor, in case something goes wrong with our plan to take out the brimoraks, or there are more than we expected, or there are explosive/boiling-oil type traps laid for the soldiers inside the citadel.

This is entirely reasonable, but note that you're not going to strike into the Citadel itself with this battle - they're clearing out the courtyard with this plan. Besieging the Citadel happens next. It's not going to be nearly so easy to storm (as the doors are locked and sealed, etc.)

Oh yes, sorry, I misstated it then. I did mean the space between the walls and the fortress, not the interior of the fortress itself.

I'd like to give some others a chance to post before moving on, so if anyone hasn't and is able to, please do so.

Are we just waiting on buffs to be put up on the other people doing buffs before beginning this combat?

I just wanted a coherent list of all the buffs that are going out on folks.

@Elliot - appreciate the offer of spending a use of mythic power, but I had already priced in giving Wulfric fly when I prepared Verene's spells. No need to spend your MP. Elliot has his flight hex, Merixia has shield of wings, Verene cast fly for Thesius and Azira, and Aravashnial cast fly for Verene and Wulfric. So all six of us, including Wulfric, can fly at the moment. (I gave Verene's copies of fly to Thesius and Azira because they will last slightly longer and be slightly harder to dispel, and on balance, I think it's more important for them to stay airborne than Verene.)

Short post for now to get us moving. Otherwise, feeling drastically better this week so I should be back to normal posting. Thanks for your patience.

Good to hear, Thesius!

@Verene I admit I kind of feel guilty since Verene's buffs to Elliot are always much better than Elliot's buffs to Verene, and I'm not sure if that's fixable in some way. I guess the best I can do is debuff enemies with the original Rime Frostbite setup of Elliot's build - except enemies usually die too quickly to put that to use. :') Still, I'd like to try and find something to repay it in some way.

I'm working on trying to get the enemies to survive longer. It's not working, but I'm trying. :P

Plus, you'll be going into a more extended dungeon crawl soon, so there might be more time for your buffs to cease being quite so potent. You guys are really good at bursting things down so far, but...

I'm actually hoping to increase our buffs with the next mythic tier. At minimum for Thesius so he can be more combat effective.

'cause you're not killy enough yet, clearly. :P

Glad to hear you're recovering well, Thesius!

I'm working on trying to get the enemies to survive longer. It's not working, but I'm trying. :P

Plus, you'll be going into a more extended dungeon crawl soon, so there might be more time for your buffs to cease being quite so potent. You guys are really good at bursting things down so far, but...

Stick a whole ton of HP on them? I dunno, I've never GMed. Maybe ask other GMs who have run this AP?

I am maximizing their HP based on HD and Con bonuses. May have to give them additional HD, but I really don't want the headache that entails.

Well hopefully that roll will reveal something.

Thanks! I'm definitely on the mend. Seems to be just a slight lingering cough now with a bit of phlegm.

And I don't feel like Thesius really stands up in regards to most of the others when it comes to being killy.

Hope everything clears up for you within the next couple days. And while he's not as killy, he's definitely still pretty killy. :P

Big big numbers from both Merixia and Elliot here! You love to see it.

I've been looking forward to crusader's edge for quite some time now. :D

Hah, that was a massive crit indeed! She'd been due a win for a while. I think the crit actually would have done even more damage, since Mythic Power Attack multiplies its bonus damage on crits. Not that it'll be needed here obviously (I hope), but hey. When you don't want to overkill it twice, but thrice, there you have it. :)

As a side note, I'm happy the teamwork feat sharing build seems to be working out. It felt a bit silly trading my mythic feat to take a normal teamwork feat, but the 'extend everyone's crit rate' along with crits generating more attacks for allies through the two teamwork feats does seem legit effective. Very RNG and position-dependant, of course, but fun! And I'm not if something exists that could match a party-wide passive of every crit generating at least two more melee attacks on flanked enemies, even among regular mythic options.

Second side note, @Azira, how are things? Have things calmed down at work?

I can reach out to Azira via PM soon, as well. They might not be reading the thread at the moment thanks to their sheer busy life. I hope that it improves soon for them, though.

Brimoraks: Able to ignite any melee weapon they wield and immune to fire. Possibly one of the best suited creatures to getting out of web spells.

@Gm Paired opportunists, the second teamwork feat, grants Elliot an AoO when his ally gets an AoO, so long as they both threaten the target. So if a target is flanked and someone on team hero crits, outflank grants the flanking partner an AoO. Which in turn grants whoever landed the critical hit an AoO.

Protection from energy is always used up first before any resistance is applied. And yes, Elliot's AoO was triggered by Paired Opportunists. He was able to share both Outflank and Paired Opportunists with the other meleers due to casting shared training at effective caster level 9.

I also don't think that a flaming weapon gets to remove the [i]web[/i ] in a 5-foot square for free — I think it would cost a standard action to attack it, just like using a torch or something. The brimoraks got a lot of extra actions here, essentially. But anyway. What's done is done, and I don't think anyone was hurt by it, so let's move forward.

@Gm Paired opportunists, the second teamwork feat, grants Elliot an AoO when his ally gets an AoO, so long as they both threaten the target. So if a target is flanked and someone on team hero crits, outflank grants the flanking partner an AoO. Which in turn grants whoever landed the critical hit an AoO.

Oh! Gotcha.

Verene: Yeah, I realized that after the fact, but was too exhausted from juggling so much to go back and edit it. That post took me almost an hour to write up, I think.

Gonna roll for the reduction in protection from energy on Merixia, then.
1d4 ⇒ 4
1d4 ⇒ 1

I wonder hwo protection from energy interacts with Fire Damage and Shield of Wings, Merixia's spell that grants her flying:

"You gain five burning wings that grant a fly speed equal to the number of wings × 10 (average maneuverability) for an initial fly speed of 50 feet. The first time in a round where you would take fire damage, a wing vanishes (reducing the fly speed granted) and you gain fire resistance 30 for the remainder of the round.

When you are down to one wing (and a fly speed of 10 feet), your maneuverability drops to poor. When you lose your final wing, you become immune to fire damage for 1 additional minute, after which the effects of this spell end."

Does protection from energy prevent Merixia from losing wings when a brimorak's burning blood deals fire damage to whoever attacks them? It feels like it should, with how the energy shield goes before resistances. But I'm unsure.

I'd say that it does, both for simplicity's sake and because protection from energy applies before fire resistance.

Yeah, I realized that after the fact, but was too exhausted from juggling so much to go back and edit it. That post took me almost an hour to write up, I think.

Totally get it, and please don't worry about it. I definitely appreciate that it was such a mammoth post!

I just had a screw up where I pasted the same post twice - the brimoraks rolled a lot better when I did so, but alas. Now they haven't.

So, it looks like Verene's fly spell at least is intact, from the post we see. I'm going to make my post on that premise, anyway. Also, I trust you on the bonuses and penalties, but Azira definitely gets three attacks on a full attack, since at level 7 she has two attacks just from her BAB progression, and is currently hasted. She should have a third attack to apply to another of the demons adjacent her, at -5 to hit since it's her natural iterative attack.

P.S. To reduce confusion for anyone about where they can safely stand, I removed the burned-away portions of the web spell on the encounter map by comparing them to where the fireball was placed on the brimoraks' previous turn.

Yes, it is. Did I not remove the mention of it going? (It was gone in my double-post result, so I had it typed up that she'd fallen.) She's still flying, yes.

And yeah, I forgot about that extra attack. Yeesh.

Hey all,
So, once or twice a week didn't really pan out... I'm sorry. Work remains rough, and my SO actually lost another uncle (though, thankfully, no questionable circumstances this time). I actually just bowed out of 2 of my 3 remaining games, but I really like this game and this group (and this character), and I think if you're willing to give me one last chance I probably really can start posting a couple times a week now (once I get caught up on where we are). Please let me know how you'd like to proceed. Thanks.
Azira (GH)

I can’t speak for anyone else, but you’re not getting rid of me unless you say straight up “I don’t want to play this game with you anymore.” I’m disabled and chronically ill, I know all too well how real life gets in the way. I am not going to judge anyone else for having to take a break when that could be me tomorrow.

So. Please stay. I like both you as a player and your character.