Waiting for Viridel and Bayard actions.
Another option is dismissing the WoF
It’s not dismissible unfortunately. It might have a minute left on the timer.
I can dimension door grym there, but dont want the staff to do something weird.
Duration 1 round /level (D)
If the duration line ends with “ (D),” you can dismiss the spell at will. You must be within range of the spell's effect and must speak words of dismissal, which are usually a modified form of the spell's verbal component. If the spell has no verbal component, you can dismiss the effect with a gesture. Dismissing a spell is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Huh, that D was so small I didn’t notice it.
Pun unintended.
Anyway so yeah I’ll dismiss it once I’m sure the limits of the skull staff.
The staff is a magic item. Unless you are using a spell to identify it, there is little information I can give you (detect magic takes too long in combat).
Ok, so we didn't smack the staff into the portal because we need to keep up pressure against Chyvvom. I think having Bayard up with his axe is a safer course of action. If he grapples again (which he probably would), a shieldstorm will break it and allow Bayard to charge (or allow me to Telekinetic Charge him) for an extra attack like Grym's original finisher plan.
I'll be perfectly candid when I say that I'm not sure if Bayard's numbers are accurate. Can anyone help with the calculations? His character sheet is...dense.
Ok, here it is after some study.
Divine Bond +3 (not applied I think, and irrelevant since smite and magical enhancement from outsider bane is the same)
13 BAB (base)
+6 Str (innate)
+1 outsider bane (+3 vs outsiders; weapon)
+4 /+13 dam/+4 AC (smite; ability)
-3 negative levels (condition)
-2 planar effect (condition; evil vs. good)
That's +21, +3 from foretelling and +1 from haste, for a total of +25/+25/+15/+5
In that case, I underreported a +1 bonus, so it should be 25.
1d12 (base)
+6 Str (innate)
+3 outsider bane (weapon)
+2d6 outsider bane (weapon)
+2d6 vicious (weapon/+1d6 damage to self)
+13 (smite; ability)
+2 (feat: creature focus)
1d12 + 24 + 4d6
The previous hits were for 1d12+36+6d6, for a difference in 12+2d6 damage. I'm missing something, which is clear; until I tell what (or if Bayard can chime in with a clarification), I'm using the calculation I found, for transparency's sake.
Also Bayard takes 1d6/hit landed. I will need to know that from the DM, since we still don't know the devil's AC.
As a side note, maybe we should have altered our base roll chances due to the realm's influence once we entered hell. There is no way we would remember to apply a circumstantial roll every time, even if the circumstance itself is pretty much permanent...
Are we waiting for anything?
Just for me to get my sh*t together. Thanks for the nudge.
Anethra, I think we're waiting on you.
Provided Bayard doesn't stop a final post.
I am all in favor of pressing onward. The suspense is killing me as to what happens.
slip in*
Sorry for the delay—I've been pretty ill for the last couple of weeks. I'll get a post in as soon as I'm not feeling quite so awful.
Feel better!
Take your time and feel better.
Sorry for the delay—I've been pretty ill for the last couple of weeks. I'll get a post in as soon as I'm not feeling quite so awful.
Aye, winter is coming.
Scary, dark, cold, and eternal winters. :(
Hopefully everyone is having a peaceful midwinter.
I'm still ill, unfortunately, but since it doesn't look like things will improve for a while, I'll just try to soldier through.
Hopefully everyone is having a peaceful midwinter.
I'm still ill, unfortunately, but since it doesn't look like things will improve for a while, I'll just try to soldier through.
Nothing serious I hope?
Certainly not life-threatening, but not very pleasant, either.
Really sorry to hear that, @DM. Sending you positive vibes and good wishes.
Likewise. I hope you return to full health.
So what do we do with Ornelos?
Viridel for one wishes that the Academae is reformed to not conjure and bind fiends as a whole. Viridel can use this event as evidence that all pacts with fiends, and can point out that the nature of using dark magic (with its practitioners being prone to keeping secrets, engaging with smarter devils, and the secret nature of fiendish contracts) inevitably leads to being outmaneuvered by fiends to hosting explosive vulnerabilities for Hell to invade the mortal world.
I think closing the Conjuration school goes against Korvosa's culture too much and might be too far, but we can possibly get Toff unseated due to gross negligence (and the possible willful misconduct), and get the city's authorities to exercise oversight and personally approve any fiendish conjurations/bindings, and putting up wards to detect and shut down all such unsanctioned conjurations.
That's a conservative approach, however. I want to hear the others' opinions.
Grym detests multiple schools of magic lol...
Necromancy obviously
Enchantment with its' ability to subvert a targets will/volition
and obviously nothing Good can come from consorting with the lower planes/bindings etc. Any limitation on that type of magic is good in Grym's eyes
Very well said, Laree! I almost fell into Vost's narrative.
I sort of forgot the mural in Chyvvom’s room.
That mural proves that Volshyenek Ornelos, founder of the Acadamae and great-uncle of the current headmaster (Toff Ornelos), was the one who signed the contract with the Duke of Hell. Toff’s confusion is probably legitimate ignorance of his grand uncle’s deeds and the truth of the Breaching Festival. This event was going on for centuries uninterrupted until we came along.
In fact, considering how many souls Viridel saw, it is likely that the whole breaching festival’s whole point is to steal souls, or that before there was a festival, the school harvested the souls of people in some other way.
Also, according to the history check, Volshyenek was—
known as "the Immortal Lord," he lived to be 209 years old before perishing in battle against powerful devils in the skies above the Acadamae. There are many rumours about his unnatural longevity and the rather spectacular way in which it was finally brought to a close.
Toff is being set up as a scapegoat, and Vost is an opportunist who might just as easily sweep the whole affair under the rug. I doubt that Volshyenek is really dead; he was probably blessed with eternal life in return for this river of souls and ‘killed’ when his long life became too suspicious.
Does anyone want to contribute anything? I want to change my post to reflect this information.
@DM: Is there anything we already know in-character that I'm not including?
Since this bit is more narrative than combat, I don't really mind if you describe this as Grymwold dashing over and smacking Ornelos as he starts panicking. Grymwold hasn't really been talking, so he's more than had the opportunity to inch closer and keep an eye on the jumpy wizard.
Does anyone want to contribute anything? I want to change my post to reflect this information.
@DM: Is there anything we already know in-character that I'm not including?
Well, there's a degree of interpretation involved here, but I don't think you've missed anything major or made any assumptions that are completely off base.
Go ahead and change your post if you'd like.
Toff is being set up as a scapegoat, and Vost is an opportunist who might just as easily sweep the whole affair under the rug. I doubt that Volshyenek is really dead; he was probably blessed with eternal life in return for this river of souls and ‘killed’ when his long life became too suspicious.
Vost is absolutely a power-hungry opportunist, but unlike Ornelos, she is generally quite competent and willing to compromise.
I've changed my post. Waiting on you, o master of the game.
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Since only the epilogue remains (and Anethra's post, assuming Bayard doesn't chime in one last time), I wanted to give my review.
I loved this adventure. Well done, everyone!
I had Viridel as a character concept for who knows how long (maybe 2005, before I even knew D&D). He was the quintessential wise elven wizard, inspired by Lord of the Rings's Elrond and Warcraft III's Kael'Thas Sunstrider (of all people, though to be fair he was wise in the beginning before Burning Crusade).
I'm therefore happy I finally managed to close an adventure with him, especially with excellent interactions with other excellent and flavorful other characters, such as Grymwold and Laree! The fact that we turned the elf-dwarf rivalry on its head was just icing on the cake, and the master-student/family-friend relationship was masterfully done.
I loved Anethra's roleplay as well, she really nailed such a hard character concept to pull off in these circumstances (an evil devil-worshipper helping overthrow a devil-home), but what else should I expect from an actual published author? Bayard felt like a rock and a counterweight, and I'm sure, had we all played more, we would come to enjoy the party's dyanmics more than we already did.
Our DM made everything feel impactful, really played on the dread aspect from the beginning to the end, and made exploring the world feel mysterious and dangerous, so that when we were heroes, we really acted heroic. I don't know how much you planned ahead, DM, but knowing our history and your quality of DMing, it is impossible to know what was planned and what was improvised.
The fights were also excellently-run (despite Pathfinder's tendencies to swing too much to the player's side, especially at high levels). The tactical choices we had to make sometimes were tough, and when we dismissed the threats we got punished. In short, we felt like big damn heroes who fought big damn villains. It was very good. The mental image of the skull staff floating around and casting spells was especially evocative, and the serious impact our adventure had in-universe (with us possibly reforming or closing the Academae, with the ripples of consequences in the game-world) is something that makes this a little bit more real for me. The school definitely had enough victims.
I wonder (on the side) if the mark Viridel got disappeared once the demiplane collapsed, or if it's still there a la Frodo's morgul blade scar. Either make sense, really. A blind oracle is a nice theme, as is a forehead mark.
Ultimately, this is one of the best adventures I went through, in no small part due to how high-level we are. I'm glad we got the good and avoided the bads involved.
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Thanks for playing everyone! Especially @GM Neirikr for sticking with this despite life's complications.
It's so rare to get to play higher-level characters. It's so common to grind for a long time through the less interesting lower levels only to have the campaign die-off before things reach the more interesting (for me at least) mid to upper levels. It has been a treat to play at these levels and made even more so by the excellent characters you all brought to the table.
Selfishly I'd love to continue on with this group. Surely some other part of the world needs saving?!
I'd love to run with Grymwold again. We got a whole Gimli/Legolas friendship thing going on.
I think we're just waiting on Anethra's final post (if anything) before we can wrap up.
Otherwise, we can assume Anethra leaves, unnoticed, while the party is busy engaging the fallout of the Academae and Toff's public grilling.
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Thank you for your patience, everyone, and huge congrats to all involved for bringing this adventure to its conclusion. An especial thanks to the DM for not dropping this when I'm sure there were many opportunities to do so. Take care, everyone!
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Thank you, everyone! Wrap-up post coming up as soon as humanly possible.
We've been playing since August 10, 2021, for a total of 555 days, and 611 gameplay posts, 535 discussion posts.
Just a little bit longer and we would have hit the 666 days mark.
:O
I assume that the souls that were releeased included Viridel's lost students, right?
I assume that the souls that were releeased included Viridel's lost students, right?
That is an entirely logical conclusion. Lorthact could have had them secreted away somewhere, but that doesn't seem probable.
@Everyone: There. Our iteration of the Academy of Secrets is officially finished. I'll leave the game open until next Monday, in case someone wants to amend/expand their epilogue in the gameplay thread, or ask questions here in the discussion thread. After that I'll set the game as inactive.
Thank you again for sticking around! If anyone else here wants to keep on playing, as Grymwold suggested, you are of course free to plan your next steps here. Unfortunately, due to obvious reasons, I think it might be best that I take an extended break from play-by-post. You've all been excellent players, and I would absolutely love to game with any and all of you again in the future, but I can't really commit to anything long-term right now.
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Thank you so much for running this game, GM Neirikr. It was fantastic seeing our characters. Some of these builds were just really cool. I loved how the personalities interacted and how detestable the hellish location was. Very fun! I greatly enjoyed our endings as well. For the sake of my opinion on my character's future dealings, once the school has shown improvement and many of these villains are brought to light, even Laree may consent to go back and finish her schooling there under Vost. Perhaps, also to be close to Maganrad for reasons...
Wish you all the best on the boards.
@GM A truly wonderful epilogue! Thanks again for taking the time to see this to the end.
@Laree An, Anethra and Viridel....It's been great playing with you and I hope to play with you again in the future hopefully with our current cast of characters but new ones would be fine as well. Fingers crossed!
It's done. This was a beautiful game, and really is a swan's song for you, DM. Raveen's story was dark and personal, and this was also amazingly done, especially how you weaved everyone's story together. Bravo! I've had Viridel as a concept for almost 10 years now (first conjured in 2014), and this is the best adventure to start (and close) him with.
I like to think that Viridel's scar is still there, but faded. Viridel is a dedicated force for Good, and I think that the impact from his telepathic clash with Lorthact is not going to fade so easily. Besides helping with Korvosa, he will try to continue the fight against evil...perhaps even to the point of joining an incursion against Treerazer in Kyonin, or joining an elven expedition to Mendev?
High level play may be difficult to run and play, but it really opens conflict to levels we don't really see in most games, such as city-changing events, serious confrontations with dark forces at the level of archdukes, and the sheer drama of being big damn heroes.
As a side question, do we level up? xD
@Grymwold: I would love that. I liked the dynamic between Grym and Viridel--each one of them trusts the other implicitly. What history they have must be worth of a book series!
A~nd as usual, I find a good character portrait only after I complete the campaign. Viridel and Asniroth
It's done. This was a beautiful game, and really is a swan's song for you, DM. Raveen's story was dark and personal, and this was also amazingly done, especially how you weaved everyone's story together. Bravo! I've had Viridel as a concept for almost 10 years now (first conjured in 2014), and this is the best adventure to start (and close) him with.
Thank you! It's always a joy to play with you, my friend.
As a side question, do we level up? xD
Sure, why not. :P