[PFS] Your Frozen Fingers of Midnight (Inactive)

Game Master Yours is mined

ᚺᚣᛁᚳ ᚺᛰᚤᚱᚱ
THE ONE-EYED GOD
Who sees all there was and is

ᚺᚣᛁᚳ ᚺᚤΝᚩᛁ
THE SELF-WOUNDED
Who learnt the power of words

ᚺᚣᛁᚳ ÓᚦᛁΝ
THE GREY-CLOAKED SAGE
Who inspires both poet and soldier

Norsefolk,

Please sign in >>Here<<

And add your token in the Marching order >>Here<<

Hello everyone! Looking forward to gaming with all of you. I still need to level up, but that will be done in plenty of time for Gameday.

Papa Òxọ́lé has the boon Research Specialist, which gives him knowledge bonuses based on the number of (spoiler-free) stories he gets from other Pathfinders about other adventures. I'll bring it up in character (usually during wait-for-briefing or travel time), and just need in addition the PFS number and scenario number to record on the sheet.

(And no, I don't expect everyone to use the accent marks.)

Hello, all! This will be my first game with this level 3 GM blob baby. I expect he'll also be my last PFS 1e character.

Kai is a merfolk oracle with the Ocean's Echo archetype that was originally only available for merfolk. A certain Aussie (our great GM, in fact) is the one who traded the merfolk boon to me, so it's an honour to be able to debut him in one of YiM's games.

The Ocean's Echo basically puts bard song onto a full-caster chassis, so expect that he'll sing to inspire courage and cast as much as he can for support. Just don't run off, cause he's only got 20' movement. Unless we're in the water, of course!

20' landspeed is pretty good for a merfolk! Mine goes by horse - or wears legs for a few hours :)

For this outing I am bringing an angry monk - Sir Lucky Lee, the Last Luckiest Halfling.

The honor is mine, Kai! Glad I could help you out.

✈

The game is prepped and I am very much looking forward to running Frozen Fingers for you all! Not long before we start now.

While we wait for the sixth player to check in, please allow me to lay out the ground rules, which are designed for fairness and consistency, while keeping the game moving at a pace to ensure we finish on time.

If you have played with GMs like GM Hawthwile, GM Nomadical, GM Nowruz or GM supervillan, I doubt there will be any surprises 😉

For the newcomers to the Play-by-Post setting these kinds of ‘ground rules’ are encouraged by the Play-by-Post VO Team, and are common in PFS games played on these boards.

If you do have any questions about them please let me know here or via PM.

⚔ Please make it obvious what buffs you have active and what your AC is.

⚔ Miss is always low if a miss chance applies. For example, if there is a 50% miss chance on a melee attack, a result of 1-50 on d100 is a miss.

⚔ I roll group initiative and track character actions. Unless you state you are waiting for another to act, I will adjudicate those actions in the order they were posted.

⚔ You may delay to a later position in the initiative sequence as usual.

⚔ If I make a mistake in the current combat round, please let me know and I will try to make it right.

⚔ I generally prefer PCs to roll their own saving throws and Attacks of Opportunity (AoO). However …

⚔ I like a relatively fast-paced scenario. I find when a game loses momentum, the fun is quickly sucked out of it.

As such, if you do not post an action within 24 hours from when I invite you to post, I reserve the right to take actions for your character.

⚔ If at all possible, please let me know if something comes up that prevents you from posting.

Questions? Just let me know.

I have decided to provide Faction Missions for this adventure. This is because at least one of them may provide useful background for the PCs.

(Also, I ❤ factions!)

However, there is NO OBLIGATION TO ACTUALLY DO THE FACTION MISSION in order to gain the full rewards for this scenario.

Questions? Ask me here or send me a PM.

Apologies for the delay, and hello to all these new, yet familiar faces! XD

Drelluandast is hearty for a wizard, but by no means wants to be in the front line when violence breaks out. Would Papa Òxọ́lé or Kolris be willing to move up a step in formation? Pretty please?

Absolutely. Òxọ́lé is a stabby occultist. (Will wait for Kolris to decide as well, then take whichever spot is open.)

Kolris is still one level short of coming into his own in melee; he's melee support only at this point, so Oxole can have that spot. Thanks for asking!

Let’s talk subtier, Pathfinders!

Handy Dandy APL Calculator 2000: 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 4 = 18/6 = 3

So we are between subtiers in a Season 0 scenario.

Scenarios in Seasons 0 through 3 were designed for four characters. For these scenarios, if the APL is between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters must play the lower subtier.

So the game will be run at high tier.

I note that every player at this table is an experienced player and/or GM.

Still, if either of the level 2s have concerns, please let me know.

GM!! I could switch to a level 5 if that is ok?

Completely up to you, noral.

I thought about it and I always value a good challenge so let’s do this! :-)

FYI, I'm leaving this afternoon for a camping trip that extends into the Labor Day holiday. I won't be returning home until late Monday evening; I likely won't be able to start posting until Tuesday morning.

No worries, Kolris.

Enjoy your long weekend!

In case anyone notices, I changed Kai's avatar and token. The avatar I picked originally was the only one that really looked like my idea of a male merfolk and that fit his concept mechanically. But as I wrote yesterday's intro post, I decided to take him a little more surfer-water-beach-bard. This guy, in spite of being a human, looks at least closer in appearance to what's in my mind's eye. Doesn't hurt that the avatar is listed as "Fish", "local celebrity bard," in the avatar picker.

Òxọ́lé, is there anything we need to do beyond agreeing to share a tale for you to check off the boon? Do you need the scenario name/number, or our PFS info, or anything else?

And how do we pronounce that?

I need to record the scenario number and PFS number for the character on the boon. It's up to you how much or little you tell me about the plot.

I think of it as oh-SHOW-lay, but he's also never been used outside PBP, so it doesn't matter much.

I need to record the scenario number and PFS number for the character on the boon. It's up to you how much or little you tell me about the plot.

Count me in: Scenario 2-13, Murder on the Throaty Mermaid

Unfortunately, I actually GMed that one, and didn't get to RP Kai sailing on that ship. But he'll summarize the tale in character later.

In fact, is there anyone that hasn't played that yet? I don't want to spoiler the ending if there is.

I haven't played 2-13.

I need to check which scenario featured Lucky's knighthood, will get back to you on that Papa :)

I can only get one checkbox per scenario played, so while the stories are definitely interesting, I have maxed out my gains from this adventure already.

I have also run Throaty Mermaid, but it's the character's experience that counts for the boon.

The avatar pic just fits "angry halfling", but the full image is from the NPC Codex, the entry is for a halfling fighter.

Yeah, no worries. This was just frivolity.

Heh. I imagined Lucky as a potential future (ie Seeker-levels) Andoran Eagle Knight. Then he went and got himself knighted by Princess Eutropia during a Pathfinder mission. Bona fide Knight of Taldor, complete with Noble finery.

Maybe he'll end up as some sort of double agent. Maybe he'll be the one to bring peace to Andoran and Taldor after so many years of strife...

Hey, why is the N on this map backwards? Oh, wait NVM, I know. It's because you're in Australia, and maps are always upside-down-and-backwards down there below the equator. ;)

You know I almost flipped it back to normal, because I thought there'd be a 20% chance a certain someone might make a comment. ;)

I was attempting to make the 'N' look more Norse-y (Nordic?), but it doesn't really work.

Papa Òxọ́lé, just in case you are concerned, I have met Kai in real life, and this kind of banter is normal for us.

I have also 'pseudo-met' Lucky over VTT and he, Drelluandast, Khorshid and I have gamed extensively by PbP over the years.

Love the pictures GM!! :-D

Thanks for the feedback, Khorshid.

I do appreciate it :)

Did you do something odd with the slides, GM? Launching them crashes my browser now :( - I am using a rather old macbook with Chrome. Looked like Lucky has a flank though.

I did update the version of Chrome I am running on my PC to Version 93.0.4577.63

Apologies if this is what caused the problem.

Is anyone else having the same issue?

Indeed I am! I'd be surprised that your Chrome version is at fault, though. But something's causing a massive memory leak.

It's stable for me in Safari (albeit an old version of Safari). In Chrome I get the memory leak (my Activity Monitor app reported the process responsible as 'Chrome Helper (Renderer).

Works for me. Chrome Version 93.0.4577.63 on a Surface. Currently tethered to my phone via USB tethering and airplane wifi on a commercial flight.

Hmm ... I might create a new slideshow in another google drive account tomorrow and see if that makes any difference.

I'll let you know when it's done.

GM, can we take average rolls for out-of-combat healing?

I prefer rolling for healing spells, Papa Òxọ́lé.

Not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm more lawful than I like to think I am?

Mind you, the randomness of healing dice is more noticeable at lower levels, because fewer dice are typically rolled.

Maybe I'm actually more chaotic than I like to think?

But something's causing a massive memory leak.

I am no IT expert, and don't know what a memory leak is.

I have tried setting up the two handouts in my latest post as separate slideshow slides on a different google drive account.

Can you let me know if this makes any difference?

Works fine for me now.

It's a very long time since I worked in IT, but I could see what was happening by using the Mac's Activity Monitor app. It showed a Chrome Helper (renderer) process swallowing all the memory capacity, until the "memory pressure" from the process exceeded 15GB (and I only have 4GB of physical memory) so everything else pretty much stopped. Fortunately I could kill the process via Activity Monitor.

In rough layman's terms, a memory leak is where code does not stop consuming memory resource. Code working normally stops once it's done whatever it should do, but a "leak" just keeps going until there's no resource left, which causes a crash.

(I may not be technically correct, it's been like 18 years I think since I could call myself an expert!).

Wait, the halfling butler is calling people “height-challenged”? XD

He's lived among vikings for a long time.

Thought you might like that one ;)

I'll just leave this here for you regarding Zimmer.

The timelines between Kai and the rest of the party (except Papa Òxọ́lé arguably) are a little divergent, in that it will take Kai longer to do all the things he wants to do, compared to what Korlis/Khorshid are doing.

For simplicity, let’s say Kai approaches the docks (AFTER his visit inside the warehouse) to talk to Papa Òxọ́lé at the same time Korlis concludes his business.

Any major objections, please let me know.

Just to clarify, Kai went back to the group and would not have left with Papa Òxọ́lé without informing at least one of the others of their plan. Kolris and Khorshid were busy with the Tengu, so presumably Lucky and/or Drellandaust would have known that they were going into the water.

And certainly the tengu took the time for a beer. What respectable Aussie Ulfen with a fist full of gold would go into a bar and not have a pint?

So I'd presume at least someone knew Kai and Papa's plan.

@Kolris, there is time to take your "first round" of actions before Khorshid's dog breaks down the door and Formal Initiative begins.

I'm not familiar with investigators or alchemists. Can you draw and drink your extract as a single standard action or is it a move + std like a potion?

^ That's s a single standard action that provokes.

GM, are you happy with Lucky activating his wand of shield as the doggy batters on the door?

Yes!

@Lucky, Korlis & others, is your tech still OK with the current Battlemap slideshow?

Just trying to gauge if I can keep adding slides to the existing slideshow or need to start a new slideshow 'file'.

Slides are running just fine at the moment GM :)

Hey guys,

Work has kicked my butt last coupla days.

Expect an update soon.

Please do not worry about timing! All good! :-)

Hey People,

Just throwing it out there that I presently have one spot for a level 1 or 2 PC on my VTT Season 6: Wounded Wisp game, which is happening this Friday evening (for people in North America)

Wounded Wisp is repeatable for first level PCs.

I am using Google Slides for the VTT and Discord for voice.

If you are interested, you can sign up on Warhorn >>HERE<<

So this scenario actually uses the old norse gods? I don't think they appear anywhere else, do they? Mummy's Mask uses the ancient Egyptian pantheon but I don't think any other real-world religions are represented in Pathfinder (save for maybe the names of some arch-fiends?).