[PFS1e] GM Deussu's #2-03 The Rebel's Ransom CORE (Tier 5-9) (Inactive)

Game Master Deussu

And my boons are useless on trying to help Iri.

I'll check my boons and see if I have anything that can help. Need some time to work through them so it might be this afternoon.

Can I lend my reroll?

*Shrug* We don't have a dedicated healer and the first real combat was endless aoo with guards. Some parties could have stopped her before she started. Some non core groups might have communal fire resistance.

I might not even raise him. I have other high tier core characters.

Without Irizati and Baloo I'm not sure how well the rest of the party will do. Retreat and call it a wash may be your best option.

While Tere did what I saw as a possibility—dragging Irizati out of the firestorm—I have a bigger concern in my mind.

I've begun to feel there isn't much enthusiasm towards the scenario/game in particular. It begs the question whether continuing the story is still an option. I try to abide the Painlord's guide about finishing what I've started. In one instance I called quits on a module quite at the beginning since I knew I had taken too much into my hands at that time.

I admit I made a misestimation when announcing the game right before the gameday, thus possibly affecting the attendance, leading to a smaller group than is probably normal in Play-by-Post games. Scenario-wise, I had picked this one basically at random, with tier concerns in mind. In hindsight this scenario might not be well suited for the core campaign given the lack of essential tools to combat this particular foe.

I don't know how much more she's got left in her kit. Tere is still largely undamaged, and has a CLW wand (and only a +9 UMD check, but you can't have everything).

High tier Core would be difficult to get a full table for. We were lucky to get 4. And the only healers I've ever seen near this tier is Kyra.

As for this scenario, I've never played it but it does seem to have a bad reputation as being just plain mean. Not your fault GM Deussu. As you said you picked one at random.

Pretty sure she has more aoe left. Enemy casters can just spend their best spells until they die. No need to save any for other encounters.

I failed some saves and even if I make the next one with my 0 dex I'm dead. Baloo might make the save and manage to kill her.

I'm sure there is more combat later. None of you have Handle Animal so odds are if Baloo lives he will leave. Probably eating the camels on the way out.

Whether you choose to play this one out or skip it I'm up for another Core game at some point afterwords. I have a Wizard 7 and Ranger 11 that are not in games right now.

Silbeg has an L7-L8 druid, I know.

Eh, I’ve got plenty of PP, so I can pay for a raise dead and all that good stuff. And I can kick in to anyone who needs it.

We are still so early, any chance we could add another player or character somehow? I think they’d still get full credit.

I started this scenario with 23 prestige. How much is a raise dead?

Eh, I’ve got plenty of PP, so I can pay for a raise dead and all that good stuff. And I can kick in to anyone who needs it.

We are still so early, any chance we could add another player or character somehow? I think they’d still get full credit.

It'd be good if we could get someone to play the L7 Kyra pregen, if they don't have a cleric of the appropriate level.

ETA: A raise dead is 16 PP, with removal of the permanent negative level costing another 4 PP.

Oh. Then I'll bring Irizati back after this.

I can do a lot of healing. Useless in combat, but before and after are fine. And after combat, there is the ubiquitous CLW wand anyway.

And my own boons that would be helpful here are only good for if I get knocked unconscious.

Next round Khellek will drop a CSW on Irizati, that should help a little.
For one reason or another, many of his students suffer small injuries, so he's pretty familiar with patching folk up.

I think Irizati has to save before you get your turn. Hopefully the spell she used isn't 11d6 every round. But maybe she just gets made up spells.

If it's what I think it is, it's not a spell, and we're looking at at least 3 rounds of it.

If Tere got you out of it, then you shouldn't need to save.
And with hasted movement, you should be well clear of the fallout zone.

The real question is, how many more tricks like that can she pull while in Baloo's friendly embrace.

Also how much longer Baloo can survive the firestorm.

Tempting to just pull out that scepter again on the way out :-) But I couldn't do that to Baloo. Or our fallen predecessor.

GM's a fool and misread some rules, DC 10 + 13 + SLA's Spell level: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (11) + 19 = 30

I thought spell-like abilities didn't require concentration checks in grapple since they have no components, but it appears I was wrong. So there's this roll above... I have yet to determine what the level of the spell-like ability is, whether or not she actually succeeded.

But that roll is enough, since the spell level can't be 8 or higher. Even the closest comparison spell is minimum a 7th level spell.

Firestorm is a horrible ability. A total of 44d6 damage spread across 4 rounds? Ridiculous. As a PC you'd never get to use it this effectively, since you'd forbid your teammates from advancing.

Unless you are doing some type of mass combat.

It's kind of like wall of fire, on steroids.

Irizati seems to be in 2 places. I think Tere pulled him into the chamber but he is also shown as next to Khellek.

I'm not sure what Irizati can do here. His spells are all utility. She will disrupt any summons. If I'm next to Tere I could become something with reach but that would shove Tere into the lava maybe and I'd be shoving my body parts through the fire.

He should definitely be next to Tere in the chamber, that's where he was before Alarka's round, avoiding the massive damage. Even with a 60ft speed, one cannot drag an unconscious leopard at more than half speed.

So unless Khellek runs through the fire to Irizati, he won't be able to connect his CSW.

And regarding how Tere was able to pull, well, he has a two-handed weapon, hence he has a hand free to grab the leopard. And Tere's strength is 14 (decent), he is a rogue with light encumbrance, so I see no problem in pulling a comrade to safety. Doodle, however, would have had problems.

I have to seriously apologize for having the fight happen on two separate maps. I wanted the maps to be easily viewed via mobile device, thus having large squares as opposed to slamming the whole dungeon map there with teeny tiny tokens to move around. Apparently it was not clear Irizati was in the chamber.

EDIT: But I'm so glad Doodle is actually next in the initiative track, because her magic missiles drop Alarka, end the combat, leaving only Baloo to die in the fires... but it requires 24 hours of prayer to get a new one, right?

Woot! Yay Doodle!

Yes. 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer in the environment where the animal companion can be found.

In theory we could wait a day while he prays for a new companion but it would lack training. And without the Heel trick it won't follow us in the building.

So replacing Baloo is free in downtime but not practical during the scenario.

Baloo was wearing magic armor. What are the rules on it surviving?

Well, at least from my recollection, we are not on any clock that says we can’t recover and rest before we move on to the next challenge. We might not have the AC which really hurts, but the Druid can summon natural allies as needed, which is always good.

I say we rest and heal up and go forward and find what will probably TPK us next, lol!

We are looking for missing Pathfinders. Though we may have the only surviving one here.

I agree we should heal up and check on the catatonic Pathfinder before moving on.

Mundane items will get destroyed in the fire for sure. But magic items...

+1 mithral barding. Mithral has hardness 15, +1 magic property increases the hardness by 2 to a total of 17. And the fire damage is halved before applying hardness. For example.

Firestorm: 11d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 2, 5, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1, 3, 3) = 36 halved is 18. After hardness the barding suffers 1 damage.

And a +1 mithral chain barding (chain shirt made into a large barding, that is) has a LOT of hit points. The equation is (armor bonus) * 5, and in addition being a large armor doubles the hit points. Chainmail provides +4 by itself, and the armor enhancement increases it to +5. 5 * 5 * 2 = 50 hp.

But of course, even the smallest scratch gives the armor Broken condition.

Moar fire: 11d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 2, 4, 3, 6, 6, 5, 5, 2, 1) = 39 halved is 19, so 2 damage more.

47/50 hp remaining in the barding.

Sorry, that we me moving him, as I thought he was outside for some reason.

Probably thinking double move with haste giving 120'. Even at half speed that would be 60'. Turns out it doesn't matter, thank goodness.

Repairing the armor should be cheaper then buying a new set. Even in Core.

Paying a caster for a make whole of the appropriate level won't cost much.

I just now realized how Jilarni can be used as GM Fiat to solve all the riddles if the players are unable to. How convenient!

I just now realized how Jilarni can be used as GM Fiat to solve all the riddles if the players are unable to. How convenient!

Riddle explanation time:

All the scepters have a different weight. Now it's a matter of determining the order of which scepter is heavier than the other. And there are five trays of different sizes on the altar.

Mainly this comes to "how can you determine the weight order of the scepters", especially if you don't have a merchant's scale with you?

By any chance would Irizati's masterwork kit for profession merchant have one of those in it? Or could he use the skill to help assess the weights?

Good thought!

What kind of a merchant would be unable to measure the weight of their goods? Of course there's at least weights in the set with which you can measure how heavy something is.

Of course just having some rope and determining which two scepters is heavier at a time is eventually successful.

Yeah, if it came to that we had time for a bubble sort.

But not a bogo sort.

I sincerely hope you are not going to ask me the volume of water in the chamber. I can calculate it, in case you want to drain it or somehow vaporize it all.

Did we rest overnight then do the scepters?

Yes.

I've got a thought. We may not be able to drain the room, but Doodle's dragon breath will freeze a lot of water that we could then haul out in chunks. With that, we'll get a little bit of an airspace.

Did we rest overnight then do the scepters?

I'm under the assumption you've rested at least one night, possibly more. If Irizati decides to get some desert dweller (core seems to offer only camel as an option), it would take some more time.

I'm not trying for a companion. Just wanted to know if we rested before we know we would be facing water.

Crocodile and Shark are both large so would be squeezed. Octopus isn't great but it's small and has a poisonous bite. I'll double check but I think it's the best core option.

With the fantastic Baloo potentially providing nutritious if gamey food, we are in no trouble. We could finish today healing everyone up and then you could get spells tomorrow that would help with the water situation.

I know that is counter to the normal rush-through-every-door-as-fast-as-we-can method for scenarios, but with only four of us, and down our animal-tank, I think caution is warranted. Lets give ourselves the best chances of success.

No objections here. Irizati is pragmatic.

Water Breathing would work but there may be a better option.

Control Water. If I'm reading it correctly it drops the water by 18 feet in a 90ft x 90ft square. Which would let us fight and cast normally. And any water based guardians would be at a disadvantage.

That works for me. We can just eat camel.

Control Water. If I'm reading it correctly it drops the water by 18 feet in a 90ft x 90ft square. Which would let us fight and cast normally. And any water based guardians would be at a disadvantage.

I have never before heard of this spell, and it is in Core. Yes, this spell would drop the water level to 1 inch in the whole chamber.

And the material component for lowering water is a pinch of dust. I wonder if you can find any...

That works for me. We can just eat camel.

And there's plenty of it!

The beginning of this week has been exceptionally hectic both in work and with family. I apologize and attempt to remedy my ways as soon as inhumanly possible!

Fortunately, lesser restoration is a core druid spell, so once the rest of you take down the sea hags we'll only have to wait a day to get Tere back in shape.

I'm so glad you had a druid, and there's spell called Control Water. And yes, this fight is designed to be underwater, and the Evil Eye curse... *sigh. Two saves and you go into a comatose, from which you'll wake up if you succeed three times in a row.

I have newfound disdain towards Jason Bulmahn's scenario design philosophy.

Even before the save against the evil eye, their aura will potentially affect the party's Swim checks. Plenty of ways to mess up PCs.