(PFS2) GM Round Robin: Into the Year of Shattered Sanctuaries (Inactive)

Game Master Farol

Tarkii speaks up.

"Busy, yes...YES. We understand, we help first. Yes.. HELP you, make you less busy so you can help later. Tell us how to make you less busy."

diplomacy?: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30

Lashweather rolls his eyes.

Fine! Come in and keep talking while I continue my work.

New map!

It seems as though every inch of space in this cluttered tower is spoken for. Rising from cramped living quarters on the ground floor, successive floors require navigating a narrow, meandering path between pieces of furniture piled nearly to the ceiling with books and tomes on astrology, astronomy, and weather patterns, both magical and mundane, as well as star charts and the various tools used to make them. Only on the top floor is there any space to speak of, with the various desks and tables all pushed to the edge of the circular room, leaving a large circle in the middle where various constellations have been inlaid into the stone floor in silver.

Lashweather insists on consulting his telescope, as well as various charts, notes, and books while the party continues to speak. He explains that as Ekkeshikaar’s head astrologer, it’s vital that he be able to perform certain divinations to determine what lies in store for the city and help them prepare for it. He goes on to explain that he’s currently observing a very rare celestial alignment that won’t be concluded until after the council meeting is over, so he won’t be able to attend.

He thinks on it some more, and relents (a little). Lashweather explains that there is another divination ritual that would allow him to gain the same sorts of insights as he is gaining from observing the celestial convergence. Known as the cho’aatan, the dangerous ritual requires bodyguards to protect him from rogue elementals that are conjured as a byproduct of the ritual.

If you are willing to serve in this capacity, he will attempt the ritual, and if it succeeds, he will be free to attend the council meeting tomorrow.

What do you say? Take it or leave it!

The leshy replies, sensing the team has no real choice in the matter considering their mission: “The Society would prefers you attend the meeting, so the answer is yes. If you need constant look at the sky that might be a good way for you to get rest once the ritual is done. When can you do the ritual?”

The iruxi looks away from his telescope and grins at Pines.

If you all agree, we can start right away!

Tarkii nods "Yes... YES. The answer is yes."

Tarkii nods "Yes... YES!"

"Of course, we'll help you. Hang on, though, if there may be combat, let me get ready first."

Can Shayna cast Inspire Courage + Lingering Composition now

Lingering Composition, Performance: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15

"What can we expect when the ritual starts? Who or what we will be protecting you from?"

"Kay-kay, sounds fun."

Merian is eager to stabbie-stabbie the baddie-baddies. Also, she speaks Aquan, so maybe she can talk down any water elementals?

He maintains his indulgent smile, but strokes his chin at length before answering.

Hmm, yes. What to expect. I must conduct a short attunement that will cause elemental creatures to appear within the ritual space. Your job is to dispatch these elementals and keep them from harming me. If they do get to me, I risks losing concentration, ruining the attunement. The constellations on the floor will be magically charged by the ritual attunement, causing them to bestow effects in line with the constellations’ meanings to those who stand on them.

He then looks at all of your considerably for several moments and points at and explains three of the constellations, those of fire, air, and water.

See slide 9 for the constellations explained so far.

A DC 25 Fortune-Telling Lore or Occultism check (or other appropriate Lore checks) allows you to make an educated guess about the meaning of a particular constellation. There are nine more.

PLEASE place your character tokens somewhere in or near the ritual circle as a starting position, here on slide 8. The attunement ritual will last 5 rounds, but he will not start it until you say you are ready, so you can take some preparation actions beforehand.

Shayna requests some divine aid (Cast Guidance on herself) before trying to puzzle out the constellations.

Occultism, Guidance: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 1 = 13
eek

She pulls out a scroll and keeps it handy, ready to read it.

Rose reaches to her holster and stands next to Lashweather, she feels as fire magic begin to flow through her. She finds this sensation interesting.

"Ready when you are"

Occultism: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

"We don't see the stars very well underwater."

Merian will cast haste and enter Arcane Cascade just before the ritual starts, if that's allowed.

Merian will take a position near the center.

lore astronomy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

Tarkii positions themselves near the center circle, careful not to step on any glyphs for now.

They will once again rip open a hole in reality to a cold future beyond the stars and pull forth a rotting corpse who's flesh immediatly slughs off, leaving only a Skeleton.

The leshy looks at the runes representing constellations and nothing comes to mind.

Before the ritual starts, Smell of the Pines grabs its wand of heal and gets close to the iruxi. The plant creature, able to push enemies aside with her root like legs stands close too.

Both leshy and Resinosa gives the unnatural horror summoned by Tarkii a worried look.

I have placed Rannarix near Shayna.

Lashweather nods and begins the ritual. Brief flashes of cold, heat, moisture, and intense dryness seem to flit about your beings as his attunement progresses. Rose starts to notice it intensify in two spots near here. A fire mephit and an air mephit appear near her, apparating on two specific runes.

Lashweather's eyes widen at the nearness of their appearance, but still he carries on. On another rune next to Tarkii, an earth mephit materializes!

All three are immediately hostile...

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose
RED
GREEN
Tarkii
Shayna
BLUE
Smell of Pines
Rannarix
Merian (haste)

Rose is quick on the draw, anticipating their arrival...

Rose raises her pistol and shots from point blank range

Bum@blue: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27
Damage, p/b: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Damage if crit: 3d10 + 2 ⇒ (10, 10, 6) + 2 = 28
Fire dmg if crit: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 4) = 9

Than she reloads throwing an angry look at the mephit and shoots again

Intimidate@blue vs willdc: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Than she fires again

Bum@blue or green: 1d20 + 11 - 5 ⇒ (4) + 11 - 5 = 10
Damage, p/b: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Rose's bullet tears through the air mephit's little body and it drops to the ground. OVERKILL!!! Lashweather un-tenses slightly as this buys him some room to work comfortably.

Let's redirect that intimidation to GREEN

The earth mephit cowers from Rose's glare and becomes frightened 2.

Rose's next bullet whizzes by the earth elemental, only jump scaring it due to its fright.

The fire mephit opens its mouth and releases a gout of flame that washes over Rose, Smell of Pines, and Lashweather!

5 F damage to Rose and Smell of Pines, pending a DC17 basic reflex save (also 1d4 persistent fire damage)

Lashweather groans and grits his teeth against the searing pain, but maintains his concentration.

This mephit seems particularly interested in the space Rose is standing on and it strides about her a bit, but never straying far.

The cowering earth mephit similarly opens its mouth and breaths a cone of rocks which pummel Tarkii, Shayna, and Rannarix!

9 B damage to Tarkii, Shayna, and Rannarix, pending a DC15 basic reflex save

It then takes a swing at Tarkii with its little fist...

Its jitteriness causes the punch to only catch air.

Botting Rannarix:

DC15 Basic reflex: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Remarkably the kobold ranger is able to dodge all of the breathed stones that would have been large enough to harm him. The smaller pebbles bounces harmlessly off of his hide.

He thinks better of biting an elemental, and so draws his shortbow, striding out from behind Tarkii a bit. All the way he's studying the earth mephit carefully...

◆ Hunt prey ◆ Draw weapon ◆ Stride

NOTE In round 2, no new elementals appear.

Persistent damage on your turns:
Rose persistent F damage, flat check: 1d4 ⇒ 21d20 ⇒ 9
Smell of Pines persistent F damage, flat check: 1d4 ⇒ 11d20 ⇒ 17 cleared

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1-2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn: Reflex saves for Rose, Tarkii, Shayna, and Smell of Pines
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose -2 (DC17 basic reflex save for 5 F damage) (1d4 persistent F damage)
RED
GREEN (frightened 1)
Tarkii (DC15 basic reflex save for 9 B damage)
Shayna (DC15 basic reflex save for 9 B damage)
Smell of Pines -1 (DC17 basic reflex save for 5 F)
Rannarix
Merian (haste)

Everyone but Rannarix is up to finish round 1 and begin round 2

Reflex: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

Shayna skips out of the way. Setting her flute to her lips, she plays a merry tune.

Performance, Lingering Composition: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Should be good for 3 rounds of IC

Picking up some random items, she hurls it at Green.

TKP vs Green, IC: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 9 + 1 = 21
Bludgeoning, IC?: 2d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1, 1) + 4 + 1 = 7

◆ Inspire Courage
◇ Lingering Composition
◆◆ TKP vs Green

Reflex, DC17: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Rose dances around and dodges the worst of the flames. Crit makes it no damage, beyond that Rose has fire resistance 2

She turns towards the fire mephit

Intimidation while loading, glare vs will dc: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Then she quickly turns and shoots again the earth mephit

Boom@Earth mephit: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24
Damage, p/b: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Damage if crit (maybe with frightened 1: 3d10 + 2 ⇒ (5, 6, 9) + 2 = 22
Damage, fire: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11

Than she reloads again and fakes shooting fire mephit. Reaction: Fake out reaction. Effectly aiding the next PC that attacks red.

Don't forget the +1 from IC!

Merian will flank Green ◆, stabbing at it.

◆◆ Spellstrike: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17
Piercing: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (7, 3) + 4 = 14 plus 1 Force plus Fire: 2d4 + 3 ⇒ (4, 1) + 3 = 8

She will then raise her shield ◆.

reflex: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
Crit Success!

Tarkii dodges the flying rocks.

Then he concentrates as his skeleton assaults the green mephit with it's glaive twice.

glaive vs Green Mephit: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
slashing: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

glaive vs Green Mephit: 1d20 + 9 - 5 ⇒ (5) + 9 - 5 = 9
forceful slashing: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 2 + 1 = 5

Tarkii then reaches out and touches the adjacent green mephit, channeling the cold emptiness of the future.

chilltouch negative damage: 3d4 + 4 ⇒ (1, 1, 1) + 4 = 7
Basic fort 21, enfeebled 1 for 1 round on a crit fail.

Skeleton Defenses:
AC 17; Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +5
HP 16 (negative healing); Immunities death effects, disease, mental, paralyzed, poison, unconscious; Resistances cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, piercing 5, slashing 5

... beyond that Rose has fire resistance 2

Ah, then that wipes out the persistent damage.

Shayna and Rose nimbly avoid the flames. After beginning a song and flashing an intimidating glare the two pulverize the earth elemental.

Merian and Tarkii, with GREEN down do you want to shift to striding at RED and attacking? Something else?

Tarkii likewise avoids the gout of flame entirely.

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1-2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn: Reflex save for Smell of Pines
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose (1d4 persistent F damage)
RED
Tarkii (change actions?)
Shayna
Smell of Pines -1 (DC17 basic reflex save for 5 F)
Rannarix
Merian (haste) (change actions?)

Tarkii and Merian with ret-cons and Smell of Pines still up with a reflex save first.

Tarkii sends his skeleton after the remaining red foe.

Stride, strike

Meanwhile Tarkii casts daze on it.

nonlethal mental damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
Basic Will DC 21. Stunned 1 on a crit fail.

DC 17 basic reflex (5 fire damage): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

The leshy is burnt by the mephit’s fire.

It concentrates on a spell to boost Resinosa’s attacks.

Act Together: boost eidolon

Resinosa gets closer to the remaining mephit and tries to hit it.

Act Together: Stride
Tendril Strike
Impaling strike vs AC: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 10 + 1 = 27
normal damage: 1d6 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 2 = 10
Critical damage (fatal): 23 (1d10 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 = 7×2+1d10 ⇒ 9)

If the creature is still standing, she attacks again, otherwise the leshy draws a potion.

Tendril Strike
Root attack vs AC: 1d20 + 10 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 10 + 1 - 4 = 20
Bludgeoning damage: 1d6 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 = 7

Seeing the earth mephit fallen, Tarkii's skeleton heads over to slice at the fire mephit. It's sharp-lined figure and curving blade wind up and cut through the air, just missing the nimble fire mephit by a moment or two!

The fire mephit then begins to feel a slight, but increasing pressure in its head as an intrusion into its mind begins...

It shakes its head violently, clearly affected by whatever Tarkii did to it. Finally it drops to the ground, defeated. Double damage from crit fail.

The tower is momentarily still save for Lashweathers continued work.

Stay alert! More will come! he yells out and gets back to his maintained concentration.

You have actions remaining through the end of round 2, before more elementals appear. I want to let you use those up with any adjustments or preparations you want to make before round 3 begins. Because I took actions in post order, not turn order, Rose's round 2 actions have been executed (and contributed to the demise of GREEN). So, as the fog of war temporarily subsides, we have:

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go (note extra actions for some)

Rose (1d4 persistent F damage)
Tarkii (round 2 actions)
Shayna (round 2 actions)
Smell of Pines -6 (round 1 & 2 actions)
Rannarix (round 2 actions)
Merian (haste) (round 1 & 2 actions)

LOL this may be the first time I've found my magus to have too many actions rather than too few.

Merian had in mind to attack the elementals, but by the time she is able to act, she finds them all dissipated.

Round 1:

Instead, seeing Rose on fire, she'll go (◆◆ due to slow speed) and pat her down.

"Of all days to leave my barrel of water behind!"

◆◆ Assisted Recovery, extra check DC 10.

Round 2:

If Rose is still on fire, Merian will continue patting out the flames.

◆◆ Assisted Recovery, extra check DC 10.
◆ Raise Shield
◆ Stride

If Rose's fire goes out, Merian will raise her shield and stride into position, and Ready a Strike.

◆ Raise Shield
◆ Stride
◆◆ Ready Action

1. Command Companion
...A. Stride
...B. Stride
2. Stride
3. Look Menacing.

Rannarix and Mister Snappers run forward to stand protectively around Lashweather.

Shayna will provide some divine aid to Rose and Rannarix before casting shield on herself.

◆ Guidance at Rose
◆ Guidance at Rannarix
◆ Shield

Moved Resinosa back to where she was
Round 1, the leshy was on fire, no enemy on sight

The leshy tries to stop the flames then draws an elixir.

The fire put out at the end of the round anyway so no need to roll any more dice

Round 2, no enemy yet

The leshy drinks the minor elixir of life it drew.

Healing: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Act Together: If Rose is still on Fire Resinosa moves closer.

If resinosa is on fire, Resinosa tries to help her.
Otherwise Smell of the Pines casts Magic Fang.

The team springs into action, moving about the tower floor just so in preparation for the next arrivals. Some of them land on runes which imbue them with advantages.

Rose is standing on the fire rune.
Rannarix is standing on the air rune.
Merian is standing on *a* rune but not yet quite sure what it does actions are still available to learn about a run with a DC 25 Fortune-Telling Lore or Occultism check (or other appropriate Lore checks).

Tarkii ponders what he should do with his final moments before the chaos resumes...

Tarkii sustains his skeleton and casts guidance on it and himself.

Halfway through the proceedings, a water mephit and another air mephit appear!

Rose hasn't quite put out the fire on her clothes, though it generally affects her little...

F damage, DC15 Flat check: 1d4 ⇒ 41d20 ⇒ 14 2 damage after resistance

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 3
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose -2 (1d4 persistent F damage) (guidance)
Tarkii (guidance)
Shayna
YELLOW air
Smell of Pines -6
MAGENTA water
Rannarix (guidance)
Merian (haste)

The elemental chaos resumes and Lashweather steels himself.

Shayna plays another tune on her flute before sending more loose items against Magenta.

TKP vs Magenta, IC: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17
Bludgeoning, IC?: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (5, 6) + 5 = 16

◆ Inspire Courage
◆◆ TKP

Tarkii tries to open yellow's mind to the existential dread of the void.

mental/nonlethal damage: 2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5

Then Tarki commands their skeleton to follow up with a dual assault the yellow air elemental.

inspiredglaive vs Yellow: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 9 + 1 = 26
inspired slashing: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 2 + 1 = 11

iterative glaive: 1d20 + 9 - 5 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 9 - 5 + 1 = 11
forceful slashing: 1d8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 + 2 = 5

>>Phantom Pain, >Sustain(Strike,Strike)

Rose aims at the creature in front of her

Boom@yellow, guidance: 1d20 + 11 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 11 + 1 = 21
Damage, p/b: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Then she reloads looking angrily at the creature

Intimidation as part of reload vs will dc, yellow: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Than she fires again

Boom@yellow: 1d20 + 11 - 5 ⇒ (20) + 11 - 5 = 26
Damage, p/b: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Damage, crit: 3d10 + 2 ⇒ (2, 5, 9) + 2 = 18
Damage fire crit: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4

Rose, you have 1 or 2 Assisted Recoveries on your persistent fire check, and then a regular one at the end of your turn. Merian's Readied Strike depends on the results of those rolls.

Pff sorry ofc

Persistent fire, assisted recovery, DC10: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Regular burning check, DC15: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Burning: 1d4 - 2 ⇒ (3) - 2 = 1

Merian had two turns queued - if you missed the one on Round 1, you got a second Assisted on Round 2.

Merian has no Readied action for Round 3.

Persistent fire, assisted recovery, DC10: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Flames begint o dim on Roses clothing ... Thanks Merian!

Shayna gut-punches the water elemental with a magically propelled stone. For several moments it gasps for breath (of some kind) while the action continues elsewhere.

The air elemental starts to feel pressure in it's head...

It slowly turns to meet Tarkii's gaze, showing him that it can handle his attempts to meddle; that its mind is impenetrable (for now). Unaffected

Rose's first bullet then flies into its little body, abruptly cutting through that intense interaction with Tarkii. It's expression turns sharply from confident to shocked and incredulous. It turns just in time for Rose's second shot to arrive, tearing through its chest and killing it.

The water mephit watches desperately, looking increasingly nervous.

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 3
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose -2 (1d4 persistent F damage) (guidance)
Tarkii (guidance)
Shayna
Smell of Pines -6
MAGENTA water -16
Rannarix (guidance)
Merian (haste)

On round 2, as Rose was still on fire Resinosa moved close to her and tried to help.

The leshy gives the mephit a bad look and tells it to go back to its plane as “it’s not welcomed here.”

Intimidation vs Will DC, Intimidating Glare: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

That was part of Act Together, Resinosa strike at the mephit.

vs AC, including inspire courage: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 10 + 1 = 24
Normal damage, inspire courage: 1d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 1 = 10

The leshy tries to remember any ability of the creature. Recall Knowledge with Nature +10

Resinosa then strike at it.

Root attack, vs AC: 1d20 + 10 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 10 + 1 - 4 = 27
Bludgeoning: 1d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 = 6

Critical is only twice the damage.

I neglected to update Rose for the assists. Fixed.

Resinosa gangs up on the nervous water mephit and puts it out of its misery. The team has again cleared the battlefield, but by now they know the drill: more are on the way.

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 3
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose -3
Tarkii
Shayna
Smell of Pines -6
Rannarix (guidance)
Merian (haste)

But first, Rannarix and Merian have a moment with which to prepare.

Rannarix readies an action to bite any enemy that comes within reach!

Forgot to add that the readied attack gains a +1 modifier to the attack for Guidance.

Merian will raise her shield and Ready a Strike.

Lashweather remarks Good! I think you've got the hang of this! Here's hoping twenty more don't show up the next moment.

Indeed, only one more materializes: a new earth mephit next to Tarkii! It laughs and chitters some jeer in Terran that still comes through as irritating and abrasive, though you cannot suss out its exact meaning.

Somehow it seems disoriented from its "travel" and appears slow on the uptake.

------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 4
Tactical Map
Active Conditions: Merian haste
Party
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
The bold may go

Rose -3
Tarkii
Shayna
Smell of Pines -6
Rannarix (guidance)
Merian (haste)
GREEN

Shayna plays a tune on her flute before sending more loose objects at Green.

TKP vs Green, IC: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Bludgeoning, IC?: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (2, 6) + 5 = 13

◆ Inspire Courage ◆◆ TKP vs Green

Rose reloads giving the creature an angry look

Intimidation as part of reload vs will dc, green: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Then she fires

Boom@green, ic: 1d20 + 11 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 11 + 1 = 21
Damage, p/b, ic: 1d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 + 1 = 4
Damage, fire: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Than she reloads again