Legacy of Fire: Module 2: House of the Beast

Game Master BloodWolven

Hope you had a great day, GM!

Need to figure out how Vivi reacts, she could have possibly saved him by prioritizing landing a heal spell on him.

Where the hell did all these 1's come from?
I'm going to ruin my reputation as a Hospitaller.

I was waiting for some responses of what you do since Vivi took Aukan but since it looks like there is no movement I am going to move us forward.

Sorry. Was playing Santa, then came down with COVID. Coherent enough for simple posts again. Had to sit out the last 5 days of the season in isolation. Yep. Includes today.

Thanks for letting us know Auso, sorry that you got Covid but you are on the mend now!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Gifts! We must have gifts! A special item will be among the treasure room that will appear shortly.You could offer up suggestions here in discussion, keep it under 5k. Also Everyone gets a wish!

Move once is good, move twice is better,
Stagger proof boots escape any fetter!

Vivi hears from her copilot

Huh, Cayden? I thought you are a Gorrumite She answers

Sure am, but listen Sis, stagger proof boots are amazing value,
and I have a deal of "sponsorship" with Cayden that
gets me free celestial booze for each non Cayden following
mortal who wears stagger proof boots. Heck, tell the nerds,
I mean mages, about them, moving an an immidiate action when they are getting charged for example is super value.

Nice boot selection!

Apparently I need to make this disclaimer about the wish in all my games:
This is a standard wish, please read the spell to better understand what you can get.

Sure you could go for another major wish but you will likely be cursed...Cursed....

Yes if you ask for something outlandish that is not stated in the rules you will be cursed.

Map coming up with responses.

Sorry work has been crazy the last couple of days and I caught a bug of some kind. Here is to posting in between naps!

[dice=concentration casting defensivel]d20+4+4

the cast defensively would make it, as the DC is just 16, the cast while being hit would not
Forgot to announce that I cast defensively, can I retcon that?

Nope, you gotta be specific. Also if we recon then other things would happen.

Spell (charge) lost then.

Round 3, I will catch up tomorrow.

Are we waiting on me? I understand it goes before me?

I have been busy. also I have been waiting for Round 3 actions. I haven't seen a single post...

As for the wish, I'm imagining Grim with a Belt of Giant Strength.

weird, i didnt see your post

I think the "Round 3" notice went up in Discussion.

As for the wish, I'm imagining Grim with a Belt of Giant Strength.

What wish?

Post 407.

...A special item will be among the treasure room that will appear shortly.You could offer up suggestions here in discussion, keep it under 5k. Also Everyone gets a wish!

Ah yes, go ahead and add it. The treasure room had it.

Auso and Merainaa what do you do? I will advance us tomorrow.

Merainaa gathers with the group, looking for a way around the wall of flames.

Grim you up for trying to heal yourself with lay on hands before the strike comes?

Merainaa, you can shoot orange or yellow. The other gnolls have walls between you and them.

I am waiting on Vivi before the gnoll clerics go.

I would yes.

How much do you heal? 2d6? Go ahead and roll it here.

At the start of Round 16, Grim did an immediate Lay on Hands, healing 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) = 8.

At the start of Round 16, Grim did an immediate Lay on Hands, healing 2d6.

So at the end of Round 16, he has 3hp.

Round 17

Change actions to Full Withdraw.

Will you be starting Round 17 with an immediate heal as well?

I’ll shoot orange then, please, GM.

Awesome!

OK, I'll start Round 17 with immediate Lay On Hands.

I can't even pretend to keep up with this posting rate.

If I don't keep pushing us combat will take forever. We should be able to do 2 rounds a day. We can always reccon if needed. I look at Initiative and see the changes of c9mbat that would affect actions.

Lucky for you we are out of combat now.

If I don't keep pushing us combat will take forever. We should be able to do 2 rounds a day. We can always reccon if needed. I look at Initiative and see the changes of c9mbat that would affect actions.

Since I posted Thursday, only 2 players have posted, and one of them posted once per day.

2 players (me included) did not post at all. Friday's my fault, no question. Saturday's not supposed to be a mandatory post day.

The one player who tried to keep up with you posted 4 times in 48 hours, for a total of 6 player posts out of 29 posts, during those remaining 23 NPC/GM posts, you covered 6 rounds.

You are effectively playing this game with or without us, dropping those of us trying to post the promised once per day into a supporting cast role for your NPCs.

We don't even get to decide how we will move forward, what our next tactical decisions will be, because your NPC charges into the next combat, dragging us along to watch.

I've stopped trying to keep up or trying to understand the tactical situation because all of my actions are just window dressing and not a significant contribution to the story. I think we are past the point where having players and PCs matters. Your other game that I'm in, you have one long-term player who has managed, somehow, to mostly keep this inclination in check. There I have some clue what's going on and feel like I'm contributing to the story. Here, I can't keep up enough to even claim I'm watching the story. It just runs by me.

In this game, there are 5 PCs listed in Characters, one of whom hasn't posted since the new year, and 4 NPCs. In your other, there are 7 PCs listed (one hasn't posted since the new year, though it is a different playe,r I think) compared to 10 NPCs. Maybe the entire difference in execution comes down to how Gnomezrule pushes the out of combat roleplay? I don't know.

I really do try to take the commitments I make to support games seriously, knowing that real life is going to interfere. This has turned into a situation where even when I KNOW I'm meeting the commitment I made, and exceed it, I feel like I shouldn't have bothered, because my presence is irrelevant. I brought a careful, thoughtful character to a slaughter fest. I think that's why the Greek game died. The majority of players were looking to roleplay an epic, not rollplay fight after fight where the break is a one or two post transition between combat scenes.

Okay, I hear what you are saying. I know real life does take priority. So what do you suggest we do to adjust this game?

I plan on fading out some of the NPCs for emergency situations when the conditions are met. They have stayed with the group as roles have been lacking. Unless someone requests them to stay with the group, they likely won't.

The most important bit is to hear from the other 3 active players. If I'm alone in my displeasure, then the simple path forward that keeps the majority of people having fun is I move on.

If the other players are also not pleased, then we can discuss other adjustments.

I am just having a ton of trouble with posting multiple rounds of actions at once. Especially as a spellcaster with limited spells, posting two or three rounds ahead is terribly difficult for me. I’d normally adjust what I do based on how hurt the enemy is, etc.

That makes sense, I know how hard it is to plan. We could go back to just one round at a time per day. Unless everyone gets a post in and we can move to the next round.

So right now we have a sorcerer, bard, oracle, and paladin as PCs. Aukan can stay in town once you get back and that would keep the others with him.

Hello?!

I would kind of prefer to keep Aukan, as he is just within 1-2 levels of the party.

Not seeing the level of interaction I would like for this discussion, either.

I honestly want to KNOW if my concerns line up with the other players' thoughts or not.

I see 1 vote for slowing things down so that the players can attempt to intelligently use character resources.

I see 1 vote for keeping the impulsive, massive-damage-dealing NPC which has been being used to force us ever forward.

I see 1 silent.

Maybe I am further away from the other players in how I'm seeing things?

Not seeing the level of interaction I would like for this discussion, either.

I honestly want to KNOW if my concerns line up with the other players' thoughts or not.

I see 1 vote for slowing things down so that the players can attempt to intelligently use character resources.

I see 1 vote for keeping the impulsive, massive-damage-dealing NPC which has been being used to force us ever forward.

I see 1 silent.

Maybe I am further away from the other players in how I'm seeing things?

I was assuming that we were just in the midst of a big dungeon crawl for the time being, and more role play would happen once we finished the place.

And honestly, I didn’t know we had so many NPCs with us currently. I generally prefer a party of 5-6 for PBP games. Real players, that is.

I am normally fairly tactical and optimized in terms of choices, Vivi has been a career Merc and, while not entirely sane she is a professional combatant. She hits above her weightclass because she got a +1 vicious greatsword, but she is also a massive glass cannon on account of it.

I do not really like having multiple GM NPCs, especially if several of them are far stronger then any individual party member. Aukan is "ok" because while strong he is not very smart.

As some background, we had a near party wipe when we engaged the boss first, although we probably did way more damage then expected, then the GM adjusted with a source of healing/raise dead/get out of jail cards (it wasnt exactly our fault we got wiped, we just happened to be level 3 when book expected us to be level 5), the GM NPCs other then Aukan retreated back to the mansion, then Aukan died again (fight with the Rhasts), got rezzed back up, and the other GM NPCs are now also there.

I dont mind a channeller tagging along, but having the fire wall Lady be summoned to bail out some other adventurers on another material plane is probably a good idea.

As for pacing, I have good results by leaving a day between main posts, giving people a chance to respond, but after that botting people who don't respond to keep the pace up too.

Does Grim get a Lesser Restoration, or does he just roll a fort save to recover his one point of Con damage?

Nima is fresh out of spells so fort save to recover.

Is the map right? It's the All the Kings Gold one, right?

NPCs making decisions for the party, starting fights, even with the Boss, with zero player agency.

Again.

Done. Have fun.