[PF2/Farol] 3-04 The Devil-Wrought Disappearance (Inactive)

Game Master Farol

I'm in for both. Good deal!

Arfsnarf can continue in both of those scenarios. Thank you!

Cool, so far the 2-23 is an interest check. I shall ask for a declaration yes/no when we are close to finishing 3-07. It might align with Outpost (which historically have fallen somewhere around Mid-March) but we will see.

Farol, have you played #2-23?

Farol, have you played #2-23?

That is a very personal question :P The short answer is: No.

The long answer is: No. :D

Since I am playing SFS and PF2 I realized that I can't keep up with the scenarios coming up, so I decided to either play or GM scenarios. As much as I see a benefit of playing the scenario first and then approaching it from the other side, I usually don't have the bandwidth to do it. At the same time, I feel like I can make it a more unique experience if my perception of a scenario is not influenced by how someone else has GM'ed it. After all, I want to leave a mark on a game that I run.

Now, if your question is saying: Farol would you play 2-23 if I GM'ed it, the answer is sure. I don't mind playing it and GM'ing it in whatever order, even at the same time.

I don't want to commit to anythinf (my personal schedule is going to change significantly in January and I may scale back my Pathfinder time), but yes, that was the reason for me asking. If it works out with my schedule, I'd be happy to GM it for this group (assuming everyone would be okay with me GMing instead of Farol). We can discuss it more towards the end of 3-07.

I don't want to commit to anythinf (my personal schedule is going to change significantly in January and I may scale back my Pathfinder time), but yes, that was the reason for me asking. If it works out with my schedule, I'd be happy to GM it for this group (assuming everyone would be okay with me GMing instead of Farol). We can discuss it more towards the end of 3-07.

Yeah let us revisit this option when we are close to ending 3-07.

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In the meantime let me give away the last Hero Point (before we finish).
]
It will go to Jayma for:
- Landing 2 nice spells on the bearded devils and using her powers to learn thievery to disable the trap.

Excellent choice!

In the meantime let me give away the last Hero Point (before we finish).

]
It will go to Jayma for:
- Landing 2 nice spells on the bearded devils and using her powers to learn thievery to disable the trap.

Awww, thanks. It was nothing really; all in a day's work. I'll make sure to put it to good use though, and quite soon I suspect.

He hopes he's right. If not, there'll be time to apologize later.

Not to be too metagamey, but Sabina is shown on her side and without a colored outline, so unless the GM is playing with us, I suspect she's not one of the enemy... not yet, at least. Also, no sign of Varian Jeggare, so we better find out where he is before we kill everyone; perhaps this Sabina person will lead us to him, assuming she survives.

I'm hoping to have Jayma remain undetected/hidden so as to catch her target flat-footed on her first attack, so I'll leave the whole BBG evil gloating to those already in the room. Maybe you can get Raetullus to tell you where Jeggare is.

I guess we'll find out.

I guess we'll find out.

Then Sabina stands up and her appearance changes slightly, she steps towards Hornbori and strikes him with her club

Looks like you were right to be suspicious... the GM was playing with us after all.

Elseif

lol

Sorry for the lack of posting and thanks for the bot!

Hornbori wrote:

I guess we'll find out.

GM Farol wrote:

Then Sabina stands up and her appearance changes slightly, she steps towards Hornbori and strikes him with her club

Looks like you were right to be suspicious... the GM was playing with us after all.

The GM is playing with you, all the time.

====

@Symeon - good to have you back

elseif - funny ;)

Looking ahead to my next actions, how long has it been since our last fight? If it's been over an hour, I think Symeon can battle medicine Hornbori/Emdi again, but if not then I guess shooting is a valid option as well.

Looking ahead to my next actions, how long has it been since our last fight? If it's been over an hour, I think Symeon can battle medicine Hornbori/Emdi again, but if not then I guess shooting is a valid option as well.

Interestingly, this is rather a simple fight ;) especially with your good rolls at the beginning. But yeah an hour has passed.

Early tomorrow PST (UTC-8) I will be catching the first of several flights that will take me from San Diego back to Spain (UTC+1). All told I will be some 24 hours either in the air or stuck in airports... and that assumes that everything goes according to plan. If flights get cancelled/delayed/rescheduled etc., then it could take me 2 or more days to get back. I will not be completely incommunicado during this time and may well be able to post, but I thought I'd warn you so that if you do not hear from me you'll have some idea of what's going on. Once back in Spain my posting hours will change accordingly and my overlap time with North America will tend to be from early morning through mid-afternoon.

Oof. Safe travels and hoping none of your flights are cancelled/delayed.

Good luck!

Yeah, good luck with that travel Jayma!

Since we will wrap the game tomorrow, Will any of you level up before the next part? Are you good on starting on Monday/Tuesday after the weekend?

We will continue on this thread.

Hornbori will make 6th level.

Emdi will remain at 5th.

Symeon is still an adventure away (after this one) from level 4. I keep feeling like he should be higher level for some reason.

Itka will continue and still be at 3rd level for the next game.

Arfsnarf will level up, but I can do this quickly on Sunday.

So we are nearly done, Here are the chronicles please have a look if everything is ok. I will report the game today. I will keep on debriefing you as I want to make the transition to the next scenario rather smooth.

With the lvl updates, we will get ourselves to the higher tier (low end of high tier but still). That means that Itka and Symeon would benefit from Level bump - basically, +1 to skill checks/AC/DC(including saves) +10 HP (or +10% whichever is higher), and also you can benefit from Mentorship boons (whoever have one step right up!

Anyway, I would be glad to hear some feedback. How did you like this scenario, how do you judge the level of RP, particular elements: library investigation, castle infiltration, fights, etc.

Made it to Spain in one piece.

Chronicle looks good.

Looks like Jayma will be levelling up to 5th after this scenario. I'll have her ready to go this weekend.

I thought the scenario went well. We all worked well together and there was a lot of good RP with a few good fights to spice things up. I can't think of anything in particular that I had a problem with. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Will we be reusing this campaign or starting a new one?

Mine looks good.

Chronicle looks good! Thanks for running it.

Hornbori is already updated.

Chronicle looks good. I'll get Itka's character sheet updated over the weekend.

@GM Farol: You did a good job keeping things interesting during the series of skill checks, adding personality and RP in response to our posts. It's always great when players can tell that the GM isn't just copying and pasting; we can tell you're actually playing along with us. The castle infiltration plan was the only rough patch in this scenario, but most of that is because doing that over PbP is challenging at best. We clearly needed help making some decisions, but perhaps you could have posted that you were giving us 24 hours to choose, with the understanding that you'd choose if we didn't. That way it wouldn't have felt so abrupt. That said, the result probably would've been the same. ;) Overall, you did a great job leading us through this.

Emdi has the Radiant Oath mentor boon. It's +HP but I forget how many.

Wait are we going into the next scenario with a level bump? Oh, dat's gonna be hard...

I'm only just learning of this rule, but looking it over it seems... reasonable? The character simply doesn't expand their set of abilities for the next level (spells/feats/etc), but they do get numeric bumps to properly compete with their current abilities.

Interesting that it doesn't specify a subset of skills that get the bump, so untrained skills seem to get +1 too (I suppose that's little compensation for not getting the next level of spells and/or feats).

Oh, and Arfsnarf is leveled up and ready to go.

Wait are we going into the next scenario with a level bump? Oh, dat's gonna be hard...

It's not so bad. Mandoo got level-bumped for Enter the Pallid Peak and was still effective. Keeping track of adding the +1 to everything was a little annoying at first, but you got used to it.

Jayma is almost fully leveled-up. Just looking into buying her some new stuff with all the money she's accumulated.

Chronicle looks good. I'll get Itka's character sheet updated over the weekend.

@GM Farol: You did a good job keeping things interesting during the series of skill checks, adding personality and RP in response to our posts. It's always great when players can tell that the GM isn't just copying and pasting; we can tell you're actually playing along with us. The castle infiltration plan was the only rough patch in this scenario, but most of that is because doing that over PbP is challenging at best. We clearly needed help making some decisions, but perhaps you could have posted that you were giving us 24 hours to choose, with the understanding that you'd choose if we didn't. That way it wouldn't have felt so abrupt. That said, the result probably would've been the same. ;) Overall, you did a great job leading us through this.

Hey @Warah - thanks for that feedback. And I agree, from the initial read of it, I saw it as the most entertaining part of the scenario. You can actually plan how you can enter the castle, and I definitely could have handled it better. It would make the reception of my action a bit better. So thank you for sharing that. <3

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From my end:

- I like this scenario, I think it is good, engaging, has interesting fights and all. There is plenty to do (skills) and fight different devils. I really like how the first fight went, and the whole beginning.

I had trouble with the second one, I think I could have played those devils better. Something about how I led everyone to that level of the building and when to actually initiate combat did not seem ok to me. I will maul that a bit. At the same time, Warah did highlight a bit of a gap in the scenario, the guards from other parts of the castle do not interfere when you sneak past them. The scenario does mention that those guards are afraid of barbed devils and don't want to be there, so I runed with the interpretation that they locked the gates and run for reinforcements. But it was a bit iffy, at the same time I did not want to drag you through 2 extra fights, which were not demanding but they would use what is left of your spells etc.

The same goes with the prisoner, the text actually says that her armor is in the chest, but at the same time when she is described, she is wearing it. I liked Hornbori paranoia so I played to it. I put one more CR 1 guard since that fight is easy ...

Escaping through tunnels seemed like a natural consequence of the above.

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And a question from the devil:

'How is your faith these days, Champion?' is actually from the movie Stigmata (1999): 'How is your faith these days father?' - you should know by now, that sometimes I paraphrase quotes from the movies.

This sounds like one of those situations where the scenario as written leaves some awkward gaps unexplained? I felt like it played smooth enough that you managed it reasonable. The slowness of the planning on how to get into the base is sort of on all the players. It's already been said, but it's obviously something that's more natural to do at an IRL table vs. PbP where it's easy to be too implicit and subtle about consensus (which is what I think happened). Will think on that too for next time.

Jayma is good to go. Paizo profile and Pathbuilder are all up to date.

I ended up blowing all her cash on the following items:

Diplomat's Badge - Worn
You gain a +1 item bonus to Diplomacy checks.
Activate (◆) Recall Knowledge; Frequency once per day; Effect Attempt a DC 20 check to Recall Knowledge about people of a human ethnicity, a non-human ancestry, or some other type of creature. (The GM determines what your options are.) If you succeed, the badge’s bonus increases to +2 for Diplomacy checks with creatures of that group for the rest of the day.

Ventriloquist's Ring - Worn
You gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks.
Activate (◆◆) Interact; Frequency once per day; Effect Twisting the ring around your finger allows you to magically throw your voice, with the effects of a Ventriloquism spell (DC 19).

Demon Mask - Worn
Grants a +1 item bonus to Intimidation checks.
Activate (◆◆) Interact; Frequency once per day; Effect The mask casts a Fear spell with a DC of 20.

Sleeves of Storage - Worn
This loose robe has wide, voluminous sleeves that each contain an extradimensional space. These spaces each function as a Bag of Holding that can hold up to 5 Bulk of items (for a total of 10 Bulk), though no individual item can be of more than 1 Bulk; the sleeves grow slightly heavy as you reach maximum capacity. You can add or remove an item from a sleeve with a single hand free as an Interact action.
If a sleeve is completely empty, you can place your own familiar into that extradimensional space. It can survive comfortably in your sleeve for up to 1 hour, after which it begins to suffocate. While in your sleeve, it can't be affected or targeted by any effects, but you don't benefit from any master abilities. A familiar can exit the sleeve of its own volition with a single action that has the manipulate and move traits. You can't place any other creature into your sleeves, nor can you place your familiar in a sleeve if it's larger than Tiny. If your familiar is in your sleeve, you can't place any items in the sleeve.

Nice. I got really indecisive about magic items, so got a bag of holding and stopped there for now. I may yet change my mind before we start tomorrow.

Hornbori got a +1 rune for his armor, a rope of climbing, a healing potion (just in case) and a pair of Indomitable Keepsake Talismans.

Hornbori got a +1 rune for his armor, a rope of climbing, a healing potion (just in case) and a pair of Indomitable Keepsake Talismans.

You do know that the Indomitable Keepsake works vs fireweapon right? It will nor help when you get critted by a strike of a hammer

SO Mentor boons and level bumps:
Spoiler - I think that second part is less deadly than the first ;) Even in the higher tier, so you should be fine. Please update your headers with bumped values (higher AC, HP and saves).

You are entitled to benefit from 2 mentor boons, And 4 of higher lvl PC's (Arfsnarf, Jayma, Hornbori, and Emdi) are part of 2 factions: Radiant Oath and Horizon Hunters.

- Radiant Oath:
'While working with less experienced Pathfinder allies, you shield your more fragile wards from the threat of death. For any PCs benefiting from a Level Bump and whose levels are lower than yours, you increase their current and maximum Hit Points by an additional amount equal to 3 times your Radiant Oath reputation tier (Liked = 1, Admired = 2, Revered = 3).'

So we would have to know Emdi's reputation tier for RO

- Horizon Hunters
'While working with less experienced Pathfinder allies, you provide important insights that keep your less experienced
colleagues safe from harm. For any PCs benefiting from a Level Bump and whose levels are lower than yours, you increase the
Level Bump’s modifier to saving throws to 2.'

So you basically get +2 to saving throws and a bit more HP as part of your level bump.

Hornbori wrote:

Hornbori got a +1 rune for his armor, a rope of climbing, a healing potion (just in case) and a pair of Indomitable Keepsake Talismans.

You do know that the Indomitable Keepsake works vs fireweapon right? It will nor help when you get critted by a strike of a hammer

Fork. Well, that's gold back to me, I guess!

I return to my previous position of disliking talismans! Thought I'd found one I liked.

I have to generally agree with you about talismans, but Jayma always carries a Snapleaf around with her in case she falls off a cliff.

Emdi is Liked by Radiant Oath (53 Reputation), so, unfortunately, only 3 extra HP.

This skinny hunched witch isn't going to complain one bit. Updating header now. Thank you!

I'll update Symeon's sheet and header later today. I can't do it from my phone right now.

Symeon is picking up a set of expanded healer's tools. I'll have to get a striking rune later.

since the new game is beggining, I would like for people who have glyphs to pass them around,

Emdi had 2 glyphs if I recall correctly, Symeon do you have something to share?