GM TOP #3-03: The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet (Core) (Inactive)

Game Master Pete H.

Well, Khellek can use heroism on himself, Ahmande/Merisiel and whoever wants to be our front liner. I'm guessing there will be an Aspis team in our future as well from what the woman said about them maybe leaving it behind.

I can use Inspite courage for an extra +2 to hit and damage for everyone, and then haste. That can all happen before we open the door.

Any other buffs/ potions etc folk want to use?

Given its natural reach, any melee trying to get close to it before it gets AOO on us would be best done in that surprise round - but also given it is in the pool...

Of course an option is to just "flee"

With haste.. I think we could skirt the edge of the room and get through it in one round, and maybe totally avoid fighting the beast. Especially with the benefit from a surprise round. If it did attack us, it would need to come to the edge of the pool/dry land...

Which still leaves it to deal with on the way out, unless it is only there for a short amount of time to delay us.

Extra posting leeway will be given over the holiday break (this weekend through next weekend). Essentially treat it like a weekend. If you can log in and post every day or so, great. If not, just try again the next day. I'll bot if someone really needs to post to keep things moving.

Time to retreat? This thing is bad ass and I’m not sure we can take it down.

I'll be in and out due to holidays traveling- feel free to bot me until Jan 10th. My preference here is to get away and not fight. I don't think we're meant to kill anything in this adventure! property damage and all.. ;)

I'm not sure there is another way around this thing.
Certianly I think we have to avoid the big AOE things, but the woman said she didn't know anything about it and that it might have been left by the Aspis, so that likely makes it fair game.

I posted an update. There are a couple saves to be made now from the spongy people, even though not much can be done other than make the save and take a move action. But also at least now you know what this thing can do (you knew earlier, but now it is more 'real' I expect).

I also wanted to give you all a chance to evaluate your battle plan going forward and come to some sort of consensus. I gave my thoughts at the bottom of said post, but obviously those thoughts were referencing metagame information so feel free to ignore them as much as you want and act as your character would in this situation.

Yeah, I’ve been waiting for the results from all the saves before I do anything else.

I'll be in and out due to holidays traveling- feel free to bot me until Jan 10th. My preference here is to get away and not fight. I don't think we're meant to kill anything in this adventure! property damage and all.. ;)

my post rate will remain low this week; please bot Kyra as needed. Things should return to normal around the weekend.

The visitors were amazed and made sure to record the story before wiping out the village to create a road for the Chelish Empire. Many of the stones from the temple were used in the creation of the road though...

This made me laugh. Well Done. :)

Thanks! :)

Gahhh... no oration option for countersong? They really didn't think this one through

I couldn't agree more; they actually have oratory listed as one of the skills for Distraction, the sight-based version of Countersong. I definitely think that's in the wrong place. (Though, Paizo has consistently enforced a RAW interpretation even when the RAW is demonstrably incorrect, so it can only be as it's written.)

THEN

While Khellek is doing his book review, Kyra channels once more to finish healing everyone. Minimun healing is 6hp, so it will cover the -4 HP on everyone for sure.

She also pulls out a scroll to attempt to give back some willpower to Ahmerisiel.
[dice=Lesser Restoration]1d4 pts. of Wisdom back.

========================================

NOW

"Folks, I think we have some company..."

I am unfortunately not going to allow these actions to happen. If they were taken prior to my post about combat beginning, it would have been fine. But to post them after the fact, I can't allow it. Sorry!

I'm heading off for a few days. Should be back Monday. I might get another post in before I leave, but not sure.

For botting, Khellek will probably try to use withdraw actions in such a way that if they follow him, the fighters will be triggering AOOs. That and healing himself or firing Bessie.

He has a wand of CLW that he is happy to use liberally, but only one L1 spell left.

Oh, and after folk get hearing back, will kick in with Inspire courage.

I'm leaving shortly for a weekend trip; I won't be able to post again until Monday morning.

I know I can't hear them yet, but which one of us has the book? When my character can hear again, I'm seriously thinking about just giving them the book. It's just a book and they'll spare our lives if we do it. Combat will be over.

Given we were sent to get the book, I doubt just giving it to them is going to go over well with the VC. I assume Khellek has it at the moment, as he is the one they are targetting.

Makes sense that Khellek has it. He was the one reading it after all.

Fyi, I’m in the middle of a move out and we didn’t get it all done today. Likely won’t be another post from me till Tuesday. I’ll bot if anyone is still up then.

Quick question: is this game part of a Con or standalone?

Standalone. Hopefully I can get a solid post up tomorrow. What was expected to take two days took four and my body and brain are both beyond wiped out.

@GM: are the bookshelves (they look pretty big) providing total cover for Ahmerisiel and Zano? burst effects can’t affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don’t extend around corners) so I'd like to know what these bookshelves do to better guide my spell or channel selection. Thanks!

Just regular cover, good question though.

Okay, so I firstly want to apologize for some of my slower posting weeks. My life has been a bit hectic as my family and I are in the middle of a major relocation. This almost completely ate up my weekends as well as even reducing some of my weekday posting. That said, the good news is that the scenario is essentially complete now.

There are some good opportunities for RP left, as well as just finishing out things. But I expect all that will be wrapped up by the end of this week. So get some posts in and I'll keep us plugging towards the conclusion.

If you haven't done a day job or faction journal card roll, do so now. Questions about specific FJC things in this scenario are also welcome.

day job on previous page. 31 for 75gp.

Recover named text. for FJC

I guess we should assume both of us turn to goo overnight and let the cleric remove our curse in the morning.

Make that 3 who turn to goo. :)

That goo mechanic is pretty brutal.

Day Job: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

The chronicle has this boon.

Mutani Manual of Martial Mastery: You retrieved the Mutani Manual of Martial Mastery from Temel Passad’s Ghenett Manor in Katapesh and had a chance to look through it briefly as it was being translated in Farseer Tower. The sections you read were brief, but they nevertheless left an impression. Choose one combat maneuver and note it below; you receive a +1 dodge bonus to CMD against this maneuver. Your GM should initial this selection after you have made your selection.

Thus, I need each of you to chose which Combat Maneuver you would like the +1 to CMD so I can note it on the sheet. Thanks!

Hmm... I'll select grapple. Those grab monsters can be nasty.
I can just see Khellek foxtrotting himself out of that type of trouble.

I think Ahmande will also choose Grapple; thanks!

Everybody chooses grapple! :)

I actually chose Disarm for my GM chronicle.

Alright, I've got the three of yours done.

Chronicles are here!

Grapple is fine with me as well!

Thanks for the game GM TOP! the chronicle looks good on my end.
PS: yep I could see many martial types go for something else than grapple... for all my squishies I wouldn't mind this grapple CMD bonus though... hmmm, and lo and behold: I haven't played this in Standard yet! :)

Q: was there a way to avoid that Chaos Beast? it's just brutal, and to be 100% honest, not squarely on the side of cool in terms of monster... ;)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that Khellek is slow mode (comes with his age) - any chance you could recut it with half xp, gold and fame?

This will actually be his 44th chronicle!

Actually on closer examination, it looks like it is only the xp that is wrong, so I'll just annotate.

Grapple works fine for me.

Was that Chaos beast really tough or were we just in a bad position when fighting it? Maybe our mix of classes wasn't the optimum to be facing one.

Thanks for running the game!

Maybe the rush for the door wasn't the best tactic in hindsight. But with the haste and surprise, we could have actually made it with a bit more luck.

About the only alternative we would have had was peppering it with arrows and missiles from the starting side.

I am a little confused. The first woman said she didn't know about it and thought it was left by the Aspsis, but the man indicated he placed it there.

So were did it come from?

The lady had no clue about it or the traps, but did know about the Aspis. The man knew about both, but certainly wasn't going to share anything.

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The mix of classes was actually really good for this scenario. You all demolished the Aspis and the Chaos Beast once you started attacking.

The rush for the door could have easily worked if committed too. There was space for all five of you to get past it, soaking one single AoO in the process. Ahmerisiel was holding a path clear during the first round and you all were hasted with tons of movement speed.

Or if just straight attacking from the start with a surprise round and concentrated fire would have beat it down quickly with only one or two rounds of attacks from it.

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But... you all defeated a very tough scenario in high tier and completed all the prestige requirements. You should be pretty proud of that. A lot of groups have issues with this run, from what I was reading.

I actually chose Disarm for my GM chronicle.

Alright, I've got the three of yours done.

Chronicles are here!

Talevia's has been added. Khellek's has been updated for posterity's sake.

Just waiting on Zano's choice and we can shut this game down.

Zano will take disarm.

Uploaded!

If no issues or other questions, I'll close down this game in 24-48 hours, depending on how soon I get the Gameplay Final Scene posted.

Thanks for running the game for us, GM!

Many thanks for the game. Let's hope the Bellflowers kept their funding stream!

Chronicle looks good; thanks--as always--for the game! You are one of my favorite GMs on these boards!

Session reported. I'll probably inactivate this game tomorrow morning. Thanks all, have a great one!