[PFS_CORE_Aerondor] Bonekeep level 1 (3-7) Nostalgiacon- Tier 6-7 (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Oh yes, me too.
boon: 1d20 ⇒ 18
miss by one :-(

Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 2

Boon 1d20 ⇒ 6
If successful, 1d2 ⇒ 1

Boon check: 1d20 ⇒ 16

boon roll: 1d20 ⇒ 8

boon: 1d20 ⇒ 5

@Shen, I'll need your email address for the boon to be sent to.

In regards to "quick timing", as a suggestion, instead of waiting for Hádanka to make a strength check and then waiting for a response after each one (which seems to be taking quite some time), maybe simply speed it up by saying "Hádanka tugs several times on the rope and manages to yank it off the platform".
With such an extreme time limit which is very close to the end, I'm hoping we can get the mirror room finished.

I'm pretty happy with Hadanka tugging until he gets the chest off. The only short duration buff you have is flight, and it will have worn off my this stage anyway. If you all want to position yourselves, we can do a take-20 on the STR check.

I was actually kinda worried that the chest was going to be Sovereign Glued to the platform and all this pulling was gonna be useless. Lol.

We have just one day left to go on this. It would be pretty tough going to get this last room finished, although it is possible. I mean, I've seen The Confirmation finished in just over 24hours...

But it is unlikely unless everyone is online and posting.

Oh, I see why Bella was pushing to try the last room--you wanted to show off Lite-Brite's icon. It's definitely worth showing off, though.

Kinda, yeah, but I was rushing so we can hopefully finish this room! I don't want to miss out on too much loot.

We have the official okay to finish the encounter. Hurrah.

What knowledge check is needed to identify the evil doggies?

Planes.

The one benefit of not being hasted is that Ter and Two Blades won't get as far.

I still move 50' without the help.

Drat, the horror of PBP, I should have re-read this encounter before coming back to it after you went and explored the other rooms. This turned out easier than anticipated as that dark energy is supposed to be firing all through the battle. In reality, you would probably all have high-tailed it out of the room, but.. Appologies.

Whoa! I think you are 100% right, GM. That negative force blast thing is tough, when the party is already split!

I'm wondering if smashing the mirror will end the blasts of negative energy. We slotted the stones, but, nothing happened. Should we try randomly switching the stones in their slots again? I have 3 channels left to keep us going for a bit. Any suggestions?

Have Shen try to analyze the magic, and/or have Tere and Two Blades try to disarm it.

You slotted the stones and so far have no noticed anything different, apart from the dogs appearing.

As Tere notes, nobody has done a detect magic yet.

We did detect magic when we first entered.

Just gonna put it here for easy access...
"There are necromantic, evocative [sic], conjuration and abjuration magics. The necromantic and evocative energies are focused on the crystal. The conjugative energy on the mirror. The black lightning is necromantic. Both mirror and crystal have abjurative energies over them, that seem tied back to a spot on the wall, where you note there are three small indentations."

If I remember correctly, All 3 stones have abjuration auras. This is a tough puzzle.

I guess we'll scan the room again now that the hounds are destroyed.

Yes... but not since you put the stones in place.

Just noting, that the energies are still exploding around the room, so... casting detect magic may leave you in the line of fire.

Ok. Hopefully Bella has some cover by being in the hallway near the room's entrance to avoid the bolts.

Edit: Hmm, what about casting dispel magic on the necromantic energy? Would Bella know if it's possible?

Chronicles are now available.

You will note you got half the maximum gold. That is an adjustment for the PBP version (but to be fair, you only covered half the dungeon) - and keeps it more or less in line with regular scenarios.

You did score a nice minor artifact though. Remember it next time you meet undead or a necromancer. Or an EHP.

Thanks very much for the game, sorry it went on a bit long, but I thought it was worth giving you the chance for the artifact as you had covered enough bases to earn it.

Anyone keep track of how many cure charges you all used?

Thank you for running it! The CLW wand for Two Blades is down to 25 charges. Interesting artifact.

I used six CLW charges for me and the potion of desperate escape.

I marked off the charges I used for Tere--a total of 15.

Thanks for running this, GM A! That was quite a challenge.

I, too, marked off charges & stuff as they got used.

Thank you for an awesome game GM Aerondor, Pau, T.B., Tere, Hádanka, & Shen. I'm glad you all got to meet Lite-Brite. I hope to see you all in another PbP soon.

I'm getting comfortable enough with PbP to put on the GM hat soon.

Cheers!

This one really was a doozy. You got a bit lucky with the traps, but could have totally avoided the ooze fight with your tactics.

But each fight felt like a boss fight.

Thanks for everything!

The artifact compensates any reduced gold. :-)

This one really was a doozy. You got a bit lucky with the traps, but could have totally avoided the ooze fight with your tactics.

The only reason to do the ooze fight was to protect our line of retreat, which would have been fine except that the next room was a puzzle and not a fight.

But each fight felt like a boss fight.

Yeah, that. The combination of environmental hazards and combat prowess was daunting. The other thing I noticed is that with the exception of the skeletons every enemy we faced had some ability to degrade weapons (caryatid columns, gray oozes) or disarm the party (you drop your weapons when you panic at the mastiff's howl). Any group going on was going to find itself running out of things to attack with, unless they had someone who'd happened to prepare make whole, or mending (for lighter weapons).

Remembering the caryatid columns reminds me, btw--in their Bestiary entry, this is how their weapons are described:

Caryatid columns are always equipped with a masterwork weapon that appears to be made out of stone as long as the construct remains in statue form. The weapon can be recovered after a caryatid column has been defeated.

Did Jason Bulmahn change that so we couldn't recover weapons from them?

Nope. But given the entry in the scenario has the "cannot be disarmed" I was assuming that they were just part of the statue.

To be fair to Jason, the skeletons you killed did have magic longswords which came in handy.

But yes, the scenario has a reminder section about weapon damage because ... that was one of the challenges. That and disease, but you avoided those bits.

They cannot be disarmed is right, since the weapons are part of the creature and it's a CMB check to disarm. However, the part about "The weapon can be recovered after a caryatid column has been defeated." Makes a big difference. We could have had a few mwk weapons at our disposal.

But yes, the scenario has a reminder section about weapon damage because ... that was one of the challenges. That and disease, but you avoided those bits.

I wasn't sure about the disease part; you hadn't checked any of the boxes in that part of the chronicle, but you also hadn't lined through it.

Feel free to line through the diseases, or I can re-issue them. I removed another item that you didn't qualify for.

Which items should I cross off the chronicle? Ratskull seems like an item we didn't find.

Yeap. I thought I had removed it.

Ahh.. I removed the details of the item but not the line for it.
You should also remove the ring of the ram. silversheen, +2 chain shirt, hybridization funnel and elemental gems.

Hmm, maybe I should reissue.

Might not be a bad idea since it is a Core game.

Go ahead & reissue. Thanks!

That’s probably a good call, if you don’t mind, gm.

Please send me a private message about how you think things went doing Bonekeep in PbP if you're willing to give input. I can't make your answers anonymous, but I can say I will do my best to not let your answers impact anything but Bonekeep decisions.

I'll be likely the weekend. Mad busy ATM.

No problem on my end...I don't have anything queued up for Tere.

No rush here.

Found a quiet moment after the essay was handed in.

New chronciles are available, they are much shorter now.

I added a comment in the diseases section saying explicitly that none are ticked.

Thanks for updating them, and thanks again for running!

My pleasure. Thanks for playing everyone.

I'll leave this open for a couple of days incase there are any last quesitons, and then close down the forum at the start of next week.