DM Carbide's Core Emerald Spire

Game Master John Woodford

FYI, I'm the Overseer GM for the GameDay PFS1e special, and I have no idea what the time commitment is going to be for it--I've frontloaded all of the overseer posts and saved them on Google Drive, so I can drop them into the various game threads quickly, and that will help. I may be slow to post some days, though.

That's fine! Thanks for letting us know!

Before we go on, I need to clarify something about the map. The stairs in the 5' wide passage to the east are not visible to the party, as they're under water and lead down. You said you were going to be checking the depth ahead of you, so you'll detect them when you go that way, but as far as you can tell now the water extends east to the limit of your vision.

Oh good to know

I had not updated map for Viridian yet (silly phone browser) but that will limit his movement

I think poor DM Carbide is waiting for a decision on which room we explore. I've heard crab room and keep heading east. I don't really care, but in the interest in expedience I vote for heading east.

"I don't think we want to follow if the water gets over our heads. We should look at the door in the green light room and see where that goes." "In the mean time i vote we check the crab room just to make sure there is no one hiding in there."
I am new so my vote is not as important. Swimming and water submerged penalties will kill us. I think we try everything else even if the undine gets away.
Lybram continues to prod in front of him as he walks.

Sith a shrug (which emits a craking sound) Mrs. Book responds. "Well, since I'm in the back I'll let you front runners make the call. Explore to you hearts content."

I just noticed i have been posting game stuff in the discussion. Sorry. Well, that's what i get for posting too early in the morning. I will pay better attention.

And you tricked me into responding here, naughty boy.

Druid pokes head behind the curtain…

”By the Green…get back on the other side of the screen, you two!!!“

Currently our group is pretty bad vs DR 5.
The elemental is immune to precision damage, our casters don't have the big damage spells yet, wolves are good at tripping but not high damage.

If we did retreat are there any scrolls or wands that could help in this encounter?
Magic Missile is probably one of our most effective attacks but 1d4 +1 is still slow.

I think we'll manage this encounter but we need to consider how we will deal with DR going forward. I don't think anyone in the party has a high damage attack.

In Core I don't think there is anything that lets me bypass immunity to sneak damage.

Certainly inspire courage will help you all, but it's not going to enable huge damage output. You'll also be in trouble if (as seems likely) you end up having to fight underwater.

I may be able to help with that. I do have
1 Scroll of Spider Climb
1 Scroll of Alter Self

Which could be used to alleviate some of those issues. is that enough and will it be effective? I do not know :( Alter self is a personal spell, so you would need a decent UMD to cast it on yourself because I do believe nobody else has it on their spell list. So it will probably be wasted on Mrs. Book. The spider climb ids nice though and lasts 10 minutes, but how effective will it be if they just stay away from the walls.

I would not be opposed to us backtracking after this fight and seeing if we can pick up some decent magic back in town before going further. That is if anyone saved enough cash for that to work.

Agreed with all points. At 7th level, wolf or lion will be large and damage will increase. But that is awhile away and DR will hurt especially if elementals or the like are common. Getting adamantine weapon will help against constructs at least.

If we can block it from following us in the hall, we could buff/prep and try to take it down. We also do not have any big boom spells yet either.

Bull-strength and shillelagh will help...if time to buff.
Staff's 2d6+6+1 damage will help some....but still not great.

Small cat is core legal and you can use the optional rule to keep it small and boost it's dex but Agile isn't core.

Ape and Constrictor Snake are both level 4 options with +8 strength upgrade if that is what you are going for.

I plan to cast spiritual weapon and shoot arrows. I don't want to get close. Maybe we can just back away and explore other areas? I will scan my character sheet again, but that is pretty much all I think I have for this.

I have a CORE ranger/fighter that's 8 and if we continue to other levels. I can bring him.

I considered that. Tbh about all Joseph is contributing is the Disable skill. But all of my Core options are too high.
Wizard Evoker 7 with a few non core spells, Monk 8 grapple focused, and archer ranger 10.

I think you can manage this encounter with the party you have. (Although as a rule, when fighting creatures like this with DR/-, Corbrae should inspire as soon as possible in the combat...hint, hint.) Using things like bull's strength, magic weapon, shillelagh, and enlarge person--anything to boost your damage output--can help a lot. Just be ready to retreat from a fight and regroup, if need be.

I have a 5th level core wizard, but Lybram is probably a better fit for the party with his healing. My wizard might even be 6th level, I am not sure. All in all I would rather play Lybram.

I think we have a good mix. At 5th level we can address party gaps/weaknesses. But no need for anyone to trade PC yet imho.

I'm going to a convention this weekend and running SFS. Please bot me as needed!

Have fun! I'm hoping to play f2f for the first time in several months this weekend, but we shall see.

Work has been busy the past couple of days; I hope to be able to post an update tomorrow.

I got a cookie block message last night when i check for posts. I hope i am not frozen again. Please let me know if we are still waiting for the large water elemental to go. Else i should start looking to clear my cookies again.

Still waiting for the elemental. There was an incident where I work that ate a lot of my time this past week. No injuries, at least, but we had to close a building until the radiation safety folks tell us we can go back in.

Yikes! Hope all is good now.

Well, that's one way to get a day off. Though if it is like my company, they would expect you to figure out how to be productive anyway.

Fortunately there are only a few people who have offices there. One is out on travel, one has a second office in another building, and the others don't do a lot of desk work.

Yikes! Hope all is OK

The only piece of advice I'll give you is that you shouldn't go anywhere you can't retreat from if things go pear-shaped.

I was looking through my characters and realized my level 9 druid is core.
He has Augment Summons but tbh between his 22 strength before shifting and the tiger companion he doesn't bother summoning often. Especially since the nature's ally spells get bigger at higher levels as a rule and there is rarely room for the party + 2 large cats + a large summon.

So if we decide later on the archer rogue isn't cutting it my core options are

Wizard 7
Monk 8
Druid 9
Ranger 11

My wife is out of town, so I'm having to deal with a geriatric cat and a bunch of other house stuff. I'll try to get a post up tomorrow.

How much cash does the party have on hand? 375 gp will buy you a single scroll of water breathing, which when cast will provide everyone a bit over an hour of being able to breathe normally under water. (The spell lasts 2 hours/level divided evenly among the targets; minimum level needed for the scroll is 5, so 10 hours across 6 party members plus two animal companions = 10 hours/8 targets)

Mrs. Book has 64 GP. She could also sell things, like her acid flasks, but would take a loss if she did so.

ooops.

Got more money than I thought: 1144 GP

So you have some options.

1,800 gold. I think there is a limit on buying things with prestige points of once per session but does it have to be at the end of the session?

Someone can spend 2 PP for a scroll with what, 2 casts on it?

I volunteer if no one else wants to.

I'd cough up the 64 gp I have if we go the cash route.

With wildshape into something with a swim speed, I would think Viridian could manage to swim someplace before he ran out of breath, but the others (including the wolf) would be an issue.

I was not thinking we'd have enough scrolls for everyone - and double if we somehow need to come back after the first expires.

He has ~300gp in cash/coins at the moment. Did we find any other loot we can sell if we are going to town anyway?

No loot so far, except for the masterwork snorkels.

I'm sure you've thought of this, but sending Viridian ahead to scout--while you might find an airspace that the rest of the party could reach--comes with its own potential problems. The water in the mudlord room is nearly opaque, and if Viridian had gone in unawares it would've been bad. There's also at least one summoner somewhere ahead of the party.

Being able to get the entire party breathing water for 75 minutes per scroll makes that option much more feasible, though.

Agreed . Even fully prepared I think the mudlord was going to be a handful .

Is the water as murky under the grates?

The water under the grates is clear.

So are we agreed that we return for water breathing?

I think that is a good plan.

Agreed

Possibly my comment was missed. Can we confirm if the scroll can be bought for 2 PP and save our gold?

You could use PP to buy a scroll with two shots of water breathing, but consider that when you get to the Slow progression levels you'll only be getting 2 PP per chronicle, and if you buy a hex that'll take all of it.

Note that you're already getting less prestige per character level than you would be from normal scenarios (4 PP vs. typically 6 PP), but you're still getting around the same amount of gold per character level.

Could not update map on phone. Blitz topside, Viridian and frog forging ahead as best they can…

Unless something happens in the first couple rounds the frog will disappear (4 rounds duration) so not putting on the map.

I'm dealing with some serious homeowner hell this weekend (cleaning up after getting the floors replaced), so I will be extremely slow to post.

Yikes! Been there before. Good luck with the floors. :)