#4-20: Words of the Ancients [Tier 10-11] - GM Rutseg (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

Magical analysis only reports a conjuration (teleport) aura, but no specifics on what it exactly does.

I do understand why everyone is on the defensive here but if things do not move today I will take Kavuli's offer and have him jump through one of the frames randomly selected.

I figured it was a weekend so I wasn't going to push things, but I have expressed a preference for the "7" door and nobody has offered a stronger opinion.

Ranalus will go with Kivuli, and as I said I will reactivate Feyskinned before going through door #7. Assuming nobody offers a different approach.

I would prefer that we all go together.

I'm hopeless on puzzles like this so I'll defer to whatever everyone else thinks we should do.

Although I like there is some discussion in here and I do certainly have it into account to an extent, please use Gameplay to make things really happen.

I take actions expressed here just as ideas or player coordination.

It's worth mentioning that Dawa is currently wearing smoked goggles, courtesy of Athelstan's backpack. The status tracker shows Kivuli wearing them, but not Dawa.

Dawa cast resist energy on all us and its listed as still active for him. Does that mean its still active for all of us for another 6 minutes..?

Also, Sorithar should still have detect magic active. He'll keep casting it and concentrating on it as long as there is no immediate threat.

Dawa cast resist energy on all us and its listed as still active for him. Does that mean its still active for all of us for another 6 minutes..?

Also, Sorithar should still have detect magic active. He'll keep casting it and concentrating on it as long as there is no immediate threat.

Yes, effects on the "Party buffs" entry apply to the whole party!

I took into account Sorithar and Athelstan dismiss their heightened awareness spell, otherwise Sorithar will act after the hounds instead of before.

Is this a Surprise round?

No, this is a normal round.

Please, put ooc posts on Discussion, as otherwise you are altering your dice rolls for the round on Gameplay by inserting those posts there. Also, it makes more difficult to read the thread like a book.

A ghostly neigh seems to drift through the air, followed by the stamping of spectral hooves.

Or maybe it's just your imagination.

Which one of these seems the most wounded? Or are they all just fine after our last encounter?

EDIT: This post had one with 45 dmg, one with 7 dmg, and two unharmed.

Ouch, bad luck on the Manyshot.

The Leng creature survives on foot, although mortally wounded.

I assume you're using "mortally wounded" as a vague description of health, rather than "obviously at or below 0 hp"?

"Ah there they go. I wonder how many there are in total?"

Haliban will avert his eyes while studying the 2 nearest Dawa Black and Red.

I'm a bit confused. Haliban's post says he studies black and red and his attacks all seemed to be aimed at black, yet blue is wounded and DM's post lists blue and red as studied.

Did I miss something? Asking because it somewhat impacts the potential effectiveness of Sorithar's actions...

Bit of an odd question here, but...

If they fail their save vs. Glitterdust, does that disable their gaze attack?

There seems to be no consensus on the Paizo boards as to whether that does anything (at least not from the quick search I made.) The Gaze ability does say that the monster "can also veil its eyes, thus negating its gaze ability", but it's unclear if Glitterdust will also trigger that clause.

I assumed Haliban would focus on the most wounded hound trying to remove one from the equation, his post was before I put there how injured was each one. But he is free to decide if it was some other the one to take the hits.

About gaze attack and blindness interaction, I do not think there is any official ruling. Given the gaze attack entry starts saying "This attack takes effect when foes look at the attacking creature’s eyes", I am prone to interpret it does not mater how impaired his eyes are, the relevant bit is if you can see the eyes.

Putting a blindfold or a bucklet on his head, well, then that is a different thing. But the rules are not great on judging other than abstract circumstances.

Ugh, these dice. They hate me. Rolled low on the save vs slow, and only one of the % rolls was over 15.

At least I passed the Fort saves.

EDIT: Aaaand the forum ate my edit.

EDIT^2: Partial charge (tried removing Blue's gaze for everyone else), and missed due to concealment. Got to stop trying to roll this d100.

Does the hounds' teleportation provoke attacks of opportunity?

I was going after the ones near what is probably the primary party healer but yes if one looked wounded I would study and attack them first.

Athelstan, retained by the hound's magic, fights with the magical bounds by charging valiantly into fight sinking his blade on the Tindalo's creature. As the steel bites the meat, the hound shakes trying to bite the warrior back, but it is to no avail, a holy burst accompanies the metal further punishing the hound that dies at hands of the faith of the Fallen's god champion.

"He's not fallen, he's fighting in the Worldwound!" Athelstan pauses a moment before adding "Also, I'm pretty sure I missed that one due to concealment. I averted my gaze, and... yeah."

"I mean, if you want to give it to me I'll take it, but being Lawful means I should at least mention it."

Note how I am trying to be consistent with the order of the rolls and rolling saves (or Caster Level checks in this case) always in alphabetical order.

It is important to be consistent because in PbP you can see the result of the dice while you are composing.

That is why I asked for the Will saves to be rolled first thing, because the hounds cast the slow in their round, but the gaze saves occur later, only at your turn start.

Similar for rolling %, please always use a 1d100 and always roll against the probability stated in the rules, so if it is a 20% mischance, a 10 is a miss, if it is a 50% chance not to have to roll a save, a 45 is not having to roll a save. I would not mind in a table but here the dice bot works as it works.

I know it is not always 100% clear and sometimes it requires double checking rules, but let's all try to be as neat and ordered on this topic as possible please :)

GM, would you mind boldfacing things like your request that we roll the Will save first? It's very easy to miss details like that when going back and reviewing multiple posts especially in a higher level game like this one where there are a lot of things going on. It's also a bit counter-intuitive (though now that you've explained it I understand your rationale). My process, when I'm taking my turn, is to go back to the earliest post since I last posted and go through in order, finding things that require me to act, roll, respond, etc. and resolving them in that order (I also like doing it this way because it reduces any unconscious tendency to metagame - I'm deciding, for example, whether or not I want to use a reroll, before I have seen what's "going to happen). Perhaps the other players do something similar. When you parse the posts in this way, you'll first find the requirement to make saves vs the gaze attacks, and only later will you find the requirement to make a Will save vs Slow (which makes sense since that was the way you posted them for perfectly good reasons), so it is kind of straightforward and easy to resolve them in that order - it reduces the chance of overlooking something and then having to retcon a whole bunch of stuff because someone forgot to roll something. Obviously none of this would come up in a ftf table because you would cast Slow, ask us all to make our saves, and the saves vs the gaze would only happen when we took our actual turns but in pbp it can easily get messy. Of course it's your table and we should all do things the way you want us to but for me personally it would be a big help if you can boldface things like this.

Similarly, I'm confused by your instructions regarding percentile rolls. A 50% chance of not having to make a save is also a 50% chance of having to make a save so now I'm confused by what a given die roll might mean. Perhaps when you initially post one of these circumstances you could also post how you want us all to interpret it (e.g. "if you avert your eyes you don't have to roll a save on a 1-50 and you do on a 51-100") so that we are all on the same page? Incidentally, I think this is one of the ways that PF2 really improved things - the flat check system makes it so much easier to sort all of this out.

Thanks for considering these requests.

That's very reasonable Dawa, and it has sense. As you say the order sometimes might be a bit more tricky on PbP. I will try to remember bolding save calls.

About percentiles I mean the event described in the rules happens when the roll results in 1 and up to the number described in the % given in the rules. So when Concealment reads "Concealment gives the subject of a successful attack a 20% chance that the attacker missed because of the concealment" you miss if you roll between 1 and 20, not if you roll between 81 and 100 (despite that, or between 55 and 76 for example, will also have the same chances).

For what it's worth, I generally preview the post after each roll so I know what to do next.

If Ranalus failed his save vs Slow, that would impact his actions for the round.

That means that as soon as I see a crit threat, I roll the confirmation. In that particularly lucky attack sequence I posted Primary/Confirmation/Secondary/Confirmation. That is my normal practice.

Some players roll all their attacks and then do confirmations. If you have a preference I will do it the way you want.

I do it the same as Ranalus mentions - I preview as I go along.

I am fine with either one or the other as long as you are consistent.

Thanks all for your understanding. I am conscious this kind of stuff is not usually commented in PFS games because by when you have the chance to build up trust the group is already dismissed, so why to bother. But nowadays I basically play only long standing games and perhaps I am a rarity, but having these things settled contribute to a healthy and comfortably enjoyable play environment for me.

I didn't realize that I needed to save vs Slow. All it said by my name was my studied targets.

Note that if I'm slowed I can only fire 1 arrow so the Manyshot would only do the damage of 1 arrow and not 2.

Athelstan has now saved against all the hounds' gazes.

I'm also not entirely sure he's realized he's blurry yet. Athelstan has the favor of Nivi Rhombodazzle from a previous chronicle, and Nivi decided that last round was a good time to activate her boon.

Just doublechecking re the hounds' attacks bypassing K'nai's DR. Normally attacks are not considered "evil" unless the creature has the evil subtype; it's not sufficient for them to have evil alignment (just as, for example, a Paladin's attacks don't automatically do "good" damage). Just wanted to make sure that's the case here.

Also, K'nai had the Black hound grappled. Did it escape somehow?

I didn't realize that I needed to save vs Slow. All it said by my name was my studied targets.

Note that if I'm slowed I can only fire 1 arrow so the Manyshot would only do the damage of 1 arrow and not 2.

Dawa could use an Immediate Action for Saving Finale to let you reroll. It would end Inspire Courage but that's not a big deal since I could just restart it with a move action on my turn. You decide if you want to do that.

Just doublechecking re the hounds' attacks bypassing K'nai's DR. Normally attacks are not considered "evil" unless the creature has the evil subtype; it's not sufficient for them to have evil alignment (just as, for example, a Paladin's attacks don't automatically do "good" damage). Just wanted to make sure that's the case here.

On a similar vein, just to clarify, you wrote:

With a howl the quadruped bites and claws the Taldan, leaving him blood covered, his attacks bypassing the Pharasma's bone.

Is this flavor text, or are the Hounds bypassing the DR 5/bludgeoning somehow..?

Dawa Kookpa wrote:

Just doublechecking re the hounds' attacks bypassing K'nai's DR. Normally attacks are not considered "evil" unless the creature has the evil subtype; it's not sufficient for them to have evil alignment (just as, for example, a Paladin's attacks don't automatically do "good" damage). Just wanted to make sure that's the case here.

On a similar vein, just to clarify, you wrote:

GM Rutseg wrote:

With a howl the quadruped bites and claws the Taldan, leaving him blood covered, his attacks bypassing the Pharasma's bone.

Is this flavor text, or are the Hounds bypassing the DR 5/bludgeoning somehow..?

See the table for natural attacks. Claws deal bludgeoning and slashing damage. Bite does all three.

No worries, I miss stuff all the time Haliban. As for the Manyshot, that one I noticed and already accounted for a single arrow, thanks!

Indeed Dawa: NE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar)

About the grapple, I already considered it, but as Angled Entry is a Supernatural ability it is my understanding they can just use it and teleport away from the grab.

As for bludgeoning it is as shaventalz said. I know well this spell and was aware of how natural attacks interact with it.

Ideally I would like the reroll vs Slow. Dropping me from 4 attacks to 1 is painful. Up to GM Rutseg.

I am fine with the reroll, but it seems Dawa had not yet acted when the slow was cast and without Inspire Courage on the Saving Finale spell does not work (I think it is not even possible to use an immediate action while flatfooted).

K'nai was already immune to Black, Blue, and Cyan's gaze attacks from last round. I'm not sure if he needs to save vs Red now or if it's rendered moot by the fact that Ranalus knocked him out of the fight before K'nai acts. Making the save here just in case - since it will likely drop him if he fails...

** spoiler omitted **

Dawa was already immune to Blue and Cyan's gaze attacks so he has to save vs Black (and possibly Red if still needed)

Only 2 gaze attacks to face: cyan and black Fort DC 20

No worries for red Dawa.

”Haliban, try to finish Black before it kills K’nai!”

As far as that goes, I would like to point out that Emergency Force Sphere is a 5' radius, not 5' diameter. Sorithar might be able to use it to grab K'nai, Dawa, and himself all at once (using one of his top corners as the origin point.) Not sure how tall K'nai is, though.

If Black survives to attack K'nai again Dawa will use his Misfortune ability (as an immediate action) on Black's save vs the Sanctuary spell if the die roll is a 12+ (forcing it to reroll the die).

GM, minor adjustments to the buff tracker you've got going:

Dawa's Defending Bone is at 30/40. And Air Walk is on K'nai, not on Dawa.

Dawa Kookpa wrote:

”Haliban, try to finish Black before it kills K’nai!”

As far as that goes, I would like to point out that Emergency Force Sphere is a 5' radius, not 5' diameter. Sorithar might be able to use it to grab K'nai, Dawa, and himself all at once (using one of his top corners as the origin point.) Not sure how tall K'nai is, though.

Btw, I sometimes forget about Dawa's Tongues curse - he should not have been able to give that instruction to Haliban in combat unless Haliban knows Celestial. Sorry about that! I'll try to remember going forward.

Athelstan's ready to go. He's perfectly willing to throw some wand charges to those who need it - the only damage I've taken thus far has been to Duncan, and he immediately went beyond the help of CLW.

Alas poor Duncan. I thought I had a scroll of Raise Animal Companion but apparently that is another PC.

GM, minor adjustments to the buff tracker you've got going:

Dawa's Defending Bone is at 30/40. And Air Walk is on K'nai, not on Dawa.

It was originally cast on Dawa, but I am ok with the adjustment as it has been basically the tiger who has been flying around.

Dawa Kookpa wrote:

GM, minor adjustments to the buff tracker you've got going:

Dawa's Defending Bone is at 30/40. And Air Walk is on K'nai, not on Dawa.

It was originally cast on Dawa, but I am ok with the adjustment as it has been basically the tiger who has been flying around.

Ah yep, definitely a typo - Air Walk on the tiger is standard operating procedure for this pair since the tiger likes melee and the oracle doesn't. Sorry about that.

Yes, Athelstan is trying to tempt the other PCs towards doing not-Evil. He can't Spellcraft the spell, but there's pretty much only one wand that heals you slowly over the course of a minute. That spell is common-enough knowledge around the Grand Lodge that he's probably heard the description of the spell's effects and what to watch for.

Sure, the leadership said that it's not an Evil act, but why compromise?

It's also practical - we have several min/level buffs going (like Invisibility Purge).

Ranalus has also offered use of his wand.

Question: Athelstan is still a bugbear or you drop the alter self after the combat ends?

Question: Athelstan is still a bugbear or you drop the alter self after the combat ends?

Spell is still up (lasts 10 minutes in total.)

It's a once-per-day racial spell-like ability, rather than "X minutes per day" or something. So... while I can dismiss it, there's not much benefit to doing so. Looking less monstrous is just about it, and we don't have a lot of reason to think that's an issue at the moment.

Through basic experimentation you do recognize you are no longer in the Material Plane. You find cues that you are in a demiplane accessible only through the Thousandth Spire.

Question: Does this mean that we (and everything else in here) have the extraplanar subtype? Or are demiplanes not "official" enough for that?

Asking because Dismissal.

I am not sure. Unless someone can refer the proper rule now, we will try to find out when/if it becomes relevant.