GM Bret’s NostalgiaCon Fate in the Future (Tier 7-8) (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

To save Uby, the party must touch the time orrery, find, and bring Uby back to the present. There isn’t much time, a body can only survive so long without a mind in it.

Can we tell if we all need to touch the orrery simultaneously? Or is it more like: As long as the configuration is set, any who interact with it are sent to the same time/location?

GM Bret wrote:

To save Uby, the party must touch the time orrery, find, and bring Uby back to the present. There isn’t much time, a body can only survive so long without a mind in it.

Can we tell if we all need to touch the orrery simultaneously? Or is it more like: As long as the configuration is set, any who interact with it are sent to the same time/location?

Yes.

The scenario doesn’t say. Touch it in short order of each other or at the same time, should work. I think it makes more sense to touch it all at once, but the scenario doesn’t require that.

GM Bret
Would you like for us to move our tokens or would you prefer to move them yourself and stop us when we find something interesting?

Sorry, Wednesday’s tend to be a little busy.

Go ahead and move the group through one area of fog.

Everyone please give me a Fort save for going through the fog.

Will do an update late tonight, about 7-8 hours from now.

Good call, Lizzo! Forgot about that.

GM Bret, since this is our first Fort Save, can you please add +1 for Last Meal to Lazarus' roll? Thanks!

No crit for Dr Lazarus? Astrid hit the guy on a 22 while he was frightened 1. Dr Lazarus got a 31 vs the guy frightened 1 and flat footed.

I forgot the flat footed. Thanks.

Excellent! Thanks Astrid. And GM Bret!

More importantly, I believe that means Natesh's Winning Streak spell continues for another round since one of us got a crit.

If I read it right, Lazarus (and anyone else who might have crit that round) are quickened for another round. And we can keep it going if anyone crits the next round.

This is a neat little spell. Hadn't seen it before! Thanks for introducing it to us, Natesh!

Yeah, it continues which is why I put the note about crit after your name.

First time I’ve encountered the spell. Seems like it would be one to easily miss as you were playing since it is dependent on something that I don’t normally try to track. I’m going to have to think about this one, both as a player and GM.

I like the idea of the spell, it is just the tracking that has me wondering.

I will admit the largest reason I have this spell is because I'm a diviner looking for divination spells and, at the time, I had a lot of other defensive oriented spells.

This is the first time I've cast this spell and I was also concerned about tracking for this this spell since it has such a more chaotic effect. So I was planning on casting it when I was separated from others in initiative at the start of a combat. That way if it got missed I could call out that someone was quickened their next round because of a crit before their turn was up and that there is a clear point where the spell ends.

Guess I should really note who is quickened in order to help track this.

As I said, first time I had seen the spell.

Yes, right now the one person who is quickened is just Lazarus and that will last until my next turn (barring him critting again).

Let me know if you would like me to help track it as well if that would help (or do anything else to help).

Since it isn’t really that interesting, do you want me to just do the Medicine after the combats?

I am willing to bot it. I would like to know if you’ve got assurance, anything that reduces the cooldown, or allows you to otherwise accomplish it faster.

I would be perfectly happy doing a bot of all the medicine checks if given the dice expressions to use.

That would certainly speed things up a bit. Astrid has expert medicine and assurance so she can do 2d8+10 once per hour. Dr Lazarus is better with a few more feats and abilities but Astrid makes a good backup.

Yes, the good Doctor can do 2d8+10 (like Astrid, with Assurance), every 10 minutes with Continual Recovery, and can tend to 4 at a time with Ward Medic.

Posting now ....

Sounds like Dr. Lazarus is your best doctor. If we were to bot someone, it would probably be them for the better recovery speed and being able to heal four at once,

I don’t think I’ve managed to hurt four at once yet…

Cough..Cough.
Gib is a Medic, Continue Recovery, Ward Medic, Risky Surgery, Assurance.

if using risky surgery to treat wounds. (11 min : 46 max : 28.5 avg)
1d8 damage then 4d8+15 healing every 10 min 4 at a time.

non-risky treat wounds (17 min : 31 max : 24 avg)
2d8+15 healing every 10 min 4 at a time.

Imagine a color-changing gnome standing over you with a knife saying "This will only hurt a little!"

Great, you have two characters that are excellent at medicine!

As a group, tell me who you want doing it and any other things that may be important such as Pearly White Spindle Ioun stones. That way when the transitions come up, I can just handle them. Feel free to include dialogue like Gib just did.

Is the robot 'librarian' large and our tokens are just a bit too big or is it actually medium? It's a little hard to tell on the map.

It is large. I will adjust it so that is more clear.

GM Bret --

No rush to respond to this. Just curious about how the multi-table aspect is working. I guess I was expecting more "global" messages from the master GM in the sky. Think we just saw that one at the beginning.

When I went though 2-00 King of Thorns, I recall certain tables providing bonuses for other tables. And periodic updates from the master GM interrupting the action to give updates. But those were VTT games, so maybe it's different with PbP.

Anyway, just curious.

P.S. Having a blast with this game. Felt like I got lucky with a great table with an active GM and top quality role-playing from the players. Good fun.

The overseer announces conditions as success thresholds are achieved.

Although we have done a good job at this table, there are not enough successes in a single category to reach any of the thresholds. I expect several will be reached in short order and the overseer will suddenly seem to be posting all the time.

There are no aid tokens for this special, but the announced conditions do give bonuses.

Scheduled start of Part 2 is Jan 27th.

Looks like I will be getting us started on the next encounter after I wake in the morning. Getting late here.

I agree that this is a good group. I hope you are all having a good time with this very strange PF2 adventure.

I get the impression that the rabbit should be more afraid of Lizzo than the bears. :)

Did you count the hard corners?

To be honest, I remembered hearing something about that, but when I consulted the CRB, I didn't see anything about moving through hard corners.

For Grid Movement, all I could find says:

As an alternative example, Starfinder Tactical Rules clearly and explicitly mention it:

Please let me know if I'm missing where PFS2 talks about that. Either way, if I cannot move through a hard corner, then I sincerely apologize, and I guess I'm indeed 5' short.

I hadn’t noticed, but it seems that rule is missing. Very strange.

I checked various sections including the section on moving in encounter mode. As close as they get to it is in the Objects section where they say:

The GM determines whether you can move into an object's square normally, whether special rules apply, or if you are unable to move into the square at all.

That is for moving through rather than around.

Given the above, I’m going to allow the more lax rules. Provided there is space on the other side, you can take the diagonal.

Hmm...This might be a case of remembering 1e rules that don't exist in 2e. I can't seem to find anything but 1e rules preventing that sort of movement so I think you may be right and moving diagonally across corners like that is allowed in 2e.

Interesting I didn't notice that about hard corners. It seems it is up to the GM to determine allowed movement.

Some rule discussion links nothing official.

Hard Corner

Can you move diagonally...

So I really feel cheated by thievery. Almost 9th level now and every single trap I've encountered, even the low level ones have required expert in order to disarm it. It's kinda frustrating.

Rogue Dedication and Trapper Spotter via Basic Trickery would allow you to attempt up to Master. It would also allow you to take Skill Mastery to get two skills improved and a skill feat.

Other than that, I don’t know what to suggest. I am pretty sure you will not see anything at your level where Trained will be enough.

Oh I know I could get there. Heck Astrid actually has rogue dedication already but I don't really want to spend a class feat on something that won't come up very often or if it does there is often someone that can take care of it. I just feel like the thievery skill is one of the few trap options in 2e. As far as I can tell it's the only skill that requires higher levels of training to do basic tasks.

I hadn’t noticed you had the dedication. Since you do, Skill Mastery is worth consideration.

I hadn’t noticed you had the dedication. Since you do, Skill Mastery is worth consideration.

Oh definitely. Skill mastery is my plan for level 10.

I just realized that you don’t have a character with Thievery at Expert or with Trap Spotter.

Someone may want to heal the dwarf NPC. Then you just set the trap off and hope she survives.

Thievery is on my list to bump, but not as high as other skills I've bumped.

Really Gib hasn't run into many traps and none that have required Expert.

So I’m trying to figure out if your group has any other options.

You can try breaking the trap, but that requires doing a lot of damage to get past the hardness and then break the item. It has to be done in a single attack since attacking the trap sets it off.

Damaging a hazard

Item damage

I've think I've run through my gauntlet of ideas aside throwing Natesh's body in front of the blades to try and block for Gloma or (standing in the middle of the trap) ready healing potions to give to Gloma in the middle of a trap.

I like the idea of Natash's Dimension Door spell. If Gloma has a familiar, she may very well be trained to activate the scroll ....

Otherwise, if we try to break the trap, it might be possible if we all get a single attack in simultaneously, maybe assuming crit damage (or given a big circumstance bonus to hit given no defenses), maybe it would be enough?

If the pressure plate is 1 Bulk (or less), I thought Mage Hand could be used to keep it depressed. But maybe that's cheating without involving a Thievery check.

At the end of a PFS scenario, are PCs allowed to help cover the costs that another PC incurred?

Specifically, since Natesh used a 4th level scroll (70gp), can Dr. Lazarus offer to cover half (35gp) out of his earnings from completing this scenario?

I seem to recall in PFS-1, PCs could pool gold to share the cost of a PC resurrection, if needed.

I can not find anything like for the general case in the online guide.

It is very possible that I missed it, if someone finds something like that please point it out. I thought it used to be there, but can not find it now.

The Uneven Ground is going to require the Balance action to move. That means you often will not move full speed and it is possible you will fall down.

Anyone without Steady Balance will be flat footed.

Note that the Difficult Terrain also modifies the movement cost.

If you have questions on this, please ask here.

In exploration mode, we don’t need the Balance checks. I’m putting it here because I expect to soon enter encounter mode.

@Lazarus

Check out the tee-shirt I just bought Tee

The one rule I'm familiar with is here in the guide in Negative Effects under Player Basics. Specifically

Other PCs can use their spells, feats or class abilities to assist characters in recovering from negative effects. They can also contribute consumables or even some of their gold, but they are not required to. Characters can always use gold earned during the adventure to clear conditions and those costs must be deducted on the scenario Chronicle by the GM.

And Negative Effects are defined as Death, Permanent negative effects, and Curses. I wouldn't count this as any of those.

In any case, I'm completely fine with covering the cost here with no worries, compared to a lot of negative conditions this is perfectly manageable and I'm happy to find a use for my random consumables.

Thanks Natesh. Yes, I knew I remembered we were able to pool gold, but didn't know it was limited to certain things. Thanks for the information and thanks very much for using an expensive consumable to get us out of that dilemma! Maybe worthy of an upcoming hero point .... :)

Check out the tee-shirt I just bought

That is awesome! Thanks for the link. I'll be buying one tonight! By Grabthar's hammer, what a savings.

Fighter Weapon Mastery
Level 5
Hours spent training with your preferred weapons, learning and developing new combat techniques, have made you particularly effective with your weapons of choice. Choose one weapon group. Your proficiency rank increases to master with the simple weapons, martial weapons, and unarmed attacks in that group, and to expert with the advanced weapons in that group. You gain access to the critical specialization effects of all weapons and unarmed attacks for which you have master proficiency.

Astrid has master proficiency with swords so the beastie is flat-footed until the start of her next turn.

@Astrid Thanks for confirming. Updating my template.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that between events you could buy things from the supply caravan from the CRB of up to your level.

I didn’t realize I hadn’t told you this until Gib’s post about running out of arrows.

This only applies to Part One (which we just finished), Oart 2 and a certain event that I will tell you about later.

Not a problem.

This has been the most archery I've seen in a session yet. :)

Lizzo is normally well stocked and happy to share, but it looks like he's already gone through 31/50 this adventure. I'm sure he can spare a few, but he may need to consider carrying more for special events.

Lizzo, keep your arrows since your bow is your primary weapon. Gib is better with the melee weapons than a bow so it's not a hardship.

As the creature emerges from the ground Astrid draws her shortsword and lashes out.

"Bad move. You should have taken a left turn out of here, turkey."

Okay I'm really reaching with this joke but obviously Astrid has never heard of Albuquerque and this sounds sort of the same.