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Player Name: Palandri
Character Name: Jayma
Character Level: 5
Character PFS#: 2380483-2003
Character Faction: Horizon Hunters
Downtime:
That should be good for 40sp over the 8 days of downtime.
I accidently dotted in as Elfino before switching to Jayma, so both appear on the Current Characters tab. Please feel free to remove Elfino from this tab; I can't seem to do it myself.
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I suspect you may already have a group for this, given the lack of recruitment thread, but your listing on the Event sheet says you still have slots available, so...
Character Name : Rhizzuk
Character Level : 5
Character PFS# : 757-2007
Character Faction : RO
Waiting on Hornbori to check in.
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One other thing I should check on: trigger warnings.
This scenario is on the dark side of PFS scenarios, and there are references to narcotic drugs, abduction, and torture. None of the descriptions are graphic, but it's enough that I read it very carefully with a dose of "would I GM this for my 9 year old" skepticism.
If there is any reason that you'd prefer not even a whiff of that in your games, please PM me (don't post here) and simply say, "no drugs", "no abduction", or "no torture." No questions asked, no explanation required, I'll just scrub it all.
Aight ... decisions may be coming up early next week and I need input.
Decision inputs:
1. Hornbori has checked into the game but has not posted into Discussion or actual gameplay.
2. I've PMed him, but have not received a response.
3. The pace at which I usually run games lends itself to 5-7 week games, it has been a little longer recently because my personal schedule has been slow.
4. On Monday, it will be 8 weeks until the reporting deadline for Outpost. It's not a hard and fast deadline for finishing the scenario, but in my experience, things tend to degenerate past that point (either people losing interest or people super rushing).
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Option 1: We set a date, and begin on that date with or without Hornbori (running with 5 if he doesn't join, and he can jump in a bit late [if we haven't finished more than the briefing]). This date would likely be sometime between March 21 and March 28.
Option 2: We set a date, and recruit for a sixth player on that date. Two players asked if there were an open seat, so I'd PM one of them.
Option 3: I could de-list this game from Outpost. The group would lose any bonus AcP or whatever, but it would take the time pressure off. I think I would also have to work out some finances with Paizo because I got the scenario for free, but I'm in good standing with Tyranius and we've worked this out before.
Option 4: We can defer the decision, recognizing we'd have to sustain a pretty fast pace to complete it. I am not in favor of this - my schedule may actually get worse (worse for PFS, better for me personally lol) over the next few months.
Option 5: We can wait, and commit to not dropping off the face of the earth after the game is reported.
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Let me tell you this: In no circumstance, I would vote to rush the game. I want to enjoy the scenario and not jump through it. If you feel like delisting from Outpost is the solution go with it, extra ACP does not matter much to me, I suggest Outpost as it let you not pay for the scenario.
Ditto. The extra AcP is nice, but not worth rushing things.
Also (and this goes for any GM willing to let me play) I'll happily reimburse the GM for any costs associated with running the adventure.
Okay, that'll be the backup plan. Hornbori has checked in so I think we can start moving forward, and if we run over the deadline by a little, it'll be no problem.
If we look like we're going to miss the deadline by more than a few weeks, we can discuss later.
Thanks for the offers to chip in for the scenario, but I'm pretty confident I could work it out with Tyranius; and if not, I've got a decent job. Heck, I'm sitting here in a coffeeshop with a coffee that almost cost as much as the scenario. My concern is more that I don't want Tyranius to get in trouble, in case there ends up being a bunch of people who request scenarios and then don't run them.
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I remember when I noticed this happening to Farol too (I independently saw a post that he swear he made -- he did -- and then it disappeared), and now I'm a little freaked out that they have legit data-loss bugs on the site :/
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Yeah, I heard stories about disappearing posts. For the most part, I was not 'impacted' by that. I saw plenty of odd behavior when I clicked submit and it showed me the preview. And sometimes it double posted afterward.
But yeah I think something is fishy at times :D
'data-loss bugs' - that sounds like a technical term, software engineer?
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Hi folks, I should have given more of a heads-up, but I'll be on vacation next week. There's Internet, and I should be able to keep up (or at least at the pace I have been), but I just wanted to let you all know.
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So sorry for not posting for a while. Life has been busy recently. I'm moving from all of the schools I teach at and my base school closed down so I was running around helping them clean-up, move things around and get rid of unnecessary things or stuff with personally identifiable information. It's sapped my energy and time. Things will be settling down next week, and I should be able to post more regularly.
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@Gm - I hate to bring it up but since AOO was a crit it cancels the BM :( Rules on AOO
All the best @Symeon.
I wrote it on another threads, but this weekend I will be busy moving. This would be temporary but I am not certain what would be the internet situation there. My posting could be disrupted early next week
Yeah, no problem. Just post whenever you can, and make sure you keep rolling nat 20s.
Sooo ... I've been forgetting Hero Points a lot.
Everyone started with 1, and if any of you have GM glyphs, please say who they are for. I'm also going to hand out 2 more, as roughly "2 hours" of the scenario has elapsed.
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As I mentioned in my previous post. On average, it will take Arfsnarf about 15 rounds and 4 broken picks to get 4 successes at a DC of 25 with Thievery +9. I doubt Arfsnarf has 4 sets of replacement picks, so the odds of him making it are quite low, and that assumes the drakes were to give him the 15 required rounds.
Our best bet it to smash the lock open as quickly as possible. Hornbori's attack on the lock (assuming it hit - does he even have to roll an attack against an inanimate object?) did 19 hp of damage, which means that the lock took 10 hp of damage and only has 8 hp left before it breaks. If we can take out those last 8 hp before the drakes get their turn, then they will likely make a run for it rather than attack us. If Makai's attack on the lock does 17 hp of damage, then we're golden. If not, then our last hope is Symeon with his bow at (2d6 + 1d6 Strategic) to make up the difference.
If we can't break the lock in the first round, then we better hope the drakes understand that we're beating on the lock and not them and that they're patient enough to give us another round at the lock before they attack. Of course, they could attack whether we break the lock or not, so this whole thing may be a purely academic discussion.
To illustrate my point about Arfsnarf succeeding at picking the lock, here is a string of Thievery +9 rolls vs a DC 25 lock:
01: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 1
02: - Success 1
03: - Crit Fail: Broken Pick 2
04: - Success 2
05: - Success 3
06: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 3
07: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 4
08: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 5
09: - Fail
10: - Fail
11: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 6
12: - Crit Fail: Broken pick 7
13: - Fail
14: - Fail
15: - Success 4
Exactly 15 attempts with 7 broken sets of picks to get 4 successes.
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A fan fact Pick a lock specify that the broken pick can be repaired with crafting and a repair kit. So in theory you can repair broken picks without having a replacements.
As a GM I usually go with some limit, like you can't fix it more than 3 times, but it is not stated in rules.
Repair is an Exploration activity that takes 10 minutes, so in cases like this, where you're in Encounter Mode, you'd need replacement picks to continue attempting.
But in general, yes, you don't need an infinite supply of replacement picks, you can repair them.
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Jayma did originally (randomly) suggest the southern door, but when Hornbori and Makai went for the northern door I went along with it since who really cares which door we hit first. Itka picked the southern door most likely to avoid conflicting with Jayma's choice, so I suspect she's no more married to her choice than Jayma (plus her token hasn't moved into the hallway yet).
Since most of our tokens are positioned to go through the northern door, we might just as well go with it.
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I think Jayma and I ninja posted our preference for the southern door at the same time. Itka thought the rooms on the outside (south wall) would be less likely to branch off into other rooms, while the rooms to the north might lead them deeper before they've had a chance to clear enough other areas. She really prefers the south door.
Of course, she didn't explain all that, so she'll just follow grouchily and look over her shoulder a bunch if the party goes north first.
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Clarifying the rules:
It looks like we can only Ready an action that takes a single action to complete. This interpretation would mean that Itka can't Ready an action to cast Faerie Fire (which takes two actions to cast) as soon as the Wisp is visible. Is this correct?
If so, phooey.
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Quick confirmation. The creature that cast the Fireball spell remained invisible after the fact, correct?
If so, then that's a 4th level spell, which means that we're up against at least a 7th level spellcaster. Looks like that Glitterdust scroll Jayma has in her hand will be coming in handy very soon. Unfortunately, casting it will most likely cancel her invisibility.
Itka: Correct, you cannot Ready a spell that takes two actions to cast.
Jayma: Correct, the spellcaster is under the effects of heightened (4th) invisibility and remained invisible even while attacking. However, that does NOT mean the spellcaster is 7th level - enemies are routinely given abilities of greater power than the equivalent-level PCs would have. But, generally, you are correct - the spellcaster is a significant challenge and should not be taken lightly.
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Tough Reflex: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
The tough dodges half the blast, and a scream can be heard from the northeast corner as Jayma retaliates in kind.
The DC on the Jayma's Fireball was 21, so the Tough's Reflex roll of 12 should not have been enough to avoid taking full damage... unless there's something going on that I don't know about.
I went with the Fireball because Jayma knew what square Mother Forsythe was in and could catch both her and her visible Tough in the blast.
Jayma could just keep lobbing fireballs for the next two rounds, or she could sacrifice a round of potential damage infliction to cast Glitterdust and try to make Mother Forsythe and/or her flying skull friend visible. Glitterdust only has a 10-foot burst, so Jayma needs to be pretty sure about the location of her invisible foe for it to be worth casting.
Jayma can probably survive another Fireball sent her way, but odds are that she'll require some sort of healing to survive a third.
Ruh roh. My bad - I inserted Itka's Perception roll into the GM Screen spoiler mid-post and it threw off the save. The tough rolled a (14)+9=23 and Itka's degree of success will remain the same.
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At this point, we should probably ignore the icons for the wisp and Mother Forsythe, as they're smart enough to have moved.
@GM Watery Soup: I'm looking at the spell Biting Words. It requires a ranged attack roll, which under normal circumstances would be affected by the target's invisibility. Since the spell is attacking with mean words, and invisibility doesn't reduce one's hearing, does that affect how we'd adjudicate the result of casting the spell?
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As players familiar with common arcane Level 1 spells, it is pretty obvious that our PCs have been hit by a heightened 3rd Level Fear spell.
Unfortunately, based on the Identifying Spells rules, it seems that a Recall Knowledge roll vs Arcana is required to identify the spell unless it is one of your prepared or repertoire spells. As far as I can tell from reading profiles, that is not the case with Jayma, Arfsnarf, or Itka... but is the case with Makai (yay!).
Why is it important that we identify this spell as Fear? Because the range of the Fear spell is 30 feet, and it affected Makai, Hornbori, Symeon, and Itka, but not Jayma or Arfsnarf. That means that the spell caster must be somewhere in the 11 square green area. If we further assume that her speed is the usual 25 feet, then that narrows it down to the slightly brighter green 5 squares.
The nice thing is that Jayma can drop a Fireball or Glitterdust spell that will hit all 5 of those squares (as well as the square with the Tough in the case of Fireball) without hitting either Makai, Hornbori, or Symeon (assuming they don't move from their current locations).
So what we need right now if for Makai to shout something like "That was a Fear spell!" or perhaps she can instead point to the 5 squares and say, "She's over there somewhere!" The rest of us can then also target those squares with AoE spells.
After that, we're merely left with a decision about which spell Jayma should cast: Fireball or Glitterdust. Mother Forsythe's spell DC and heightened Invisibility suggests that she's a 7th level spellcaster, which means she probably has between 80 and 90 hit points. If Jayma's first Fireball hit hard (which the screaming would suggest is the case), then she's down 23 hit points and so still has something in the range of 57-67 hit points. Even if Mother Forsythe fails all her saving throws against Jayma's Fireballs (unlikely), it will still take on average three Fireballs to finish her off, which means that Jayma isn't going to be able to do this alone (she's only got 2 Fireballs left). This suggests that Glitterdust is the way to go so that she can be better targeted by more of the PCs. Then again, hitting two targets with a Fireball may be too good to pass up this round, and if this Tough is similar to the last ones we fought, it may be enough to finish it off if it fails its save.
So which will it be for Jayma? Fireball or Glitterdust... or something else? Any opinions?
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Why is it important that we identify this spell as Fear? Because the range of the Fear spell is 30 feet, and it affected Makai, Hornbori, Symeon, and Itka, but not Jayma or Arfsnarf. That means that the spell caster must be somewhere in the 11 square green area. If we further assume that her speed is the usual 25 feet, then that narrows it down to the slightly brighter green 5 squares.
Sherlock Holmes would be proud!
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Just for the record Makai has Fearie Fire which is a bit better than Glitterdust (it does not require a check. But that also means that we cover all squares with the spells.
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Just for the record Makai has Fearie Fire which is a bit better than Glitterdust (it does not require a check. But that also means that we cover all squares with the spells.
You're right. Fearie Fire is the better spell. How about Makai casts Fearie Fire and Jayma drops a fireball?
I've placed a purple 10 foot burst where the Fearie Fire should be cast to hit those critical 5 squares. If for whatever reason the spell doesn't catch Mother Forsythe, then Jayma can cast Glitterdust, otherwise she'll cast a Fireball. How does that sound?
While making the 10 foot burst template, I noticed that the 20 foot burst template that we were using earlier was incorrect. I've made a correctly shaped pink 20 foot burst template for Jayma's Fireball spell.