[PFS2, Outpost05] 2-23 An Agent's Obligation (GM Watery Soup) (Inactive)

Game Master Watery Soup

Hello all. I'm going to be in nature and away from computers starting Friday evening (4/29, 5pm, US/Pacific time) until late Sunday 5/1. I should be able to catch up in all games that same evening. As my absence is over the weekend I hope/expect for minimal disruption to my games.

Just two words of encouragement.

1. Even if it doesn't feel like it, I'll disclose you are all doing well against Mother Forsythe. As you can (now) tell, fireball is not a spell she knows - it's an item, so very limited castings. Even if Symeon or Itka goes down, you're in decent shape for this Severe encounter.

2. We are doing well on time, and it is almost certain that we will finish before the May 16 deadline. Obviously, with the unexplored parts of the map, there's more to the scenario, but we're in very good shape.

Question: Biting Words has a duration, but doesn't say anything about concentration. Since Itka was unconscious, does that mean the spell is prematurely finished, or can she pick up where she left off with it? This will influence what she does on her turn.

Question: Biting Words has a duration, but doesn't say anything about concentration. Since Itka was unconscious, does that mean the spell is prematurely finished, or can she pick up where she left off with it? This will influence what she does on her turn.

I asked the Discord rules channel what they thought and the answer I got reflects what I believed to be the case, namely "Unconsciousness doesn't cause spells to end before their duration is up".

That makes sense for spells like Grease, which doesn't involve any action on the part of the caster once it's cast. Since this is one that she can use up to three times during one minute, it could make sense that she loses the connection to the spell while unconscious.

She'll stand and stride either way, so to keep things moving I'll post her third action options in spoilers.

I don't see any language that says you need to sustain. You cast it and then any time in the next minute you can use it.

Fair enough. Thanks!

Now that we're down to just the floating invisible skull, we need to come up with an approach to taking it out. Step one is to remove its invisibility and make it merely concealed to us. Unfortunately, the approach we took with Mother Forsythe is not going to work. Mother Forsythe's Fear spell took two actions, which means that she could only move on her first or on her last action. She made the mistake of moving first to get as many of us in range and paid for it with her life.

The floating skull's attack apparently only takes one action, which means that it can move-attack-move, for its three actions. Given that it is flying, I suspect that its speed is greater than just 25 feet; usually fly speed is in the 40-50 foot range. That means the flying skull could essentially end up in almost any square in the courtyard after an attack.

Even if Makai, Itka and Jayma cast their Faerie Fire/Glitterdust spells into non-overlapping areas, the best they can hope for is to catch 36 squares out of about 98 in the courtyard alone (37% chance of success). If we include the hallway, then the number of squares increases dramatically and the odds of success drop accordingly into the 20-30% range.

Assuming we want to get rid of this creature, our best bet is to (1) exit the courtyard and return to the hallway leaving the door open; (2) close all the doors except the one to the courtyard; (3) move East and hope the hallway ends in a dead-end; (4) wait there for the skull to attack us. When it does, the number of squares it can run to will be much more limited (as the hallway is only 2 squares wide). Worst-case (50 foot flying speed say), it'll only get at most 10 squares away from us down the 2 square wide hallway, meaning that we'll be dealing with at most 20 possible squares it could be in. A couple of Faerie Fire spells and Jayma's Glitterdust should then be able to cover all that potential area. Once it becomes merely concealed to us, it is only a matter of time before we finish it off.

Then again, perhaps I missed a more obvious approach. Anyone have any other ideas of how to get this thing?

Symeon also has a +12 bonus to seek actions as a halfling and then can give others a +1 to their checks once a minute. But yeah we need some way of searching for that thing better.

Once you recover Jespya's body, we'll be done save for some wrap-up. I'm filling out Chronicles, and missing information from Hornbori. I can pull your PFS number and faction from your profile, but I need an Earn Income roll if you want it on your Chronicle.

Primary Objective:
[X] Recover all the missing Pathfinder agents, dead and alive
-[X] Selia
-[X] Tanno
-[X] Kiiruba
-[X] Jespya
[X] Defeat Mother Forsythe

Secondary Objectives:
[X] Recover all the missing agents without relying on assistance from Lady Victiria Junianis.

Treasure Bundles
[X] Defeating the Daughters at Snake Tails
[X] Recovering Selia's body
[X] Recovering Tanno's body
[X][X] Cache in safe house
[X] Rescue Kiiruba
[X][X] Defeat Mother Forsythe
[X] Items from Mother Forsythe’s quarters
[X] Recovering Jespya’s body

Nice. Thanks!

Thanks for running us through the scenario Watery. I had a good time and Jayma got to blast away with Fireballs a bit which she enjoys immensely. Jayma will be looking for work soon (after I bump her up to 6th level), so if anyone has a mission for her, let me know.

The game has been reported, although, it's gone through a third party site (convention), so I don't know when it'll get posted. I'll keep this thread open until I've confirmed I see it on my character.

Chronicles are HERE.

Hornbori, if you want me to put Earn Income on yours, please make a roll. You can also fill it in yourself. (GMs are no longer required to fill it out).

I had a lot of fun running this.

If you have any questions about the plot, I can answer them OOC here or IC in Gameplay. I'm not sure if it was confusing for any of you, but I was pretty confused when I was playing it.

My notes:

1. You ended up skipping two fights, which is why the scenario was way shorter than I expected from the beginning. Through the tunnels, had you not noticed there were people above, you would have been ambushed by some toughs. Also, you negotiated your way through the sea drake encounter and you were able to open the shackles in time (they would have been unable to contain their hunger after 3 rounds and attacked).

2. I was really excited that you figured out where the invisible Mother Forsythe was. I did move her up to get most of the party (per the scenario's instructions) and knew including Itka would help triangulate her, but didn't realize how specific it was. Excellent job! The will-o-wisp retreated to the far western wall every time, it had a 40' fly speed, and fled when Mother Forsythe went down (per the scenario instructions).

3. Opening the jail cell by pickery is hard - it's five DC 30 Thievery checks. Mother Forsythe spared no expense in springing for the fancy locks. haha

My Chronicle looks good.

Thanks for the information. I always appreciate it when GMs share some of the details at the end of a scenario. That last fight was pretty wicked, and the way you played the baddies helped me feel the sort of helpless panic that Itka would've felt. (Gotta get them quickly, but can't find them! Ack!)

Thanks for the game, everyone! It was fun playing with you. Hopefully we can play together again.

@Gm - thanks for running this scenario I actually loved it! THe plot seemed important, the fact that 3 out of 4 agents end up dead did move me and caused a certain level of anger. THe last fight was really cool with the invisibility, good job on that. Running such things on presentation is not easy.

I don't think I have any questions regarding the plot. I do wonder who ordered the killings, is this scenario connected to the season 3 scenarios?

My chronicle looks good, downloaded and saved.

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Thank you all for the cool game, it was a pleasure as always. I did feel that I did not do much with Makai during the fights as they went rather quickly but I think sometimes this is how it goes.

That last fight was pretty wicked, and the way you played the baddies helped me feel the sort of helpless panic that Itka would've felt. (Gotta get them quickly, but can't find them! Ack!)

Had it gone on much longer, I think you wouldn't have felt as helpless.

Mother Forsythe had a necklace of fireballs - the first one was a biggie, and the second one was medium. After that, she had two smalls (4d6, which averages 14 damage) and that's ... basically it. The ace up her sleeve was phantasmal killer but the scenario specifically says she only uses it if it's after Round 3 and someone is frightened 2.

I do wonder who ordered the killings, is this scenario connected to the season 3 scenarios?

Mother Forsythe ordered the killings, or, rather, she just loved killing. The will-o-wisp feeds on fear; they had a collaboration where she'd bring people in to torture them and the wisp fed on their fear (in return for protecting her).

"Her Right Hand" is not explained in the scenario. It has not come up in any scenario I've played in Season 3, but to be honest, I've played less than half.

It's such a consequential operation for Mother Forsythe you almost wonder how she's not run across an organization that would retaliate much sooner.

I've got Arfsnarf's chronicle and everything looks correct!

Thanks for the game everyone!

Thanks for running! It was great to play with everyone one more time!

Chronicle looks good and I love having some more insight into the scenario. There's always so much behind the scenes stuff that we almost never get just by playing the scenario.

Thanks for running this, GMWS! Chronicle looks good!

Just for the record, the game is visible for Makai

I'll assume Jayma has her Chronicle and there are no requests.

I'm closing the campaign - if there are any other issues, please PM me.