DM Voomer's Age of Ashes

Game Master Voomer

Everyone is retreating.

The retreat has just started. Ascending a cliff is slowing folks down on disengaging completely though.

What they said. There is a ten foot drop into this cavern at the end of each hall. Everyone dropped in on round one, realized things were scary, and are trying to scramble back out.

Well, there we go then, so Joran & Cev aren't going to imtimidate the crazy demon with the good cop bad cop marriage counseling schtick, got it

Yeah, we are rather badly outclassed.

Also, Cev, you are the one holding the gate key. Unless you have a really good Athletics bonus, it would be much better for you to stay on the top of the ledge.

May Cev please have the move he just made allowed in the round he missed so that at least the demon has to choose between eliminating the damage or being enfeebled?

I botted you based on your expressed desire to fall back and rest, and had you attack and prepare to aid folks. It's a DC 15 athletics check to descend the cliff you'd have needed to make, and from where you are on the map, Oren is not within 15 feet anyway, so it would not work regardless. I'll put you back on the cliff for now.

You can do whatever you like this round, though! I think we're waiting on you, Oren, and Yasami.

Waiting for Oren. Just in case.

Also, Fern, what's that alcove 3 squares NE of Yasami?

Cev wrote:

May Cev please have the move he just made allowed in the round he missed so that at least the demon has to choose between eliminating the damage or being enfeebled?

I botted you based on your expressed desire to fall back and rest, and had you attack and prepare to aid folks. It's a DC 15 athletics check to descend the cliff you'd have needed to make, and from where you are on the map, Oren is not within 15 feet anyway, so it would not work regardless. I'll put you back on the cliff for now.

You can do whatever you like this round, though! I think we're waiting on you, Oren, and Yasami.

I'm sorry I missed it, that's on me. I will move Cev back to where he was a contemplate his life's work

Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Robin ran away! :D

and then ... COVID :(

Aww, did you get it? Feel better friend.

Aww, did you get it? Feel better friend.

I did - not a good thing by any means :( 10 days off from work isn't a great thing either if you're miserable.

Yeah I feel that. Get lots of sleep, drink lots of fluids, and feel better soon. <3 No pressure on posting if your brain is mush.

G#%~#~nit Fern, I came here to slay monsters, not to catch feels.

<3

If folks want to skip to being back in Breachill we can. I was just letting you all RP your retreat a bit, but it's been quiet today and don't want folks to be bored. If the consensus is wait Caiten and you're heading all the way back you can assume you make it back okay, probably around dinnertime -- as slowly as you proceed through the six miles of caves, using the numbers Dario mentioned a while back, it's about a four hour walk back to Guardian's Way, and then maybe an hour to town.

I have to point something out that I think was really well done.

The Barghest has attack of opportunity.

Lisi provoked twice - once for casting a spell, and once for moving away.
Dario provoked at least once for moving away.
Caiten may have even been in range when he was casting spells.

But this *#)%@ (!%)*{@% Barghest sits on the ability and waits until Oren provokes before using it.

Fern, you really know how to make your enemy characters absolutely loathed.

Lol, it's been a busy week for my bad guys, that's for sure.

Silly barghests have resistance against nonmagical weapons, and Foehammer was like hey look at me, I can hurt you, so Ralldar was pretty fixated on removing the threat.

To be fair, it's not a mindless foe, so I can see that being realistic. No hard feelings on my end.

Yeah, I thought it was epic levels of good storytelling.

Love the GM - despise the GM's enemy characters. Absolutely perfect.

You guys are awesome.

It was wonderful....do it again and I will start taking adorable NPCs hostage though. Just a heads up.

I'm kidding! kinda

It's been in my mind for a while that a druid might be somewhat anti-theist. Kind of a personal thesis that magic just messes up the universe. I mean, it seems to do more harm than good, eh?

Its an intetesting take on it.

But not any stranger than a rather non-pious Divine spellcaster.

It's been in my mind for a while that a druid might be somewhat anti-theist. Kind of a personal thesis that magic just messes up the universe. I mean, it seems to do more harm than good, eh?

Soooooo like science then? This isn't a new story or theory, it's been around for a bit, in some amazing forms & fiction. Darkover came to my mind for some reason [if you've never read any of them they're really amazing].

But there's always going to be something, isn't there? Isn't a stick just a stick? Until it's a tool? Until the chimp in that movie shoves it down an anthill and basically turns it into a fork ... it was just a twig, right?

and I'm not usually aligned with Charlton Heston, but magic doesn't magic people, people 'magic' people --- so it isn't magic that does more harm than good, it's magic users who possibly do more harm than good, and at the end of the day not to borrow too many pages from RL/OOC but is it maybe just possible that the news covers rogue fireballs a little heavier than random acts of healing?

We need to talk about how that Yuelral convention was infiltrated by an Iobarian double agent, Cev.

"What Good Is A Glass Dagger" and the ending of Star vs. Forces of Evil also have this premise. There are no new ideas!

Now that folks have had time to be all sweet and emotional, I know Cev and Yasami are headed for the temple, will post that shortly.

Other than that, sort out a plan and we'll go for it! Spending downtime to enchant weapons? Running back in there once rested? It's entirely up to you.

Out of character, I think we take the time to enchant the weapons and maybe clue in the city council on what is going on. Most still think Voz is a victim rather than a danger. We could also take this time to really investigate the notes she had left as part of downtime.

Yeah, I'm waiting until the party comes back together again for having any planning meeting in game.

For out of game thoughts - we really need to upgrade our weapons. It is going to take too much time for me to do all of it on my own though.

2-3 days total on basic rune. 1 day per weapon to transfer the +1 runes around: 1 for Dario's pistol, 1 for Joran's flail, 1 for Cevendyll's favorite dagger.
4 days to learn the striking rune from Yasami's rapier (with a chance of failure and losing it entirely).
20 days for striking runes. 4 days per weapon to add striking runes on people's weapons. 4 for Yasami's rapier again, 4 for Dario's pistol, 4 for Joran's flail, 4 for Oren's hammer, 4 for Cevendyll's dagger.

So coming up on a month of downtime.

And that isn't even considering the +1 rune for the armor that is also available to be learned and duplicated to everyone else's armor.

What options do we have in town, Fern? Would the Shelynites have the magical competency and crafting capabilities to speed up that process some?

Let's say to do alllll of the things, there are enough folks willing and able to help that you could do it all in a week. Renali has some magical aptitude, Tarindlara, Kellen, and a couple acolyte types could also assist.

Okay, so, here's a fun question. How does the mail work overall? Cev could write to the temple, and Kyonin isn't that far away. Even a handful of acolytes and militia could help.

Breachill loves you guys and will work for free. Kyonin folks will want payment. Plus "not to far" is still 200 miles.

Sorry, guys. Was at a friend's wedding yesterday. The world is still a little hazy. Will catch up soon.

Drink that polypurpose panacea!

So, I think we might be able to use the Chelish Deathapple and one shot this barghest. Most of the other strong poisons are too expensive.

check out the link and see if there's a poison you like. Or why not TWO poisons?

Make Barghest Go Sleepy Sleep

Of course, those are PF1e poisons.

Scour is a drug we could try that will reduce the barghest's will saves and prevent it from casting spells (if it is casting spells...)

There are a bunch of poisons that look neat but, um, they are from another book of Age of Ashes, so I think that's a bit of a no-no spoiler alert.

Here's Scour though!

This is good too!

Dreamtime Tea

Who would notice some flowers stuffed into a roasted boar? ;)

I know this is gruesome AF to consider, but I wish we could polymorph a dead boar into a dead goblin. No one has that spell, though. But that would REALLY tempt the barghest.

And now Lisi will listen to Karlheinz Stockhausen as penance for his wicked thoughts

At least I didn't get a 1 for the second skill roll in a post.

Ok, so my punishment for suggesting serving up fake goblin was letting my son run his Hero Forge version of Technoblade in Ravenloft, the board game. Technoblade had 100 HP, +20 to hit, did 25 damage, and could turn monsters into his minions.

He and Gravestorm slew Strahd, the Howling Hag, and Klak in a few rounds.

At least he's practicing writing and math!

Ok, so my punishment for suggesting serving up fake goblin was letting my son run his Hero Forge version of Technoblade in Ravenloft, the board game. Technoblade had 100 HP, +20 to hit, did 25 damage, and could turn monsters into his minions.

He and Gravestorm slew Strahd, the Howling Hag, and Klak in a few rounds.

At least he's practicing writing and math!

LOL! Well, I guess we really can't argue that. Lol!

So it looks official that we have 1 week of downtime.

Go ahead and describe what you're doing this week in general. Caiten has done a freaking great job organizing all the crafting stuff, bravo there my dude. As for the rest of you, go ahead and sum your time up, and if there are specific scenes you wanna play out, feel free! Renali is around and intensely curious about Breachill, in case anyone wants to bond. If your experience with Alak has made you afraid to love again, I understand. ;)

I'm not even sure if Hero Points work on downtime activities. Even ones that only take an hour.

I am fine with using hero points on downtime rolls. =)

So I have the munitions crafter feat, which I honestly took just for the ease of making bullets. That being said, there are some more useful 2nd level feats that I could really use more than 1st level bombs and such.

Would it be possible for me to retrain it for Risky Reload? I have a crafter's book and, if possible, it could contain the recipe for black powder since I got it from my home?

Let me know what you think Fern!

I'm okay with it!

Also as a reminder, Lisi will have plenty of opportunity to train up Warg puppies in proper social etiquette.

Renali is around and intensely curious about Breachill, in case anyone wants to bond. If your experience with Alak has made you afraid to love again, I understand. ;)

Hah. It is way too late for that already.

I'm just wanting to compile everything else I am planning on for downtime into one post rather than posting 38 more times in a row.

The barghest snacking on our boy as he hears the sounds of footsteps returning.

This is the list prices of things that I mentioned. I think I should check with the GM and the rest of the party on what the actual price for everything is and how much of the party funds we are wanting to spend and on what.

We also haven't sold off a bunch of the stuff that we have collected but aren't planning on using.

+1 weapon rune formula (level 2): 2 gp
striking weapon rune formula (level 4): 5 gp
+1 armor rune formula (level 5): 8 gp
sturdy shield formula (level 4): 5 gp

+1 armor rune: 160 gp
wand of level 2 Heal: 160 gp
wand of level 1 Heal: 60 gp
scroll of level 2 Heal: 12 gp
scroll of level 1 Heal: 4 gp

darkvision elixir (lesser, 10 minute duration): 6 gp
darkvision elixir (moderate, 1 hour duration): 11 gp
potion of invisibility: 20 gp

crafting of sturdy shield: 100 gp

Question: Who is all getting new armor/striking runes in this transfer process?