DM Voomer's Age of Ashes

Game Master Voomer

Joran, Yasami, and Lisi still say level 5 in their headers, everyone else looks set. I know folks are busy, no pressure at all, but I will wave my magic wand of 'it's morning now' and scoot us ahead sometime today. Combat should still be a day or two away most likely, and we can always pause then if people need to finish leveling <3

OKay, well that's the one line I missed. Fixed now.

^_^

The building’s walls are adorned with badly damaged carvings that may have once been androgynous, butterfly-winged figures swimming in the sea and flying through the sky.

So like this?

Or maybe these guys?

Yay Zelda references =D But I should have said that more clearly, humanoid figures with butterfly wings. Though very hieroglyphic-y and without detail.

Aren't humanoid figures with butterfly wings usually a Desna thing?
Like Black Butterfly is her best friend?

Nope. 100% certain that this temple is full of Mothula.

Nope. 100% certain that this temple is full of Mothula.

*sigh* Which is why you aren't a Cleric.

Cev still wants to be an android when he grows up tho ;)

Like these LYRAKIEN

Finally, a situation when "sneak peak" is the correct spelling.

I'm going to try an experiment with the combat that is gearing up to start with my next post.

This was something suggested to me ages ago as a way to help balance encounters with a big party like ours. Sometimes it makes sense to just add in some henchmen, or have an extra monster, but sometimes it doesn't. So to balance things a little in our party of eight, I'm going to try giving single, solo, boss types a second initiative turn and buff their hp a smidge, so the fight is fun and not over the second Oren and Joran get in range.

If it doesn't work out this time around, or you all hate it, I'll try something else in the future =D

Sounds fun to me, Fern.

Dario/KingHotTrash helped me find art I liked of Catalina. I have it linked in my header <3 (Fern, it's blocked on our internet...I'll send it via our work messenger)

A couple things I am thinking of:

1) Did everyone remember to regain one Hero Point during daily preparations this morning? I had forgotten to until just now.

2) Fern, for the doubled-solo enemy you might roll 1d10 for the first initiative, and then add to that for the second initiative. That should help keep its placement separated - though manually adjusting it afterwards may still be necessary. And yes, back-to-back turns for the enemy does seem really strong.

Thanks for the reminder, Caiten. :D

2) Fern, for the doubled-solo enemy you might roll 1d10 for the first initiative, and then add to that for the second initiative. That should help keep its placement separated - though manually adjusting it afterwards may still be necessary. And yes, back-to-back turns for the enemy does seem really strong.

Yeah, going forward I think I'll do something like that. Ultimately, I will always err on the side of not screwing you guys over =D

Yup. The fun balancing act of a GM. Keep things interesting, but not so interesting that characters start dying.

But also interesting enough that they could, because there's no thrill without danger =D

Tell me about it. I made a simple encounter for this weekend.

There is a creature that is killing livestock in this area. If you catch it, the local farmers will pay you a nice sum.

And then the players decide to use ONE OF THEM as bait. And the rest of them watched from something under two turns worth of actions away.

It was supposed to be an easy encounter. They ended up having dying 2 and 3 conditions at the end.

Players, amirite?

Caiten wrote:

2) Fern, for the doubled-solo enemy you might roll 1d10 for the first initiative, and then add to that for the second initiative. That should help keep its placement separated - though manually adjusting it afterwards may still be necessary. And yes, back-to-back turns for the enemy does seem really strong.

Yeah, going forward I think I'll do something like that. Ultimately, I will always err on the side of not screwing you guys over =D

Life is rarely so kind, thank you

Tell me about it. I made a simple encounter for this weekend.

There is a creature that is killing livestock in this area. If you catch it, the local farmers will pay you a nice sum.

And then the players decide to use ONE OF THEM as bait. And the rest of them watched from something under two turns worth of actions away.

It was supposed to be an easy encounter. They ended up having dying 2 and 3 conditions at the end.

Players, amirite?

2 or 3 turns? Like several rounds of moves away? That's not a trap, that's like suicide bombing, IF you're using Joran or Oren as the bait ... maybe.

The reroll effect of a Hero Point has the Fortune trait.

So only one per check.

And they also conflict with other things with the Fortune trait such as Halfling Luck and Investigator Devise a Strategem.

They used farmers as bait? :P

don't write the pun, Lisi...don't write the pun

wait ... write it!!!

They weren't...master baiters?

I love you all.

That's on me. I didn't specify. The players used one of themselves to bait the wolf pack.

A druid wildshaped into a sheep, posed as bait, then got massacred in those two turns.

Two dire wolves with Attack of Opportunity added, and four regular level 1 wolves. In the end, it was a tough fight, we all had a good laugh about it, and everyone survived. Fun times.

That'll teach them to not casually run away from creatures with AoO. I mean - hopefully.

Fern, it might be helpful going forward to include the standard DC for the level of the creatures we fight so I have an idea of my fail/success ranges for Exploit Vulnerability without needing to pester you about it. <3 Just thaumaturge things.

Can do!

soooooooooooooooooooooo it's morning time, coffee in hand, ready for everything, including being smart; Cev has like the most practice of anything with telekinetic stuff: can he just use Mage Hand to create a break in the line of powder?

Sorry, I was tired last night
Cev paid for my weakness
:(

soooooooooooooooooooooo it's morning time, coffee in hand, ready for everything, including being smart; Cev has like the most practice of anything with telekinetic stuff: can he just use Mage Hand to create a break in the line of powder?

Sorry, I was tired last night
Cev paid for my weakness
:(

Feels like maybe a no, but thought I would check in.

Just checking ...

The line of powder is already broken by Sulee. Better to just attack or do something offensive.

Well, Yasami got to it first since she can move a lot faster. And has three actions.

Either way, the line of powder is already broken (and has been). :)

See above. But yes, any interact action of a reasonable nature will do it. Currently it's all good though, the line is broken.

Joran is busy being irl Santa so I'll give it a little time and move things on tomorrow morning if folks haven't posted by then <3

soooooooooooooooooooooo it's morning time, coffee in hand, ready for everything, including being smart; Cev has like the most practice of anything with telekinetic stuff: can he just use Mage Hand to create a break in the line of powder?

Sorry, I was tired last night
Cev paid for my weakness
:(

It would indeed seem, 2 hours before this post, that the line was posted.

Sometimes it is houseruled that you can Hero Point reroll a healing amount. I haven't seen anyone allowing reroll of damage rolls.

YEAH GET HIM YASAMI

Hm. Yeah, you folks should head out, I guess.

Fun fact. Tindertwig can be lit up and used to ignite whatever you want to burn with one action. So thank you for that one, Fern.

Does it work like a magnesium torch? As in, would it continue burning if doused with water?

Actually never mind that one. Yasamina probably wouldn't know. But I might have a plan.

I'm in it for drama, not murder!

dramatic murder.

Heh. Watching the thread. I will see how the command resolves before putting my plan into action. In case Fern is waiting for me.

Yeah, I am kinda holding off for a moment to see what others do. Catalina isn't *super* useful for much other than possibly knocking some barrels out of the way.

Command is a very useful spell. But it is also very temporary.

We might not know if he succeeded or failed at the save until his turn comes up. Because that is when he has to spend an action following the command or not.

Ready?

I'll use a delay, then. That is a free action, and I would get back into initiative when Gerhard either drops the tindertwig or starts doing something else.

That works too. You can also jump back in after anyone else's turn too if you change your mind.

I'll also delay, since it would take two actions for Oren to get in range of him and that third action would be put to much better use if I knew what the situation was.

I could use Fireball. That usually works.

It certainly does something at least.

Personal Rain Cloud would be clutch right now.

The dog said "clutch" - I die ;)
The kids are saying "prime" these days ... and I am finding my best relationship is with Urban Dictionary