[GD XI] Redelia's Race for the Runecarved Key (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

Welcome!

This table is at a high enough level that we all should expect very strange things. Many bad guys will be taken down in one hit. Make sure you're ready for this, and will enjoy rather than be frustrated by a lack of difficulty.

Please give me your character's reporting info. Also, tell me a little about your character, including anything you think it would be helpful for me to know.

Hey everyone! My lady's reporting info is 2351-4.

So a bit of background. I haven't played Pathfinder 1E in a very long time, and PFS1E in even longer. Back in 2014, I had leveled a character all the way up to 19 2/3rds, and I GMed this special twice, feeling pretty accomplished that I got someone over the finish line, but I held out hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd get to play a 19th-level module or Special or something, so I never actually applied the GM Chronicle, because, well, if Paizo presented an opportunity, I had GM credit in my back pocket. But then I moved and never got to play PFS again.

Flash forward to now, I'm dipping my toes into 2nd Ed play by Discord, and what's this? Runecarved Key, *and there's a high table?* No way!

Honestly, I'm just ecstatic at the chance to roleplay the character again. I know this is high-level 1E and how efficient PCs are at vaporising baddies. But that's okay, because I mainly just want to try the persona on again, with the character coming out of PC retirement knowing that she's an incredibly talented and capable aristocrat (ignore those Ninja levels on her character sheet, that's just a records issue. Bureaucracy, am I right?)

I'll be playing Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher... Think Bruce Wayne crossed with Black Widow, but in an Alexandre Dumas novel that has finally gotten its anime reincarnation on Netflix. If that sounds like a Mary Sue, well, when your skill bonuses are as high as hers, the comparison can't be helped. She's basically an Exalted PC at this point; she can balance on tightropes, leap over tall buildings, beat Sherlock Holmes in pub quizzes, speak in six million forms of communication, talk the Worldwound into closing itself up, bring down the house as an opera soprano... but don't expect her to punch through walls. Or cook. That's what servants are for.

Thing is, Lady Gabrielle knows that superhuman feats at the grocery market tend to make people a little uneasy. So like our pal Bruce (Wayne, not Lee), she puts on a persona of talented-but-mortal. Respect and admiration are helpful, but fear is not. Amongst the Pathfinder Society, she passes herself off as unarmed, capable, but not comically weak. Ignore that ladies' fan she clutches obsessively; it's just for show and totally not made of mithral blades within the imported silk cloth.

As for game mechanics, I'm going to need some time with Archives of Nethys, because it's been a loooong time, and she's got a bunch of cash from finishing up Rise of the Runelords.

Glad to be here! Thank you so much for GMing!

Player: Tim Emrick
Character: Falling Rock
PFS #: 93564-17
Faction: Liberty’s Edge

Falling Rock is a male Shoanti warrior whose mithral full plate is engraved with the Shoanti runes for "avalanche" upon his helmet and breastplate. (These match his tribal tattoos, which are completely covered unless he raises his visor.) He wields a powerful magical adamantine earth breaker that he's named "Skyfall," for its devastating impact.

His adventuring career largely consists of the Giantslayer and Shattered Star APs, and several levels of the Emerald Spire.

Mechanically, he's mostly a guide/skirmisher ranger (14) with a few levels of fighter (5). This gives him hunter's tricks instead of spells, a more flexible ranger's focus bonus vs. individual foes, and the ability to aid his allies' skill checks and initiative in his favored terrains. He has the full Vital Strike feat trio (plus Power Attack and an impact weapon) to take down single enemies fast, with Cleaving Finish and Combat Reflexes occasionally giving him extra attacks. (He'll switch to iteratives if fighting numerous weak enemies.) Against ranged or flying foes, he has a bow, but prefers to use his winged boots to close to melee.

Falling Rock is an expert at nature, survival, and finding things (as any ranger should be), but he's also smart enough to know he's never going to be the party loremaster or diplomat. Once he knows which companions are most capable in those areas--and who he can rely on for healing between battles--he tends to become very protective towards those allies.

Player: Aldizog
Character: Sir Hendric (or: Sir Hendric of Lastwall, Champion of Iomedae, Defender of the Innocent, Vanquisher of the Guilty, Servant of Justice, Knight of the Sword and Barrister at Law)
PFS#: 108731-2
Faction: Silver Crusade
Day Job: Profession (Barrister) Take 10: 10 + 11 = 21
Progression: Normal

Sir Hendric is my highest-level and favorite PFS character. He is a guy on a horse with a pointy stick, and he is awesome. He doesn't really one-shot much at this level; lancers peak pretty early compared to archers for example. Still, a Challenge/Charge/Power Attack at +34 for 3d8+165 is not too shabby. Sir Hendric also helps teammates through his Banner (+7 morale vs fear, +6 morale to hit on charge attacks) and his Greater Tactician ability (feats are Escape Route, Shake it Off, Coordinated Charge, and Lastwall Phalanx).
His saves are good for his level (+20/+15/+18 before teamwork feats) but his AC is not that stellar (might spend some gold there). He does have Snake Style to dodge touch attacks, but his swift action economy is a disaster.
He has a good selection of skills, including solid (though not astronomical) Diplomacy and Sense Motive.

He's not particularly optimized - I sunk points into Int and Cha basically for flavor - although he does have one somewhat cheesy trick, which is that he and his horse both have Escape Route. So they don't provoke AOOs on movement, as they are always in each others' adjacent squares (yes, this has been confirmed to work this way).

His horse does know the Air Walk trick, so he will pick up some scrolls of that spell if we do not have a caster with abundant slots of it.

Additional Chronicle info for Falling Rock:

Progression: Normal
Day Job (with Hunting Lodge vanity): Survival: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (11) + 27 = 38

I will work on building his stat block over the coming week or so.

I'm testing my bot text. Please let me know if I need to clarify any of the text in here. Falling Rock does a total of 12d6+35 with a Greater Vital Strike with his main weapon, plus 6d6+70 if he crits (averaging 77 per hit, or 168 on a crit). And that's not counting the extra 1d6 for merciful (which only keeps people alive if he's NOT Vital Striking).

Hey, everyone, please shorten your header text to something that fits in one line on most screens. Daily use abilities should not be there, only class/race/archetype with levels, HP, AC, saves, init, and perception. Other stuff should be in your character profile, probably in a special block at the top to keep track of that kind of stuff.

Thanks for changing your headers as requested.

I've linked a set of maps in the campaign header. Please add your perception and initiative on the first slide, and a small image of your character to use as a map token. Also, please make sure you've provided your reporting info here.

I've entered Falling Rock's base initiative and Perception modifiers into the slide, but his favored terrain class feature adds +2 to both in mountains, or +4 to both in urban or underground.

He also has terrain bond from his guide archetype, which gives his allies the following benefits:

Player: Hawthwile
Character: Arnaut Danièl
PFS #: 264524
Character #: 2
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Day Job: Perform (sing): 1d20 + 49 ⇒ (3) + 49 = 52
Progression: Normal

Arnaut is here to bring out the best in people - and look great while doing so! He's very heavily focused on spellcasting (buffs and debuffs) and will happily let other folks do the stabbing and the slicing and getting their heads knocked around.

Noteworthy things:
- Arnaut has an item (3 Reasons to Live) that increases his effective level for known bardic performances by 6. Please let me know if you'd like to see the chronicle sheet regarding this item and I'll dig it out and send a picture or type out the relevant section.
- Arnaut has a feat (Spellsong) that allows him to disguise his spellcasting as simply a performance by making a Perform check as a swift action. This has come up most often outside of combat when we're trying to be "discrete" (as if this bard is ever discrete!).

Player: Eeeeka
Character: Rilke Jarlsbart
PFS #: 246222
Character #: 14
Faction: Grand Lodge
Day Job: Profession (barrister) [take 10]: [dice=10+28+2] = 150 gp
Progression: Normal

Rilke Jarlsbart is a dwarf from high in the Mindspin Mountains, so they are acclimated to the high altitudes and scrambling around the rocks. Their adventures with the Pathfinder Society have consisted of taking care of a few giants near their homeland and wandering around Varisia putting together this weird star-thing. She was just happy to be fighting.

Mechanically, Rilke is a quingong zen archer monk. She shoots things a lot. As a monk, she's pretty good at avoiding getting hit and spellcasting. She's also very good at noticing bad guys sneaking up. Just don't ask her to talk to anyone. You will not like the results.

Notes:
Boots of Speed = haste 10 rounds/day
Ring of Evasion and Ring of Freedom of Movement
Doesn't provoke to shoot and does take AoOs with her bow

Player Mattastrophic
Character Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher
PFS# 2351-4
Faction Taldor (yes, it's been that long)
Day Job The Lady has no job, but a Perform(act) take 10 = 24 often leads to her being showered with gifts from wealthy admirers.
Progression Normal

As it is late summer, Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher presents herself in an elegant light-green gown of imported chiffon, fit for the local weather. She appears at social occasions entirely unarmed.

Notes:
- Lady Gabrielle has a permanent nondetection effect running, meaning that a DC 30 caster level check is required to ping her with divinations.
- As she is quite observant, she always acts in surprise rounds, she is never flatfooted, and she always gets to take 10 on Perception and Sense Motive checks.
- Her daily routine includes a one-hour session of quiet contemplation and tea prepared with her magical tea set, which neutralises poisons, removes diseases, and grants her a greater heroism effect for twelve hours afterwards.
- I'm almost done, but I still have to check on whether her class, feat, magic item choices, etc. have received any errata in the past eight years. And go shopping. And maybe retrain into something cool.

Hmm... would Lady Gabrielle invite others to tea? That's an exceptionally good Heroes' Feast variant. I wasn't aware of that item before.

Sir Hendric has nice enough manners for tea time (his own Diplomacy is a +25).

I need to do some shopping as well.

Falling Rock's table manners are execrable. He was specially taught that word by Cazic, one of his and Rilke's long-time adventuring companions, who owns a similar tea set [and who I think is our final PC here, once her player gets her set up]. But his lack of manners never stopped Cazic from offering him tea every morning, or healing his many wounds. He's just too darn useful to have around when diplomacy fails. :)

Hmm... would Lady Gabrielle invite others to tea?

If we're together for a "prep hour," then certainly! The set serves up to six.

Falling Rock's table manners are execrable. He was specially taught that word by Cazic, one of his and Rilke's long-time adventuring companions, who owns a similar tea set [and who I think is our final PC here, once her player gets her set up]. But his lack of manners never stopped Cazic from offering him tea every morning, or healing his many wounds. He's just too darn useful to have around when diplomacy fails. :)

... Falling Rock may have to use a wooden mug. Gabrielle is rather protective of this priceless antique from Minkai, and the cups are very very delicate, as she would say.

So it appears that we may be covered 24/7?

Rilke is quite capable of keeping the china safe while drinking as long as you don't mind that she probably forgot to bathe.

Oh, keeping the china intact is not the problem, he's fairly dexterous for a massive oaf in full plate. He's yet to damage any of his dear friend Cazic's treasured heirlooms, which he's been handling for half his career.

Though Gabrielle may be justifiably anxious after seeing just how good he is a breaking things that he intends to... ;)

I'm going to hold off on buying any gear until the oracle checks in. Depending on what spells they have, I might want certain scrolls.

I'm feeling really yucky from an immunization, so I'll be asking a backup to help you for the first day or two.

I am not looking forward to getting mind next week.

Player Risner
Character Cazic Thule
PFS# 1045-7
Faction The Exchange
Day Job Craft (alchemy) +19
Progression Normal

She wears dazzling dresses and a seemingly endless array of gemstones.

Notes:
- Cazic prepares a daily Communal Table (Sp) granting all +2 sacred bonus on attack rolls and Will saving throws, +8 sacred bonus on saving throws against poison and fear effects, 1d8+9 temporary hit points and finally any one teamwork feat of our choice. Best taken with tea. Maybe Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher would like to prepare at the same time?
- She also asks which two would like to "guard" her and receive a a 60 ft range Shield Other. Everyone gets a Life Link bond.
- She has Darkvision 60, Blindsight 30 (living only aka Lifesense), and has See in Darkness including Supernatural + any kind of darkness whatsoever. Related, she has a dancing lantern at shoulder height always pointing down nearby or at times onto her. However, this light is heightened darkness dropping the light level 2 steps in the 5 ft square it shines.
- She rolls three times, taking the best for initiative, always acts in surprise and if she fails to notice she then goes last in the surprise round.
- She is thrilled you never can seem to know where she keeps all the dresses. There is a new one each day. (When you actually probably notice her creating them with a Rod of Splendor).
- The first melee attack or combat maneuver that succeeds upon her gets targeted with [ ] with no touch attack required. Where [ ] changes, and to recharge she must expend a spell slot. Usually it's Bestow Curse 50% no action DC 25 Will.
- She has wings that can sprout from her, a formidable spiritual form, and a staff of power.

- Cazic prepares a daily Communal Table (Sp) granting all +2 sacred bonus on attack rolls and Will saving throws, +8 sacred bonus on saving throws against poison and fear effects, 1d8+9 temporary hit points and finally any one teamwork feat of our choice. Best taken with tea. Maybe Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher would like to prepare at the same time?

Oh nice! If the GM lets us be together for today's Daily Prep Time, that would be sweet!

@Cazic - a few requests if it is not presuming too much.
1) I see you have Magic Vestment as a spell known. Could I trouble you for one each day on Sir Hendric's shield?
2) Shield Other would be very beneficial on Sentry (Sir Hendric's horse). Mounted Combat can only negate one hit per turn and significantly impairs Sir Hendric's swift action economy. I don't know how much I'll have the horse out; we'll see what the situation is.
3) As to the teamwork feat from Communal Table, Sir Hendric already has (and can share 2 at a time of): Escape Route, Shake it Off, Lastwall Phalanx, and Coordinated Charge. But again, sharing one of these through Communal Table would help his terrible swift action economy. Many other options are possible.

As nobody seems to have Air Walk, Sir Hendric will pick up two scrolls (1,400 GP).
He will also upgrade his Belt of Physical Perfection to +6, for 80,000 GP.
He will buy and read a Manual of Gainful Exercise +1 for 27,500.
He will upgrade his armor to +5 (9,000).

Initial: 123,621
Total spent: 117,900
Remaining: 5,721

And, he will spend 2 PP for a scroll with 5 castings of Barkskin. He has never sprung for an Amulet of Natural Armor, being far too attached to his Swarmbane Clasp after an unfortunate encounter with mosquitoes.

I debated the Belt upgrade; it is somewhat wasted because he's already at his armor's Max Dex, but it will still help Init, Reflex, and Ride checks. And the increased Str and Con are good.

She is absolutely thrilled you asked this of her. After a significantly longer period of time talking about the benefits of her doing this daily, she pledges to never forget.

1) That spell is now programmed into my Hero Lab as used at breakfast.
2) My two Shield Other PC's has #1 chose. Sir Hendric the Vigilant's mount.
3) Keep in mind this Teamwork Feat does not need to be one anyone in the party has and everyone in the party gets the same one. I've generally left the "which one does the party want" to the party. She's unlikely to make use of it. It's a gift from Erastil for the party.

1) I see you have Magic Vestment as a spell known.

2) Shield Other would be very beneficial on Sentry (Sir Hendric's horse).
3) As to the teamwork feat from Communal Table, Sir Hendric already has (and can share 2 at a time of): Escape Route, Shake it Off, Lastwall Phalanx, and Coordinated Charge.

Falling Rock has typically been one of Cazic's shield other recipients in past adventures together, though the close range limit has become an issue now that Cazic and F.R have increased mobility through flight. Is there any chance you can acquire a reach metamagic rod, to make it medium range? (Heck, I can pay the 3k for a lesser one and loan it to you, if you think that would help?)

Falling Rock has typically been one of Cazic's shield other recipients in past adventures together, though the close range limit ... (Heck, I can pay the 3k for a lesser one and loan it to you, if you think that would help?)

I have a level 3-5 reach rod, but these come from Spell Like Abilities. So no reach.

However I do have the spell in slots, and I'll refresh in the event we break it.

Also funny you ask, I was starting at 3,160 gp saying what can I do with you?

So I guess I'll buy a 0-3 reach rod!

@GM, if you can let us know what we get from the tea ceremonies, I will add it into my macros. Whenever you get back. :)

Oh yikes, we are moving *really* fast in the Gameplay thread! We haven't even gotten to form our plan yet!

@Cazic: It looks you've got us covered when it comes to protections. Gabrielle would really appreciate consistent +5 shields of faith going into combats, and a +4 (I think?) magic vestment buff on her clothes would be pretty cool, as she is totally unarmoured and apparently ;) defenseless.

In an emergency, Gabrielle is pretty good candidate for receiving true seeing, I'll note that now.

Hopefully we will have had an hour or more between meeting Sheila Heidmarch and heading to the auction!

At the auction itself, however, it looks like Rilke (who *will not* be attending without at least a prestidigitation treatment, if not a life bubble from Cazic), Falling Rock, and Sir Hendric are handling the folks in charge, which I imagine leaves Cazic, Lady Gabrielle, and Arnaut to work the rooms.

Time to break out those Diplomacy rolls to gather information, I guess, and we can lean on Arnaut's knowledge of the whos-who of Thassilonian antiquities?

1) consistent +5 shields of faith going into combats

2) +5 magic vestment buff on her clothes
3) Life bubble from Cazic

1) This might be difficult, as she only uses Shield of Faith quickened - So as a 5th level spell.

2) Daily +5 (strand of prayer beads in the morning) magic vestment for Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher and Sir Hendric the Vigilant. I've update my 3rd level spells per day.

3) I'm already casting, 46 hr duration on me. Splitting with Lady Gabrielle makes it 23 hr/day each. It is so programmed into my daily routine.

@Sir Hendric the Vigilant, see #2 here, the Magic Vestment is +5 as it's 23rd caster level.

Sir Hendric has Shield of Faith 3/day due to Deific Obedience (Iomedae), so he can protect Lady Gabrielle if it looks like it will be a very significant combat. Only a +4, though (his CL for it is 17).

It's not necessarily the most optimal use of a standard action, but at this level I do not see a strong need to do the most optimal thing every round of every combat. PCs of this level tend to steamroll things in their way without much trouble (a couple of more recent Seeker scenarios aside).

Sir Hendric has Shield of Faith 3/day due to Deific Obedience (Iomedae), so he can protect Lady Gabrielle if it looks like it will be a very significant combat. Only a +4, though (his CL for it is 17).

Oh, don't you worry. I'm mainly asking about pre-combat buffs, since our durations are so high now. Seventeen minutes is pretty long!

But more importantly, we have to hear about what Cazic, Sir Hendric, and Arnault are wearing to the auction.

Rilke is happy to take advice on clothes and as long as she can still move and carry her bow.

But more importantly, we have to hear about what Cazic, Sir Hendric, and Arnault are wearing to the auction.

Sir Hendric will wear his armor if at all allowed. And he will have his shield on but of course will not have his weapons out (he's got that magic scabbard). Both armor and shield are immaculate and well-maintained, so he doesn't look disreputable. The shield bears the holy symbol of Iomedae.

Sir Hendric is, regardless of when this is set in the timeline, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of Lastwall's knights. Accordingly, him going about in his armor should not be seen as that strange. But if it is frowned upon, he will use his Armiger's Panoply to switch to the Silken Ceremonial Armor.

In contrast, Falling Rock wears his armor everyone out of habit, but the only other finery he wears is the numerous other magic items he owns. To be honest, people are more likely to look askance at Skyfall, which is somewhat terrifying even after Falling Rock has scrubbed off the remnants of his last battle. He would grudgingly put it out of sight in his haversack if asked.

Like this but *far* less attractive.

Her dress:
Simple ordinary

Viewing your link requires a sign in, James. Do you have another way to share it? Google Drive, maybe?

Fixed Cazic's simple dress
That wasn't supposed to require login ... opps. So I guess I put it on my hosted server.

So, armed with all this information, are we going to banter in the Gameplay thread, or what? Let's do this!

Hey guys, since we have a bit of time between check-ins, you all up for roleplaying out how we Mission: Impossible our way through feeding the ledger information to each other without anyone knowing or overhearing?

Lady Gabrielle is all set up to have our targets come to her (opera diva, satin gloves, wine glass, it's as if all the room's lighting will magically converge on our group!), so how do we feed the right info around?

Sir Hendric is diplomatic but generally straightforward (he has a +5 Bluff and, in his armor, a +1 Stealth). A plan that relies on deceiving others is not his forte. Even if it's just RP and not making rolls, I would still try to take into account what he is good at and comfortable with.

Now, his other relevant skills for this part are good enough.
+35 Perception, +33 Sense Motive (+41 vs Bluff), and +25 Diplomacy. He could be on the lookout for anyone eavesdropping or following specific PCs around.

Edit: It's been explained twice, I'm still new (not understanding) exactly what sequence of characters make the server roll me some dice.

You need to add "[/dice]" to the end of that line to make it work.

Also, you should change "Post As" to your character's name, not yours. If you do that in both Gameplay and Discussion, it will be easier to keep track which character is involved.

And anything in Gameplay that's not in character can be shown using [ ooc ] [/ ooc ] (deleting those spaces inside the brackets), like this line is.

I hope that helps!

@James, I'm scared of rolling dice too, since it's been so long for me. Don't worry!

So is that tearing up by Cazic an ooc comment or something for us to play off of in-character?

Rilke has a -2 Bluff, so you really don't want her trying to pretend to be something they're not. Her stealth is OK, but nothing special (+11). Perception is awesome, Sense Motive is fine. Otherwise, she doesn't have any brilliant ideas for staying in contact.

Is there a way to put an image next to Cazic? I just spent about 30 minutes looking for where to go to change it?

Also what is the implication of this error:
You have made five posts as "Cazic Thule". You can change your avatar name until you have posted 10 messages to the messageboards.

It means you have ten posts to lock in your avatar's name, here "Cazic Thule." How to change portraits? Umm... good question.

both issues fixed

Portraits can only be accessed through My Organized Play. At least that's the only way I've managed to do it. :)