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

Game Master Redelia

My apologies, everyone, the covid booster hit me harder and for longer than I expected. I'm here now, and will be posting a few times a day to keep things moving. I think the current bit ends later today, so I'm not sure we'll be able to do much more here, but things should still be fine moving forward.

Glad you are feeling better!

Oh crap! Are we going to be allowed to catch up?

*poof*

Hello! I've instructed table GMs that they may address any pending skill checks/results when they post to shift you over to Act Two. So basically no further attempts can be made *but* attempts that were made but haven't had a chance to be addressed by the GM just yet may still be addressed. Hopefully that will ease your minds a little :)

*poof*

@Sir Hendric Ha, I'm imagining the early days of Beckham and Posh Spice here. Gotta love leveraging the power of rumour!

@Lady Gabrielle d'Apcher, thank you! That should be effective. And entertaining!

Hey, team, I really need you to fill out the first slide, including a map token. If you're not sure what to do, please ask for help/instructions.

I think I accidentally jogged the map by grabbing it by mistake. I've tried to fix it, but please check if I screwed up anything. My apologies!

If anyone needs help with tokens, Meranthi (Rilke) and I can help, too. We used Token Stamp to make ours.

All right, if we need to push things along ASAP... Sir Hendric, Arnault, follow my lead!

Also, for our notes...

Lookout: Whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you may act in the surprise round as long as your ally would normally be able to act in the surprise round. If you would normally be denied the ability to act in the surprise round, your initiative is equal to your initiative roll or the roll of your ally –1, whichever is lower. If both you and your ally would be able to act in the surprise round without the aid of this feat, you may take both a standard and a move action (or a full-round action) during the surprise round.

Lady Gabrielle can act in surprise rounds without Lookout. Anyone else?

Lady Gabrielle can act in surprise rounds without Lookout. Anyone else?

Obviously if we are the ones initiating a surprise round, Sir Hendric would get to act. Lookout is fantastic for ambush tactics.

But there isn't always a surprise round. Table variation. I had the feat for the first eight levels or so of Sir Hendric's career in PFS and don't think I used it more than once. It just happened that there were not a lot of surprise rounds.

Do we want to shut them all down with a mass cacophonous call, or will that ruin anyone’s fun? It sounds like we might be slightly crunched on time at this point.

I'm really curious about who or what is in that wagon first. Give it a round to see what we're dealing with? They haven't attacked us or anything; we are just in initiative is all.

Lady Gabrielle isn't entirely sure what's about to happen, so I'm just having her take a defensive stance just in case we get attacked.

I saw a Pathfinder once cast Slay Living on someone who had the temerity to make us roll Initiative. Don't know what they would have done if they got to act.

I don't mind anyone solo'ing this encounter.

I just want to note there are noncombatants around. Ho you treat them may be significant. (I'm not going to be really strict here; no one will mind sleep on them for example)

On another matter, it's helpful to me to know how much PbP experiece you each have. There are some things we do a little different, and if anyone is new or hasn't done PbP in a while, I'll be more careful to explain things that are usually just assumed in that regard.

I know this particular table is likely to have drawn some people without much PbP experience because it's so rare to be able to play at this level.

Hello!

I did a whole bunch of play-by-post back in the day of like Seasons 4-5 of PFS, including with this character, so I'm pretty familiar with using old-school HTML tags, how to roll a bunch of dice at once, and with how to rely on putting my whole turn with if-thens out there in the post when it's combat time, because of how long it takes to rely on back-and-forth dice rolling. Out of combat, I learned in the days of the "hook" and the "push," I think they were called, for interacting with the world (Golarion is great for this) and with the other PCs at the table.

Recently, I've gotten into PF2E play-by-Discord, which is how I found this lovely table :) so if you see me speaking **like this** instead of like this, that's why!

I've played a fair amount recently, though not terribly high tier. Still getting the hang of hooks, instead of flat statements.

We don't want to hurt the noncombatants. I can try to stun them, but someone else will probably have a quicker way to take them out of the fight. Rilke is definitely a shoot first, ask questions later kind of person.

Lady Gabrielle can act in surprise rounds without Lookout. Anyone else?

Cazic always acts in the surprise round, last place if she didn't succeed on the perception to notice.

how much PbP experiece you each have.

zero, zilch. But I've got several noticing my mistakes and helping me along. I'll also not reject any additional guidance when I go astray.

On another matter, it's helpful to me to know how much PbP experiece you each have. There are some things we do a little different, and if anyone is new or hasn't done PbP in a while, I'll be more careful to explain things that are usually just assumed in that regard.

I've played 1 PBP game before this con, back at the very end of 2021.

Something worth considering... Would we get more done if we split the party? Arnault, Falling Rock, and Lady Gabrielle can work on Sneve, perhaps Rilke, Cazic, and Sir Hendric can take the next task?

True, but the scenario does not allow that.

I'm totally fine with Rilke taking a back seat to this. I deliberately built her to be terrible at social stuff. :D

Sir Hendric is decently good at Diplomacy, although nowhere near what Arnaut, Cazic, and Lady Gabrielle can do. His Sense Motive is excellent.

He basically never uses Bluff or Intimidate.

Happy to follow along and help out where I can.

Suggestions for more touches to the plan: Rilke has a wand of faerie fire that Cazic would often use on her behalf before she acquired limning on her bow. Have Cazic (or someone else with high UMD) hide nearby and use that on Falling Rock (also hiding) when the "ghost" needs to show up, to add to his spectral appearance. It will last for a minute, and is dismissable if he needs to vanish again.

Already cleared this offline with Rilke's player (my wife). But we and Cazic's player have a live game starting right now, so we won't be able to post until this evening.

Got it! I figure, by ensuring that Lady Gabrielle talks to Sneve inside, you guys have plenty of room to get elaborate!

FYI, because discussion about regular posting in the other special I'm playing reminded me: Meranthi (Rilke's player) and I will be at an in-person con the weekend of October 7-9. I have a couple time slots that are free at the moment, so I may still be able to do some posting by phone while I'm there, but I can't 100% guarantee it. I can't speak for Meranthi's con schedule.

I am booked solid for the weekend because I am brilliant. I'll try to pop on, but I think I have botting instructions for Rilke as needed. They boil down to Shoot Things A Lot. :D

I think we would probably not bot Rilke for the "Shoot Things A Lot" method since that would result in a dead hydra and a disappointed crowd.

Maybe Shot on the Run with somersaults? Run out from behind cover, do a gratuitous roll, shoot an arrow, and run backflip behind cover again.

Sir Hendric will try Unarmed Strikes, maybe, trying to slap a hydra into unconsciousness.

It's a good challenge - how do we entertain a crowd without one-rounding the foe?

Well, you can start by not putting up damage-increasing buffs like Inspire Courage.

Rilke can do unarmed strikes, too. And not nearly as many attacks that way. Alternating lethal and nonlethal. :) She also has freedom of movement, so grappling wouldn't be a problem.

Maybe not lead with the attack that adds 94 static damage?

Now I'm thinking I should have just had Falling Rock giant out and wrestle the darn thing. He might still, if we don't accidentally kill it this round.

Well that was just showing off for the crowd.

I really had no idea what sort of HP this thing had. Most foes of this level (such as in Siege of Gallowspire) Sir Hendric fails to 1-shot even when using the lance (which is about double the damage of the unarmed strike).

300+ HP is not unusual.

Everything in here is really designed for max level 15.

On the other hand, with how specific the mission objectives are, and how confined we are on the timeline and the methods we are allowed to use to go about accomplishing them, I'd say everything so far is really designed for Tier 1-5!

Oh dang - is the hydra immune to mind-affecting effects? Shame.

Oh dang - is the hydra immune to mind-affecting effects? Shame.

oops, no, I messed up. Sick little one I'm taking care of, trying to keep you guys moving while waiting for a backup to come take over.

When do we want to put this poor hydra out of its misery? I think we're making it look good right now, but it won't work forever.

To win, you must fight a beast for at least six rounds without any of your team dying or going unconscious. Drawing the fight out for longer results in more money for the auction.

So, at least one more round.

Sadly, it looks like unadulterated loathing isn't dismissable, so this hydra won't be fighting back any time soon, unless that effect gets dispelled, or Falling Rock sits out the rest of the fight.

Do we know whether the arena owners prefer to get the hydra back alive for future fights, or have the bout end in a kill? I don't think we're going to get a convincing show out of this beyond the minimum time, regardless. I'd be perfectly happy wrapping it up and moving on to something else.

I will be at a con all weekend long and don't know how often I'll be able to post. Feel free to bot me to move the action along. Rilke will stay out of anything that requires talking, unless it's a law thing. Otherwise, shooting and punching are her main abilities.

And I will be at the same con (Fri-Sun). Falling Rock will also stay out of the talking stuff, but if a fight with the ghost is unavoidable, he'll deactivate merciful on his weapon then do his best to end it quickly.

Thank you for your patience, everyone. I had sick family members I needed to take care of.

Thank you, Tyranius, for taking over for a bit.

And that will likely be my one post while at this in-person con. Cazic can bot me if needed before late Sunday evening/Monday morning.

Okay, I'm just lost now. We were in combat with a banshee, and now... What the heck are we doing at a warehouse?

Sorry if it isn't clear; I was posting in a very small bit of time to start you on the next mission so hopefully you can complete it before the auction starts in about two days.

You defeated the banshee, finished with the chests, and went back with the money. Then you were given your next mission

You guys have already done really well; I just wanted to give you a chance to maybe get in one more mission.

Is there a map for the warehouse? I'm only seeing the banshee map on the slides.

I'll try to post something tonight or tomorrow, but today I've been very busy playing catching at work from my long weekend away at the con.

Can we get a little more description for what's here? I'm not sure if we should be killing anything that moves or just knocking everything out.

Do the boxes provide cover?

Hmm, that symbol never means anything good... (cue dramatic sting)

Gabrielle, let us know if you share the note.