DM Fang Dragon's: War for the Crown

Game Master FangDragon

It's not. Cassomir exists in the lore but has nothing to do with the plot. ;)

There's some minor stuff I could move to Cassomir but yeah its not related to the plot.

In that case, whatever works.

Cyrene will return to her 'life' in Lotheedar, trying to keep cover intact. If she can pick up a regular job at the Count's Cravat she'll go for that and try to re-establish friendly contact with Niles and Molly. She won't push anything though, just make it clear that she's back and hopes to be for the foreseeable future since her aunt is "doing better right now".

Once she's been there a week and re-established herself she'll start spending more time looking for evidence of the NS - graffiti, public posters anything like that.

I'll have a post later today.

Triphylla's trip to Cassomir includes a stop at Adrian's Spices and Spell Components, where she intends to use his own cash to buy alchemical ingredients from him. She'll inquire as to the problems his business in Merratt County faced that ultimately forced him to close his business there. Then she plans to connect with the local halfling community to get their take on the brewing civil war and what they think are the next dominoes to fall.

How are we allocating gold for improvements? Is all the treasure we find intended to be used for that? If not, I'd like to claim an advance on Triphylla's share to buy said alchemy ingredients.

Anyone heard from Diana? I see she's still active in another game but it's been a couple weeks here. Maybe we just need to wrap up this Cassomir sidebar.

Sorry, things have been rough around here IRL and I haven't been able to get much time for posting - I'm trying to type up a post to see if I cannpost it today still.

Glad you're still with us Diana!

No post tonight sorry, should have one up tomorrow.

I'm not voting since Cyrene will still be in Lotheedar, so feel free to count mine with the majority and get started. ;)

OK to the Beggarwood first before visiting New Towne?

To be honest, I am not completely sure of the difference or if they are away from each other. What I would like is just to try find out a bit more about what happens to the Baron before we venture into his lands.

That said, any of the two suggested locations works for me.

I have a Map of meratt county linked in the campaign info.

BTW Cyrene, I'm waiting for a post from you. Please let me know if you need more details for the mission.

Sorry - been severely lacking in 'oomph' recently. Will work on a post now.

My long-overdo shopping list from Cassomir:

Antitoxin Ingredients (6) 100 gp
Blood-Boiling Pill Ingredients (8) 200 gp
Holy Weapon Balm ingredients (12) 120 gp

Triphylla had personal cash to cover that so did not need to worry about the stash.

All that is easily available.

Lope I assume you don't mean Jambis, it's ruined and the bridge is down. Due to the roads the next closest place you're aware of where help can be obtained is Stachies which is a long ride away.

Ouch, I just looked at the Merrat map and it seemed the closest settlement to the canyon. Do we know if there is any healing help at Stachys aside from what the party can provide?

Yeah there's a few low level clerics about, and likely some scrolls squirrled away.

Let's go back to New Towne with the pilot only if there is anything of interest to do in RP there that we have not done already. Otherwise, I would prefer this errand to solve itself in the background while we focus on the Telus adventure plot.

Yeah let's move on, I'll post an update later.

Ugh looks like the forum ate my post :( Spent half an hour writing that, not pleased. I guess I'll try again in the morning since its late.

They are having some synchronization problems between the multiple servers. I guess some of them are not yet moved to the new location and there will be issues until next Saturday when they finish maintenance.

If you keep reloading the page, you should see the message appear at some point. But still, good thing to do to compose on an online docs app to keep a backup text while the service is so unstable.

Any thoughts on how I play this? Reveal myself now? Say yes to her plan and do a reveal later once we've all chinwagged IC?

Admittedly, I have not been following Cyrene's investigations, but reading now this last post, it looks like a good idea to team up to stop Sir Guisarme thugs. So reveal now to gain her trust sounds good. But really, whatever you feel goes better for developing your character is good :)

Any thoughts on how I play this? Reveal myself now? Say yes to her plan and do a reveal later once we've all chinwagged IC?

Looking forward to see what you decide!

Been weighing it up - I'm genuinely not sure... will post tonight or tomorrow one way or the other!

Is the entire hall difficult terrain or only the squares with visible webs?

Only the squares with visible webs.

Gonna post tomorrow, sorry!

Cyrene I owe you a post sorry, it got late here!

"Any creature covered by the dust takes a –40 penalty on Stealth checks."

I guess that is enough for the near blind Lope to finally pass the Perception check xD

Glitterdust wrote:

"Any creature covered by the dust takes a –40 penalty on Stealth checks."

I guess that is enough for the near blind Lope to finally pass the Perception check xD

Don't get your hopes up!

And no worries Boss, you've waited plenty long for me. It can keep. :)

Just checking but are we at the 1st or 2nd triumph? Dignity's Barb reduces miss-chance by 10% at 1st and ignores it at 2nd.

Might be second if we've done enough for Stachys...

Not quote there for the 2nd triumph, soon though!

I do have healing spells, do you need them?

I've only ever played an Oracle in WOTR, and I don't want to tell you how to run your character, but yes, Triphylla just got hit for 2/3 of her HP in one swipe.

Looking at your spell list, I might recommend Bless, Divine Favor, Ironskin, Prot Evil... IMO, shooting the crossbow is the least impactful option. Bless should be automatic pre-combat. Even Guidance, more generally applied... So many good options.

I think you got hit like that after I went this round though.

As for the spells, yes I do have healing. I will alter my post and do something different ass I messed where all that damage went.

Thanks

No post tonight sorry, will get one tomorrow.

As far as my spells go I am likely to change out something for bless once I get to that point, I think next level I may be able to??? I'll have to look. Mostly it is the simple fact that Valeria is meant to debuff as opposed to buff. Also, I believe the last time I got to choose a 1st level spell we still had Diana and her bard perf did not stack with bless/made bless less necessary.

Right, at 6th level you can make 1 swap. May want to swap at the highest level you can cast, and a mix of buff and debuff is better for when debuff spells don't work on a particular enemy.

Prot from Evil Communal can be fantastic. Suppress Charms and Compulsions may be situationally a game saver for when weak-willed Triphylla is turned against the party by some nefarious spellcaster.

You'll pickup Rage next level from your Mystery, which would be great to put on Triphylla after she runs out of Rage rounds, or before.

And since you get your first 3rd lvl spell next level, Prayer is much better than Bless.

Yeah, that's gonna be a tough level for spell selection. Prayer would be really good but so would taking curse. Nothing says FU like smacking them for such a massive penalty as bestow curse gives. given the present party dynamic though Prayer is probably the better option. I can always get curse the next time.

Parties always let you cast buffs, enemies have a nasty habit of resisting debuffs. So rude!

Yeah that's true.

[dice=Reflex DC 16]1d20+8 <--- PASS
Diana casts a spell which makes a portion of the ground terribly slippery, the baron wobbles slightly but the claws in his malformed legs dig into the ground in a shower of sparks and he recovers.

Did you take into account Lope's Riving Strike -2 penalty vs spells? :D

About what other players should do with their actions.

I completely empathize with Triphylla's player feelings; facing a formidable opponent and watching your hit points rapidly diminish can be an intense experience. We have all been there.

Also, on our shared experience with the system, we can agree buff spells like blessing of fervor, haste, heroism, etc. often lead to more successful outcomes and leave a more satisfying taste for allies than debuffing or blasting.

Having played alongside Drogeney before and seen her playing a different type of divine caster, I have confidence in her ability to play effectively. However, it's important to acknowledge that sometimes players desire to explore different avenues with their characters. I find it commendable what she's attempting with Valeria, portraying a crusader haunted by past scars and inflicting that pain back onto her enemies. Even if that is not the most effective option in Pathfinder combat.

While I agree that Valeria had other, potentially more effective, options than using the crossbow, having played clerics before in this boards, I have found that subtle (or clear) references to your character's injuries or a clear statement that you feel things are going south and need more firepower from everyone, do for more satisfactory player interaction than requesting specific actions from other players.

Given that the War for the Crown AP is not heavily focused on combat, our good GM is not requesting min-maxing to survive, and things have been going well so far, I suggest we remain open-minded and lenient with each other. It is crucial to respect player agency and ensure everyone has a chance to enjoy the game in their own terms.

This is not meant to discourage tactical discussions; rather, it's an invitation to approach such discussions with a collaborative and positive spirit. Let's keep the focus on everyone having fun and contributing to combats in their unique ways.

That's entirely fair. You're right I was a little frustrated. If not for DM's generally poor dice rolls this combat, things could have gone much worse. I do also appreciate Valeria's roleplaying; it's not a style I am capable of and I admire that she can pull it off and do so consistently, even when she's got me asking for some alternative action. I would not be surprised if Drogeney has some acting or writing background irl.

My effort from the start has been to work as a team better during combat. Triphylla will literally sacrifice herself to stay in the fray. And first Cyrene and now DM have picked up on changes to her character. She was at first impulsive and selfish but good-natured. Now something darker is happening that I'll be grappling with.

Good dialog, Lope. Thanks.

Also thanks to DM for mixing it up in combat and keeping it interesting!

On a linked(-ish) note; please do let me know if Cyrene needs to be around more. I've played through War a couple of times and only applied this time because the character concept was way too fun not to try! So I'm very grateful to Fang Dragon for taking the time to indulge my completely unnecessary solo-side-questing and for you lot with not getting annoyed with me about it!

Since the party has four players even without me I've been thinking that Cyrene not being around for every fight isn't too much of a problem - since 4 players is the 'build for' in PF etc. That being said, if you want an extra body around more often to stab/get stabbed etc then please do let me know. Assuming that the Night Swan takes me up on the alliance then Cyrene can absolutely be around more often if people want her to be!