DM Fang Dragon's: War for the Crown

Game Master FangDragon

Yes, but I think we should have been able to manage the situation through roleplay of our characters and with good will to be nice with one each other as a group of people.

Both breaking expectations of background and bad rolls just happen, but it is also an opportunity to development in ways not previewed, which sometimes might be even more memorable and fun.

Ultimately everyone should play what feels comfortable playing and definitely not everyone has the same values, social skills and gaming style, so well..., these things happen... I just hope it does not end taking the whole group with it.

You can count as a Yes as well.

Do we level upon getting out of the catacombs? Please? ;)

Yes! Please post your level up summaries!

I'll level up tonight.

Level 3

HP +7 (+3 extra from feat)
Feat Toughness
New feature Black blade
Spells chill touch, obscuring mist
Skills
Bluff
K. arcana
K. local
Spellcraft
Swim
Use Magic Device
Background skills
K. history
Perform Oratory

Let's say there is enough time for Lope to quickly buy some antidote and memorize the spell.

Lvl 3 Alchemist (Vivisectionist)
HP +5, +1 FCB
New Extract: Adhesive Spittle
New Abilities: Swift Alchemy, Cruel Anatomist
Sneak Attack 2d6
Skills:
Disable Device +1
Perception +2
Stealth +3
Background:
Knowledge (engineering)
Knowledge (history)
Feat, TBD, probably Extra Discovery

Bard (Arcane Duelist) Level 3

+1 BAB, +1 Fort, +0 Ref, +0 Will
+1 1st Spell Per Day
+1 1st Spell Known: Disguise Self; +1 Cantrip Known: Ghost Sound
Feats: Extra Performance
Skill Ranks: 6 (Class) + 1 (Int) + 1 (Skilled) = 7
+1 Bluff
+1 Diplomacy
+1 Knowledge (Local)
+1 Perception
+1 Sense Motive
+2 Use Magic Device
Background (2):
+1 Knowledge (Nobility)
+1 Perform (Sing)
Hit Points: 1d8 (Average) + 1 (Con) = +5 HP
Favored Class Bonus: +1 HP
Bardic Performance: Inspire Competence +2

Are we heading out for a supply run? Triphylla would take an hour to make a mutagen dose, if we have the time.

Also, am I doing HP wrong? d8 avg is 4.5, rounded up to 5. Or do we round down? I've got it one way and Julia has it the other.

You always round down in pathfinder AFAIK. Yes you have time to prep a mutagen.

I always thought the convention with HP was to round up - since the PC's not dying is generally a good thing!

The average of a d8 over 2 rolls is 9 anyway, so giving 4 means shorting the PC's a hit point. Whereas 5 is giving them one, and GM's are nice? Or people say 1/2 + 1, so a d8 gets 5 anyways...

+6hp
+1 Bab
+1F/R (forgot to add on the cloak of res Lope gave me so that is now factored in)

Skills +1 to all existing except for bluff

Feat: dodge

Spells +1 first lvl; +1 known: entropic spell

Revelation: Prophetic Armor: Cha replaces Dex for AC and Ref

You always round down in pathfinder AFAIK. Yes you have time to prep a mutagen.

True, but there is the common practice when leveling up HP: Hit Point Exception (it's mentioned in that thread but nobody disagrees with it. Everywhere else I read on the net follows this same thinking.)

Settled on Level 3 feat: Cosmopolitan
Benefit: You can speak and read two additional languages of your choice. In addition, choose two Intelligence-, Wisdom-, or Charisma-based skills. Those skills always count as class skills for you.
Languages: Kelish, Skald
Skills: Perform (Oratory), Sense Motive

Change skill points for lvl 3 advancement: +1 Stealth, +1 Perform Oratory, +1 Sense Motive

Feat: Alertness
Talent: Social Grace
Skills: +1 to everything
+1 BAB, Fort
+1 dice of hidden strike.

My sense motive score doubled, other than that no major changes.

Has anyone been tracking loot thus far? We probably should, at the end of the book if not before.

Also who has the relics? They matter!
We've got the crossbow and the ring.

All right let's round up hp.

I'm guessing nobody really wants the crossbow, because it's a crossbow. The ring could be interesting...

That's a helluva ring: Envoy Ring

Not sure we've identified it yet. Triphylla can get better competency bonuses next level with a discovery, and she's unlikely to claim victories in the name of Taldor. It's up for grabs.

There's also the Wand of Shocking Grasp. For Valeria, maybe?

I'm a terrible record keeper. Truly the worst.

All right let's round up hp.

I'm guessing nobody really wants the crossbow, because it's a crossbow. The ring could be interesting...

A magical weapon you don't have to pay to upgrade...? That's worth hanging onto on the off-chance! Cyrene will take it if no-one else will but someone should.

I combed through the loot since we entered the safe house and here is the list:

Room B2
bottle of whiskey worth 112 gp
wand of create food and water (14 charges)
sustaining spoon

Room B3
gold key worth 150 gp

Room B4
three daggers, two longswords, a halberd, a masterwork rapier, 12 masterwork darts, and a masterwork suit of studded leather armor.
20 magic coins worth 150 gp
bag with thirty odd looking coins of some silvery metal, each bearing the Voritas family crest, worth 150 gp

after meeting the nobles:
fine crystal glassware and silver dining sets 1050 gp
scroll of invisibility
scroll of heightened awareness
Four scrolls of cure light wounds
scroll of breath of life
scroll of summon monster II

Room C4
Dignity's Barb: The crossbow radiates a strong aura of divination. It currently counts as a masterwork crossbow that reduces the miss chance from concealment by 5%. This is actually a special weapon whose powers unlock as glory is brought to Taldor

Room C5
hat of disguise
Most of the stuff here is junk but some of the jewelry and smaller clothing articles are valuable. All in all you managed to find 675g worth of things

Room C6
figurine of wondrous power (silver raven)
assorted cultural trophies worth 750 gp

Room with the guardian scroll:
In addition to the guardian scroll, the scroll case contained s Scroll of dispel magic, two scrolls of invisibility, a scroll of mirror image, and a scroll of mount

Room with the rats:
6 rubies are worth 100g each
Diego's Spellbook:
1. Comprehend languages, Ears of the City, Egorian Diplomacy, Heightened Awareness, Magic missile, Shield, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp
2. Acid arrow, Invisibility, Tears to Wine
ring of protection +1
wand of shocking grasp (24 charges)
pearl of power: lvl 1 spells
Envoy Ring: a relic from the first wars of Taldan expansion. Much of it's history is lost to the mists of time, however it's know that it has a purpose to serve Taldor and the more triumphs it's wearer achieves in the name of Taldor, the more powerful it becomes.

Thanks Trip! :D

The wand of Shocking Grasp isn't something I can use. It's not on the oracle list and I don'thave any ranks in UMD to make it successful. I may have to remedy that though as it cwould be handy to have some other spells like that for touch attacks.

I can hold onto the wand of create food and water since the spell is on my list no roll is needed (iirc).

The crossbow might be handy for a ranged option but would be better given to someone who is intended to fight from range.

I don't really know how much time we have before we go to save Martella, but it would be nice to liquidate all of this loot and then get a sandwich, not necessarily in that order.

If everyone would declare what they want we can sell the rest. I think the scrolls are all good to keep. Triphylla would take the Hat of Disguise even though she can cast it in the form of an extract. It saves her that slot. The Spoon is useful and I could see the silver raven figurine coming in handy at some point. What else?

The valuables alone are: 3632gp.
I'd sell the spoon honestly - based on the dungeons so far it doesn't seem like we're going to be delving for weeks at a time or anything similar.

Selling:
Spoon? 1350
Weapons 200gp (approximately)
Silver Raven? 1900
Spellbook 365gp (based on a similar preconstructed one)
Pearl of Power? 500gp (I don't think we have a prepped caster anymore?)
Total: 4315gp.

Grand Total: 7947gp
Cyrene got a bit of loot during the Gala so I'll throw in 53gp to round the numbers out and get us a nice even 8,000gp.

Split between the five of us that'd be 1,600gp each. Given that all the items are fairly cheap we should be able to liquidate them in a couple of hours at most, so doable before a rescue if we talk to Lady Gloriana.

The remaining loot from the Gala, the hat of disguise etc, we can deal with later. [Although @Trip, Cyrene will happily cough up the 1200 gold or so sale price for the dagger if we go with 'stealers keepers' ;)]

TL;DR: We all get 1,600gp. If you want anything on the sell list above, deduct its cost from your share and keep the item. Hopefully this seems equitable to everyone?

I believe I was already given the pearl of power and I can use it, IIRC,

Actually, now that I looked it up I cannot, I thought it did work to get back a spell slot which means I am at 0 1st lvl spells left....crap...wouldn't have used one of them if I knew I was that low.

I like it, Cyrene. Sort of like organized play rules.

What spells are in the spellbook? I would like to learn any magus spell in those spellbooks before we sell them, please.

Lope will benefit a lot from the pearl of power, for he is a prepared spellcaster but has diminished slots respect a regular magus.

Likewise, he can use the wand of shocking grasp, but it is only going to be useful against creatures with DR (and he can already bypass DR/magic and deal with cold iron), so no objection on selling that one too.

In summary, Lope calls for the ring of protection and the pearl of power, and any scroll no one else can cast. Also, please give him some time to study the spellbooks.

From what I have seen so far, Valeria is who might end using the most that crossbow, and it will give her a fair offensive option when she wants to preserve a bit her spells. So give her I say!

Found the spellbook list, I do not know how I missed that one! I took for this level up free spell chill touch which was in the book :(

He will need almost a whole day working on that book for he has a lot to get there: Egorian Diplomacy, Magic missile, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Acid arrow and Invisibility

@DM, do you prefer we roleplay selling the loot or can we handwave it?

@Lope, I listed the spells in a post above, but here you go:
Diego's Spellbook:
1. Comprehend languages, Ears of the City, Egorian Diplomacy, Heightened Awareness, Magic missile, Shield, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp
2. Acid arrow, Invisibility, Tears to Wine

I think there's a couple Triphylla can learn from that too.

Edit: I see you have it.

Sorry no update tonight. I spent way too long writing the final posts for my forgotten realms table. I'll answer questions tomorrow.

OK, so the split is fine but we don't do it until after Martella, since Lope needs longer than we seem to have right now.

Happy to pass the crossbow to Valeria.

Also note that I didn't put the ring of prot in the split because I knew someone would use it. Assuming we agree not to sell for now I'll do a full loot up for these two parts when I get a chance and we can work from there later on.

I believe I already got the masterwork rapier but those three scrolls of invisibility are something I'd snag at least one of or all if no else wants them. The hat of disguise would be nice too.

You can fight Trip for it then (the hat). Cyrene will watch, place bets and call for mud or chocolate sauce to be thrown into the mix! ;)

Hat: 900
Ring: 1000
Dagger: 1200
Vernisant's trinkets: 1600
MW Studded Leather: 87.5
MW Buckler: 77.5
Fine brandy: 75
Reward: 60
Total: 5,000

Total Loot Split: 13,000gp or 2,600gp each.
This is the 1,600 from my previous loot post, plus 1000 from this split. Anything you want to buy can be deducted from your loot split. For example:

Cyrene: +1 silver dagger (1200), MW armor (87.5), cash 1312.5gp.
Lope: Ring of prot (1000), pearl of power (500), cash 1100gp.

If there are any items that multiple people want then you can mud wrestle for them as above. ;)

Our senatorial aide badges are each worth 750gp too. I haven't priced scrolls or wands cause those usually get used eventually are the values aren't crazy normally.

Hope that's nice and clear for everyone. This is assuming a full loot liquidation so don't spend any extra money yet on big things because Lope wants to spend some time with the spellbook before we sell.

I believe I already got the masterwork rapier but those three scrolls of invisibility are something I'd snag at least one of or all if no else wants them. The hat of disguise would be nice too.

@Julia, as much as I like chocolate sauce, the hat is yours if you want it. Trip has the spell extract to do the same. I will take a scroll of Invisibility as well and we should keep the third one for when we inevitably need it.

Thanks a lot Cyrene :)

I don't really know how much time we have before we go to save Martella

An hour probably won't make a difference, two hours? Hard to say. Three yeah I wouldn't fancy being in Martella's shoues.

@DM, do you prefer we roleplay selling the loot or can we handwave it?

This is kind of a table preference thing. As long as it doesn't slow things down a bit of haggling is good for verisimilitude. The NPCs may also let you get a good deal if they're suitably impressed.

Thoughts?

Triphylla wrote:

@DM, do you prefer we roleplay selling the loot or can we handwave it?

This is kind of a table preference thing. As long as it doesn't slow things down a bit of haggling is good for verisimilitude. The NPCs may also let you get a good deal if they're suitably impressed.

Thoughts?

If someone else wants to put in the time and the words then great, but for myself I don't care. A few extra gold here and there won't make enough difference in the long run and I'd rather write about my character doing fun things rather than trying to sell off the twentieth +1 dagger.

So personally I'll handwave, but no desire to cramp other people if they'd like to.

Ditto.

OK noted. Lets just hand wave purchases.

... "So you know I won't be able to heal anyone else today. I have tapped out of my magic already so all I can do is provide fire support with this. " ...

I have assumed we could dispose our new level slots and new daily feature resources for the next scene. By raw you have to rest to gain those slots, but in many games here the GMs just tell you to do so to allow the party keep going without 'technical stops' that halt the narrative.

If we don't have the new slot available, then Lope could not prepare the silent image and is reduced to a shield spell for the time being!

A gentle reminder to please move your tokens:)

The forum has been playing up making it difficult to post. Will give y'all another day before botting.

Btw they rolled 2d100 because they have the blind fighting feat. I don't think Lope has that? Gonna give Julia and Valeria a little more time.

I thought so, but rolled twice just in case.

In other words, no, no Blind Fighting for Lope :)

Triphylla can't actually attack first per alignment, based on only her sense motive success, can she? I'll wait for Cyrene to act.

I think it would be out of character unfortunately. This doesn't mean you have to trust her or act dumb.

Evil will always win because Good is dumb.

just had a post eaten by 504. Basically, I'm trying to contingency play around Cyrene's hoped-for action. I'll try again later.

@GMFangDragon - thanks for the excellent roll but I really did mean 2d4. Stalker Vigilantes get 2d8 if their target is unaware of them/thinks they're an ally but only 2d4 if they're flanking/opponent is flat-footed etc.

If you'd prefer I'm happy to just roll d6's all the time like normal sneak attack to make it easier.