GM Jhaeman's "Academy of Secrets" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

Off to the city to see a musical! Back in 48 hours.

Alright people I just wanted to ask this OOC as people might want to try to rescue Maganrad's soul. It is probably hopeless with the contract and all. Otherwise my character will use his trickery powers to disguise the party as a bunch of devils and we can just try to walk past these two monsters.

We have the telepathy up with Quenly's dragon so everyone can know what is going on immediately. :)

Flyn will await to see what Helgar learns about the creatures with his knowledge checks before he acts; I wonder if the contract applies if the devil is dead? Flyn would want to try to make an effort to free Maganrad’s soul…

Flyn, I don't think that there is a positive outcome for Maganrad in any possible case. If we do nothing his soul will be devoured at some point and if we free him he is likely to go straight to hell. :)

I am kicking this decision back to the game thread so we can decide on a course of action.

Should we all attack the devourer and dispose of it as quick as possible? That might let the soul be okay and then we can decide what to do after.

That’s my thinking…Flyn’s trigger finger is getting itchy, he particularly loathes undead…he may just “accidentally” fire soon…

At my bi-annual physical exam; will post when I’m thru…

I just want to be clear what the plan is. Are we going after the devil once the undead creature is dead?

We might offer the devil the chance to surrender the contract to us, but I think peaceful resolution is unlikely in all the circumstances.

We have the advantage in initiative so we should take it. I doubt that the devil will surrender the contract. He will likely just teleport away. My character will try to daze lock him to prevent him from acting once the kytons finish off the devourer at the top of the round.

Everyone please try to not block Flyn's line of sight so he can attack with full effectiveness. I do not think that he has a way of bypassing cover.

Flyn has the erastil trait that lets him ignore one ally for cover purposes.

Flyn has the Improved Precise Shot feat so he ignores all but total cover/total concealment. He had the Erastil trait but I had a boon that let me retrain my traits that I used after I got that feat…

All good then. IPS is a sort of a must have feat for dedicated archer builds but I did not see it on your online sheet. That makes life so much easier for everyone. :)

That is a great boon btw. I have several characters where I wish I could retrain their traits.

Yeah, I had heard about it and traded for it in the boon thread a couple of years ago or so. It came at an opportune time as both my starting traits had become obsolete due to multi-classing and picking up a new feat…

I double-checked my online sheet and IPS is listed but might be hard to see as it’s directly below Manyshot; I also try to include it in my attack line on my combat posts…

It is always a debate when to switch out of Zen Archer and picking up both IPS and Weapon Specialization at 6th level arguably makes it the best jumping off point for the class. That being said my ZA jumped out at 8th and yours at 4th so we are both bucking the trend. :)

Ah, I didn't notice the change of traits. (I've adventured with Flyn since level 1).

Of course IPS makes Deadeye Bowman superfluous.

GM: Since the devourer is dead, can the rest of us act now or do you wish us to wait?

@Flyn: I've updated the Initiative tracker.

Nice betrayal. Using the Blessing of Fervor against Quenly is adding insult to injury. This woman has no shame at all! :)

@GM Jhaeman - The kytons have DR and regeneration. I have always been a little unclear about when regeneration kicks in. Do they heal up this round or on their turn next round?

@Flyn - Very nicely done. Your dice are hot! :)

@Flyn - Very nicely done. Your dice are hot! :)

Aye, let’s hope they stay hot and don’t all of a sudden turn cold at the crucial moment. That’s the most damage I’ve ever doled out in one attack; I’ve been a bit lucky, to say the least…

Role playing these crazy devils is a load of fun. I have been holding back a fair bit to keep it as family friendly as possible. Helgar is dignified and somewhat retrained in demeanour but these kytons are unnaturally depraved. :)

@Helgar: Very sorry, I completely overlooked your question about kyton regeneration a few weeks back! It probably doesn't matter at this point, but creatures with regeneration regain the listed amount of hp at the beginning of their turn (unless that's within the 1 round duration of their regeneration being shut off by being damaged with the listed attack form).

Apologies for the posting slowdown on my end folks, RL is sapping all my energy just now.

Will try to get a gameplay post up tomorrow.

No worries--I'll wait another 12 hours or so and can then bot you if needed.

Gameplay post incoming :)

Clever thinking, Quenly!

Difficult terrain was the plan, any successful dirty tricks would just be a bonus ;)

@Flyn - Your character might want to diversify a little as well in the future. Have a reasonable Plan 'B' that is actually a threat if you cannot use your bow. There are several high level adventures which totally nerf ranged attacks and having only one reliable means of offence leaves a character brittle. :)

I'll post in Gameplay in 12-24 hours. Big final session of a three-year RL Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign today is taking a lot of prep time. Fingers-crossed they do well!

I'll post in Gameplay in 12-24 hours. Big final session of a three-year RL Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign today is taking a lot of prep time. Fingers-crossed they do well!

Easily my favorite AP! I hope you and your crew have a great time!

They are lucky to have such a committed GM. Three years on one campaign is a really good run. Have fun. :)

Thanks both of you! It was a fantastic AP. I'm sorry to say the final battle did not go their way. They fought bravely in an epic slugfest that listed over six hours in real-time, but in the end the Big Bad won fairly handily. It's a shame because the encounter started off so well for them, as through a combination of skill and magic they earned a Surprise Round and then won initiative in the first regular round and the Big Bad hadn't had time to activate any of their usual buffs.

I think the main reason they lost (apart from my miserable hot hand with the dice) is they made the classic RPG mistake of spreading their damage output around a bunch of different foes instead of all focussing their attacks on a single foe at a time to put it out of commission before moving on to another. A monster at 25% of its hit points still has the same offensive output as that same monster at 100% of its hit points. The players were good sports about the loss though, which I really admire given how disappointing I can only imagine it must be for a 103-session campaign to end in a TPK.

Oh that stinks!

But that final encounter was a doozy as I remember! I could see it going poorly really quickly.

An epic battle where the heroes fall to a mightier opponent in a blaze of glory is a classic ending to a lengthy campaign. It will be remembered by all for a long time!

Personally (as a player) I prefer a strategic retreat or even a disorganised rout if necessary. It lack gravitas but practicality often does. :)

I am such a fan of the Grace spell. If it were me personally I would be making all sorts of crazy hand signals to the devils that I just walked by. Of course that is not Helgar's style so I just had to post it OOC. :)

Helgar renews his Heightened Awareness with his wand.

"Before we depart we should free the students from the wall that I created to protect them."

"A couple of well placed arrows I think should do the trick."

The Wall of Stone is 3 inches thick so it has 45 hit points per 5 foot square. Adamantine arrows should bypass the 8 hardness. A few arrows should do the trick I think. :)

Think we should head straight to the Hall as any delay might be costly; we can free them after we handle the rest of the devils; gotta go back and retrieve my arrows afterwards any ways… ;)

@Flyn - If we are speaking OOC then the module is going to wait for our characters to arrive. IC there is no way that Helgar will leave the students trapped in a wall of stone to possibly suffocate if our party is somehow delayed. Getting the students out should be quick as the wall is surprisingly brittle.

Some modules do put PCs on a clock with consequences, some don't.

But just tell our paladin friend that innocent lives are at stake if we don't break the wall ;)

I assumed those blue lines in the north wall behind the students were windows? Can’t imagine a dorm without ‘em and if they are, then they won’t suffocate. Before I post IC, GM, can you clarify if those are windows?

@Flyn: I think you're right--they do look like windows.

I am not trying to be contrary but the wall of stone would have to block the windows as well to be effective against devils that are able to teleport at will.

The entire wall does not need to come down. Just poke a hole or two in it so that there can be some air exchange and then we can leave and come back latter. Queenly could also easily knock it down in his dragon form in one round.

We could move this discussion into the game thread but it will take more time to argue about it then to take down a portion of the wall. :)

Not gonna get into a long drawn out pissin’ contest about this…so Flyn’ll stay back and break down the wall while y’all run ahead to save those at the Hall of Whispers and I’ll catch up as soon as the students are free…

We seem to be moving quickly into another encounter, which should mean that we still have Blessing of Fervour running. 4 rounds of combat in the dormitory, 2 rounds of move + cast after that, we have as much as 6 rounds of BoF remaining.

Don't forget the speed boost :)

Helgar is starting to feel the burn on this adventure. He still has quite a few spells left but his channeling tank is almost empty. :)

Sorry for my absence. Wife has covid. We have a vulnerable 4 year old. I'll try to keep up, but you may need to bot me again over the next few days.

No problem, hope everyone gets better Quenly.

Best wishes to you and your family Quenly and hopefully everything will resolve quickly.

Sorry to hear that, my friend; thoughts and prayers are with you and yours…

Flyn's dice are hot,hot.hot!

Not that I am complaining. :)

Yeah, they’ve been pretty hot all during this session; don’t recall ever getting this man criterion in a session before. That Improved Critical Threat feat has really paid dividends in this module…

I think it’s balancing out though as my dice have gone cold in a couple other sessions I’m in…