GM Harrow’s Curse of the Crimson Throne - AE

Game Master GM Harrow

Your portrayal of Josie is absolutely fantastic, GM :-D

I'm getting serious Harley Quinn vibes, which I suspect is not a coincidence.

Not sure if I ever shared her book art.

Link's not going to the actual image, GM. :(

But yeah, the Harley Quinn vibes are, I'm sure, 100% intentional, even in the original AP she was like that.

And as Elric says, fantastic job on portraying her, GM!

Slang note:

Cove A man, person. Often used in combination: a flash-cove is a swindler or thief, a rum-cove is a suspicious character, a gentry-cove is an upper-class man.

Anyone have any more questions they want to try asking Jolistina? Shrike is pretty ready to knock her out, decide her fate, and start laying plans to infiltrate the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden.

The only other thing she might ask is where Lamm was hiding in the weeks *before* the Hospice, so we could ransack it for any evidence about his relationship with Andaisin and the Queen's Physicians, information about the development of blood veil, other possible prisoners and experiments etc. etc. But I bet the AP doesn't expect us to do that and hasn't prepared anything for it, and we're supposed to go straight to the Hospice.

Check if any of the Grey Maidens have been by? If the Queens Physicians are involved, odds are the Maidens are too.

They've generally been escorting the Physicians, yeah? So unless this is a false flag by traitors to our beloved queen, it only stands to reason we'll get to flirt with and fightsee some Maidens

Yeah, because we've seen the two organizations working hand-in-glove, Shrike is definitely assuming until proven otherwise that the Gray Maidens are in on this. However, we also know (or Shane does) that the Gray Maiden headquarters are in the Longacre Building in North Point, while the Queen's Physicians are headquartered in the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden in West Dock, as discussed. So they aren't completely the same thing.

Still around. Just been busy.

Apologies - work's been getting away with me. I'll try and get a post up tonight.

We can move on if you feel we've exhausted this scene.

AND EVERYONE CAN LEVEL UP, CONGRATULATIONS!

In addition to being opposed to the methods of death that would await a 40x murderer, after the stunt with the manacles Shrike now thinks there probably aren't any cells in the city that can hold her. But, if anyone has an out-of-character objection to Shrike killing Jolistina, now is the time to voice it. I wouldn't object to a resolution that involves taking her to Kroft and making her Kroft's problem, either. :)

Hurray, level 7! Level-up information forthcoming sometime this weekend.

I think Pava and Shrike have only disagreed on one kill/spare so far, and it sure wasn't this one - they were just gonna maybe use this one as currency to make sure no one got in their way with Lamm :-p

But yeah, leveling to 7 - picking up level 4 in Brawler, which gives some fun stuff like a knockout punch and gets me up to BAB +6, but most exciting is their new feat, which lets them do dazzling/motivating displays as a swift action after landing a sneak attack!

Level 7 is going to be a bit of a filler level for Elric. Some minor stat bumps and picking up Monstrous Mount Mastery so he can fly on the back of Galewing from next level.

Oh dang, are we allowed to just take feats like Violent Display without worrying about having met a weretiger once or whatever? Assuming it would work with Hidden Strike as well as sneak attack, I'd totally add that to my list for the future chain of Dazzling-Display-related feats, along with Shatter Defenses and Gory Finish.

I could arrange for you to meet a weretiger...

I don't see a good reason to weregate the feat like this, so you can take it if you wish.

I sold off my Players Companions, so I didn't check there, but Nethys didn't say anything about that! Glad it's okay ':-)

Sorry for slow response. Torn with indecision for spell selection. We need to mug an archmage and loot his stuff!

;)

Shrike changes, level 7:

HP +7 (now 54: 5 from half 1d8 round up, 1 Con, 1 favored class bonus)
BAB +1 (now +5)
Will Save +0
Fort Save +0
Ref Save +0
CMB +1 (now +7 [+9 w/ finesse weapons; +11 with branched spear])
CMD +1 (now 21)

Hidden Strike damage increases by 1d8 (now 4d8/4d4)

+1 Social Talent (choosing Safe House - I'd love to get your input on specifics, GM, but basically Shrike was inspired by the WereHouse and by what seems like will be an increasing need to hide from the authorities, and wants to turn the abandoned building I mentioned before as an option for hiding Galewing into a proper, comfortable safehouse where the whole party could hang out or hide, and that isn't Shane's actual full-time home like Zellara's is now.)

+1 Feat (choosing Combat Reflexes again, hoping to get some more use out of it going forward!)

Skill Upgrades: 8 (6 class, 0 Int, 2 background)
+1 Acrobatics (now +14: 7 rank, 3 class skill, 4 ability score)
+1 Diplomacy (now +10: 5 rank, 3 CS, 2 AS)
+2 Intimidate (now +12: 7 rank, 3 CS, 2 AS)
+1 Perception (now +10: 7 rank, 3 CS, 0 AS)
+1 Perform (Dance) (now +12: 7 rank, 3 CS, 2 AS) (background)
+1 Knowledge (History) (now +4: 1 rank, 3 CS, 0 AS) (background)
+1 Stealth (now +14: 7 rank, 3 CS, 4 AS)

@Shane and Pava, sometime soon I might take a rank in Use Magic Device in order to be able to use that cat's grace wand or the healing wand in a pinch. If we use the cat's grace wand in the Hospice infiltration so Shrike can see how useful it is despite her wariness of offensive/arcane magic, that might lay the groundwork for her asking Pava or Shane to show her how to use it properly again later and taking that skill rank, if you guys don't mind.

Re: safe house - since the space cannot be larger than 70x70 feet at the moment, we can say that it's a room in the abandoned building, like a loft office. Although Galewing flying in and out might not make it secret for very long. :)

But the location is good, so we'll make it work.

sometime soon I might take a rank in Use Magic Device in order to be able to use that cat's grace wand or the healing wand in a pinch. If we use the cat's grace wand in the Hospice infiltration so Shrike can see how useful it is despite her wariness of offensive/arcane magic, that might lay the groundwork for her asking Pava or Shane to show her how to use it properly again later and...

Absolutely positively do not mind! :)

Shane Level 7

HP 4+1 for favored class +1 for Con (+6 together, new HP total:41)

Feat: Forge Ring
Skills +1 Bluff, +1 to Knowledge Arcane, +1 Knowledge Nature, +1 to Sense Motive, +1 to Spellcraft; +2 Craft Jewelry +2, +1 Knowledge Nobles
Phantasmal Killer, Greater Invisibility

Shane's arcane bond is with his mother's ring. I hope to use Forge Ring as an in game rationale for his eventual empowering the ring to have a magical effect.

Re: safe house - since the space cannot be larger than 70x70 feet at the moment, we can say that it's a room in the abandoned building, like a loft office. Although Galewing flying in and out might not make it secret for very long. :)

But the location is good, so we'll make it work.

I'm European, so I don't know how feet work. :D

I'm European, so I don't know how feet work. :D

Normally we just put one in front of the other and start walking! ;)

Hello and sorry for the brief absence. I've been working on stuff around the house (Namely my office) and haven't had much energy to post.

No worries about killing off-brand Harley Quinn from me as a player. Audria would be torn, but she's currently off trying to comfort Lord Carowyn as best she can.

I'll work on getting Audria leveled. Paladin Level 4 for her. I'll have her updated some time in the next few days.

And as for feet vs. meters, I'm a geek with interests in hard SF and an American, so I've got the conversions memorized.

1 inch is exactly 2.54 cm.

1 mile is a hair over 1.6 km

1 meter is about 3 feet 3 inches, or 3.25 feet. Which means that 3 meters is a little less than 10 feet.

70 x 70 feet is 4900 square feet. That's huge, like mansion huge. A large house even in the US is around 2500 square feet. (To get square meters, just divide by 10 and you'll be in the ballpark. To be more exact, you can divide the dimensions in feet by 10 and them multiply by 3 to get meters, so the safe house can be up to 21 x 21 meters, or 441 square meters.)

Sorry if I went overboard there. On to catching up!

Apologies for my delay in posting - I'll try to get Kandru leveled up to Cleric 7 and a post made sometime later tonight.

As for killing the elf, Kandru disagrees with it on principle, but Josie is a self-admitted mass-murderer - she won't exactly be losing sleep over it.

No problem GM! And thanks, I appreciate it. Shrike has a plan for infiltrating the Hospice, but it's not necessarily a wise plan when we don't know what awaits us in there!

Shane's biggest options are invisibility for the group but he can use fly or waterbreathing for alternate paths if they exist. The problem with invisibility is you have to squeeze through doors with guards then well, that can be a tight dangerous fit.

He does have Disguise Self and Youthful appearance, Nondetection as well as three flavors of invisibility and by now he'd trust the group with his spell list if pressed.

We don't necessarily have to discuss the infiltration in-character if no one's feeling it. Shall we just vote here on what to do? So far the options suggested are:

1) Ambush a group of Queen's Physicians roaming the city, knock them out or kill them, take their masks and robes, and disguise ourselves with these to be let into the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden.

2) Some combination of invisibility sphere and other illusion spells, walk in through the front door.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you Shrike for taking the initiative to plan this OOC. I believe there was a third suggestion of asking the wererats about a possible underground access point. This is not covered in the book, so I'll roll a chance dice if such an access point exists or not.

Chance 15%, high is good: 1d100 ⇒ 43

Too bad, it was a clever idea!

Aw, too bad. Well, thanks for picking up on that one and being open to it, GM.

Personally, I think I'm in favor of ambushing the Queen's Physicians and attempting to pass ourselves off as them - Shrike or some other character might have to take the lead in that regard, though, as Kandru's Bluff score isn't exactly great.

Pava wants to see what they're hiding under the masks - let's do it

Would stone shape CREATE a niche or passage for us?

Yes, but the volume limitations of the spell may not work for what you're thinking. Unless I'm getting my measure units wrong again, someone who is fluent in feet please weigh in. :D

Target: stone or stone object touched, up to 10 cu. ft. + 1 cu. ft./level

So that's 17 cubic feets. Google tells me that's the size of a large freezer.

It would work if you found a space or passage adjacent to the basement of the hospice and the wall between them was stone and not dirt - and it wouldn't be too thick. Not impossible, but a long shot.

I say we approach it like we did with the Spider King's floating gambling den: First a bit of time spent on covert observation to learn more about the location, guards, who's coming and going etc. Combo of classic surveillance aided by magic and perhaps Majenko.

Based on what we observe, we can discuss the best approach for breaking in.

It sounds like finding the exact right place to use stone shape to get in underground would be a pretty long shot. But possibly the ground level has stone walls? Unclear. It seems like we already have 3/6 people wanting to pose as Queen's Physicians to get in, anyway.

Relatedly @Elric: Shane and Shrike already staked out the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden for a day or two. GM Harrow described what they learned in this post. The exterior was closely guarded by Gray Maidens and so they couldn't get inside.

GM, if there are any more details from that time period we could offer the group about what the converted warehouse looked like from the outside (especially composition/entrances/exits/windows), approximately how many guards there were at a time and on what schedule they seemed to change, and maybe the average of how many Queen's Physicians etc. seemed to be going in and out per day, please assume we offer them. Shrike observed Elric's procedure of writing down patterns of comings and goings while staking out Eel's End from the watchtower, and would have tried to record similar information here, although probably with less professionalism. Scribbled in charcoal pencil on a spare piece of grocery wrapping paper, that sort of thing.

Anyone heard from Audria lately? I hope everything's okay.

Hey all, I wanted to apologize for being absent the past few days. I've been working on getting some things done around the house that have been sitting around not getting done, and that's been eating into my free time and energy. The bad news is that this is probably going to be the state of things for a little while, especially since there may be some changes coming up that will require a lot more focus and energy from me for a little while.

That said, I'll do my best to catch up and be as active as I can. All I ask is that y'all be patient with me.

- Adam

p.s. Sorry to make y'all worry. I'm scatter-brained at the best of times and between the commute I have to make three days a week and juggling three interconnected personal projects, I've been more so than usual. I'll do my best to catch up and post soon, and get leveled since I apparently forgot about that. :*

Good to hear you're alright, and good luck with all the projects!

Glad to hear from you, Adam. I wish you luck with the house projects, and please keep us updated on how it's going! We'll keep holding it down and be here when things calm down for you.

In the meantime, shall we proceed as a group with finding a group of 5-6 Queen's Physicians out in the city to ambush? It looks like we won't be able to learn much more from more staking out of the building. And Shrike would not want to delay, because Ruan could still be alive in there but we don't know for how long. I'll post describing a bit of the hunt for unguarded QPs by tomorrow if you like.

I don't know how tough these guys are, but with five of them we might well end up needing a map. Also we might have to wait for a few more QPs if we want everyone to be posing as them. Although I guess Shrike could just use her sleeves to change her outfit and Shane could be invisible, we'd still need 4 masks.

Hi everyone, heads up that next week (June 16-20) I will be travelling for work and won't be able to post.

Thanks for letting us know, GM. Have a good trip!

It looks like we might be missing a token for Kandru on this map. Shane, Audria and Kandru are still up in this surprise round.

Very sorry, crazy week, two birthdays, new internet installation and a power outage

No worries, hope the birthdays and install went well!

It looks like we might be missing a token for Kandru on this map. Shane, Audria and Kandru are still up in this surprise round.

I'm guessing it might be the one shrouded in shadows.

Sincerest apologies for my delay in posting - I've just been having trouble finding the time to sit down and hash out Kandru's new level. She should be leveled up now, however.

Not sure what's wrong with Roll20, it won't update Kandru's token to the proper one.

Forgot to highlight it, but in addition to shaking their foes, Pava also inspires their friends to give a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls for a couple rounds - maybe helping Kandru?