TOZ's The Flesh Collector (Inactive)

Game Master TriOmegaZero

Well, being on the receiving end I wouldn’t exactly call destroying our character builds "amazing". But I get your excitement about the fantasy of being able to do so... ;-)

I admit, it's nice to have an NPC that can actually challenge the Stealth rolls of PCs. :)

@GM: let me know if we're into initiative or if Skivven can continue making serious mistakes... ;)

Carry on with the mistakes!

Checking in with the table, do we need to adjust anything to help the party get through the adventure?

If you could all give a quick description of what you understand so far, it would help me see where I have not been clear about what you have learned.

There's some ancient epic style druid spirit potentially turned demon or undead due to her extreme environmental activism and she can't abide these fools buying real estate in what was clearly an established conservancy - fully equipped with blight moat and all. As her hate grows she is now exploring new ways to teach her ways, including but not limited to direct priest meat puppetry.

Skivven has decided to reduce the size of her meat puppet collection (similar to how the party proceeded with the monks and preferably just to knock them out...) and noted that the paladins have so far remained excluded from such a fate.

Skivven's next step (after knocking all priests out) would be to convince the palies to sniff out the fallen druid with their detect evil powers...

Assuming Skivven is correct, he did a very good job helping me understand a bit.

I'm still confused about the bust of Drusilla & that it didn't have any psychic impressions on it.

From my vision, I’m thinking the creature was a dryad, perhaps turned undead?

Maybe it's Poison Ivy? Where's Batman when you need him?

And what does my bust has to do with all that?

Lol Inga is voluntarily increasing the plot complexity I think... lol

I believe the "thief" statue was looking like Estara's head, not like Drusilla's bust... ;-)

The question is, can we calm this Spirit down enough to reasonably have a talk (use Diplomacy)?
Also (if that's not a possibility) how do we target her?

Oh. Sorry. yeah. The bust/statue of Estara and the monks thinking she's the thief.

Now I am wondering how bust-y Drusilla (the character!) is if it got Inga confused... ;-)

Well, you certainly provoked something... :)

After all, why puppet a lowly cleric when you have...other options...

Grunjar and Daedin can roll ten rounds of healing wands to determine where Daedin is in healing at the start of the combat. I'm not aware of any rule allowing PCs to take the average roll.

My bad, GM. Several of my early GMs had given that option; I’ve been doing that, mostly just whenever I had multiple healing rolls like this, ever since and no one ever said anything…so I thought it was RAW and never thought to ask. I’ll roll now…

I've heard it before and I'd love to allow it in a campaign mode game, but it's never been confirmed as allowed in general. Once you have the total rolled, we can see if it even matters. It's hard to judge how much time you had with the conversation.

Internet blinked for a short while and delayed the rest of my post, added my climb roll before my heal check; looks like my wand healed a couple points higher than taking the average would’ve…

I'm at a total loss as to what that would mean. Not sure why we would want to provoke an angry spirit. :/ Hopefully my sense motive check is high enough to figure out what she meant. I need some help, TOZ!

It would certainly be difficult to understand half of a statement that clearly, yes. Hopefully Grunjar's comments help clarify that.

The question is, can we calm this Spirit down enough to reasonably have a talk (use Diplomacy)?

Also (if that's not a possibility) how do we target her?

Even the brief exchange you had was not direct, so dealing with her directly is going to take some doing.

Jathyl has not appeared yet, are you able to target an area?

(There were a LOT of high initiative rolls on the party side.)

Calm spirit affects "one incorporeal creature or haunt". A haunt usually affects an area, though.

Ugh. Inga really didn't get any ideas from that sense motive check? It seems like that's what the skill is for.

Inga is much more intelligent than the player playing her.

I don't get it. If Jathyl isn't here, then who the heck are we talking to?

Can inga make an intelligence check to get some help from the GM in this situation since sense motive didn't work?

Well, you're not talking to anyone at this point, as you saw the priest go limp. Then the rumbling started after Skivven popped his bottle.

"Drawing his sap as he goes, he swings with all his little might behind the nearest priest's head."

Skivven didn't specify he was going for the one possessed by Jathyl. He just said the closest one. There was no mention that it was Jathyl. If you could specify on the map, out of the four priests, which one Skivven hit & which one is Jathyl, it might help a bit.

From what you have been able to glean, Jathyl has remained hidden, controlling the master and at least one priest. You are correct that Skivven did not hit the priestess that was being spoken through. All of the priests are at 0 Wisdom and unable to act on their own. I have turned the injured priest to represent them being prone.

"You and I should parley." The voice comes from one of the priestesses, her eyes now open and staring about at those of you on the floor.

"Isa cannot hear you. I am Jathyl, immortal protector of the forest. You interlopers trespass where you do not belong!" A sneer twists the priestess' face as her body twitches, a clear wince of pain briefly evident.

It's because of these two quotes that made it seem like Jathyl was possessing the body of Isa. Like, controlling it from within.

It seems like we should have been able to make some sort of check if it was something like ventriloquism or bluff of some sort.

With the understanding that it was ruled that you were not able to, what would you like to do now?

Edit: Got it!

After all, why puppet a lowly cleric when you have...other options...

Much better options!

On top of the sight line problems, I believe you also need one hand to hold onto the pillar, so firing a bow is going to be difficult.

Good point. You can assume the x-bow was pre-loaded, and that he fired one-handed at a penalty of -2 I believe (if I remember correctly) -- reloading may require Skivven to balance on a branch! :D :D :D

I was more thinking of Daedin's situation, but that works!

What knowledge check is needed to identify the big purple wormy thing?

Excellent question, apologies for missing that. This is an Arcana check.

Keep in mind that the smoke is preventing targeting, so only those adjacent to Inga at the time of casting will get the haste. Also, question for Skivven, how are we avoiding the choking hazard of the smoke?

That smoke is hazard free, my man! by raw it just totally obscures vision. Less harmful than vaping, I swearz it! :P

Are we sure about that?

Smoke Effects

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 444
A character who breathes heavy smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Smoke obscures vision, giving concealment (20% miss chance) to characters within it.

The eversmoking bottle calls out that it is the same as an efreeti bottle but only smokes. The efreeti bottle calls out the smoke as noxious.

This guy seems to have done his homework on the subject 6 years ago. I totally trust this guy! ;)

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of inconclusive discussion on it.

Given that we haven't had saves for the smoke so far, we'll keep going with that. It does prevent Daedin and Skivven from getting the haste, however.

Translation ==> GM is always right, so that's what I'll go with! :)

Edit: I'm fine with whatever you decide. It's a fun item that usually works in favor of rogues but against the rest of the party; a.k.a. party debuff in most case... :D

OOC intent here: was to cancel line of sight for bad evil lady to prevent further cleric meat puppetry... but as always, the smokey bottle worked WONDERFULLY! lol **cue to purple worm replacing paralyzed priestess**

I think it will also prevent the AoO on Inga and Klaus, given they act before Skivven can shoot.

AoO? Inga & Klaus got to react before the worm so it's still flat-footed, right?

But, yeah, we have the smoke screen too.

Both parties acted in the surprise round, otherwise it would have burst out of the ground and everyone else would have been flatfooted. The Perception checks to notice the burrowing were wild.

The eversmoking bottle calls out that it is the same as an efreeti bottle but only smokes.

Where does it say it's the same?

Edit: As an item with only a CL 3, it should just mimic the effects of obscuring mist, not the Noxious fumes of an item that's CL 14.

Just my 2 cp.

It doesn't need to create noxious smoke, as any heavy smoke causes the save vs choking. Irrelevant now, in any case.

Grunjar is pretty sure it's a purple worm, but the terror of it dealing half of Drusilla's HP in one turn appears to make it hard to remember its capabilities in a timely manner.

Worm at -2 to hit until Skivven's turn due to Disoriented status in case this makes a difference on Drusilla

Still only misses on a 1. Including the haste bonus.

Hey, team. I need some suggestions!

I have plenty of options but limited to actions/round. I have 1 charge left on my greater invisibility wand. Inga could run up to Drusilla and give her tap, but, Inga would need to cast her own invisibility on herself. Or displacement, or mirror image. Inga could cast confusion on the worm, but, I don't know if mind-affecting spells will work on it. I think someone would need to succeed on an identify check.

I could turn Klaus incorporeal (takes a full round, though) to deliver the stricken heart spell to hopefully make the worm staggered. Probably wouldn't make that much of a difference, though.

Any suggestions? Take a look at Inga's profile for spells, scrolls, wands, etc...

If you don’t find a better use for Greater Invisibility, you could cast it on Daedin; if he’s firing from invisibility, his sneak attack would kick in and he’d get an extra 4d6 on damage…

If you don’t find a better use for Greater Invisibility, you could cast it on Daedin; if he’s firing from invisibility, his sneak attack would kick in and he’d get an extra 4d6 on damage…

I second that idea, especially since Daedîn has currently bit of luck which should make him hit (and hopefully also crit) way easier!

I will wait with my turn until Daedîn has acted.