... Should I try to cast Charm on the Warden? Like, seriously, it has to work eventually, right?
Let's see if the bribery works first. But if that does not work, I'm inclined to beat him up, get arrested and the start a riot from inside the prison :-)
If you hadn't broken the seal, he just would have handed her over. But, I think you'd be skeptical, too, if you had a registered letter delivered to you with the seal broken :)
And Wrap!
You have finished Book 1, and we'll soon start Book 2, The Cult of the Cave Worm.
You all can level to level 5.
We'll do a little post mortem of what went sideways in this section before we start the next book.
But, that can wait until at least tomorrow!
If you hadn't broken the seal, he just would have handed her over. But, I think you'd be skeptical, too, if you had a registered letter delivered to you with the seal broken :)
Yeah, there was just no way Zothan was going to trust Toum to just cooperate like that after what we heard about her. In my my mind, odds were just as good that letter was going to read: “The people handing over this letter are insane murderes and troublemakers. Lock them up and throw away the key.”
That is also quite reasonable from your perspective, though, to be fair, Toum herself has, at no point, done anything to harm the group.
She has, or at least is trying to, harm her former clan, and she does have some shady acquaintances, but even when you broke into her forge, and admitted to killing Ygrin, she did not attack, even after an attempt to Charm her was made.
Now, I know this segment was frustrating, and it did take a lot longer than I expected it would.
I don't think that you all did anything wrong. I think that for the most part, your strategies were sound.
Here is what I think went sideways, and I want to say I could be 10000 percent wrong. Please give any feedback that you have.
I think you were pulled into proving Jirelga's innocence, which she is not. Baelim is corrupt, but also lawful. He will not put an innocent person in the Broch, but he is OK with flimsy evidence, which he himself told you that the evidence on her was.
I think most of the people that interacted with Baelim, except for Zothan, tried too hard to get him to do the right thing. I was trying to convey the fact that he is corrupt, and trying to tug at civic heartstrings would not work, and that did not seem to resonate, and that is on me. I'm not sure how I could have conveyed it better, but, clearly, I needed to do so.
Sense Motive is an action that you could have used with both Baelim and Yiri. Korox's comment about Yiri that was basically 'This is someone else who doesn't want help.' was spot on. Yiri was not looking for help, you were, and I think that was something else that I must not have conveyed properly.
I think one thing you could have done better was run with the good ideas you had.
Example: Korox's idea to scout Ygrin's house was great. You found out that he had not been at home for a long time. But, you never broke in. If you had, you could have learned more about him and found out that he was now a skelm. You could have taken that information to the Temple of Drangvit and they would have helped you - they would not have wanted the public to learn that Ygrin was a skelm. None of that is in the adventure, but as soon as Korox said that was what he wanted to scout the house, I started making plans for what you'd find inside if you went in, but you didn't.
Something that I suspect may have happened is that you may have expected this segment to be a 'talk to one NPC, get a lore dump, and done' segment. That is not unreasonable. A combat-heavy adventure likely would have done that, but this is not a combat-heavy adventure and some of the ones in it, I've cut. There are *two* in the research/ritual part of the chapter, both of which I tossed as I didn't feel that they fit.
Those are my initial thoughts, and I really want feedback from any/all of you, to help me get better as a GM for this group. Also, there will be a money drop from House Tolorr to make up for the treasure you missed out on by not treating the bakery as a room by room search and destroy mission.
You'll need more gear and supplies, after all, for your upcoming trip into the Darklands!
I will admit, Jiraxi probably went to the wrong place. Generally, everyone wound up going to the wrong sorts of places, and by the time one of us was on the right track, we all just converged on one spot.
Apologies, RL situation with a friend's health, will try to post tomorrow
You will each have 100 gold from House Tolorr to fund your expedition into the Darklands. We'll be getting to that in the next week or so as you talk to Jirelga and fill them in.
This is also to make up for the loot you missed, so use it to gear up in Highhelm, but remember to save some for supplies.
... I forgot that Jaxi had claimed the Spore Shepherd's Staff. Protector Tree would have been useful in that fight. Oh well, just chiming in to say, she's going to be buying a Lesser Healer's Staff for 90 GP and saving the remaining 10 for supplies, alongside whatever extra she'd have to pay out of pocket. We need more healing and Jaxi does have Heal, so she's gonna be the party healer going forward I guess!
Ok. Sounds like a plan for Jaxi.
Healing potion and scrolls are fairly cheap too, and I'll adjust Darklands treasures to give more healing items in it.
I'll kick us forward in the next day or so, and you can all start levelling to five.
I'll have Zothan updated to level 5 ASAP.
He'll be taking the Tome as his second implement, which will allow him to be trained in two skills of my choice each day. That will give us a great deal of flexibility.
I also plan to slap a Striking rune on his sword cane to up his damage.
My original plan was to increase his Diplomacy skill, but since we have an abundance of diplomats, I'll probably have him train in stealth instead.
Okay, sorry, some RL stuff again so I am behind on updating
No worries. I'll kick us forward Monday for game stuff, and people can give feedback and work on leveling in the meantime.
Oh, also, Zothan, I looked over Tome, and he'd be Expert in both chosen skills each day, since he is level 5.
Oh, also, Zothan, I looked over Tome, and he'd be Expert in both chosen skills each day, since he is level 5.
We still need updated sheets from everyone, and any feedback is welcome.
Dyrm is updated to 5th
Oh I never mentioned I updated Jaxi a fair bit ago!
Thank you both for the updated sheets. Any of you can let me know what you want to do to prepare for your trip to the Darklands in the RP thread.
Hi folks, should have things updated tonight. The past couple weeks have been hard, my apologies!
Zothan is updated, except for expedition gear and supplies.
Hi folks, should have things updated tonight. The past couple weeks have been hard, my apologies!
No worries at all.
Please remind me, do we do something with an ancestry feats this level besides the one listed in the class table?
This is the normal level for Ancestry Feats, so you get to take a level 5 or 1 Ancestry feat.
I've got Halanestra levelled up to 5 except for one choice, my skill increase. We discussed earlier about having Halanestra be the group crafter. I'm happy pursuing that because I've definitely got the bandwidth for skills. Alternately, I'm happy holding off on that discussion until we recruit someone with some healing ability and asking them what they think about doing crafting. It'd be very in character for a dwarf, of course, so not infeasible.
I haven't done my shopping yet, that will probably happen tomorrow morning. I'm not quite sure where I'll spend it, likely something to give me another escape in combat because holy wow do I need it.
I've taken the Thorough Reports feat which I think synergizes spectacularly with the mastermind racket. Lia, is there anything specific you'd like to consider for adjudicating that? My understanding is that so long as I record my encounters somehow (e.g. at the end of the day) that should be enough.
Further, any thoughts on who will carry the armor shard?
In regards to Thorough Reports, I'd advise creating a field in your profile to record the types of creatures that you identify. That way you have the reference at hand. For purposes of this, 'type' will be defined as a specific creature: ie 'dog' and not 'animal'.
re: Crafting. While it is never bad to have access to it, you'll be going into the tunnels of the Darklands. You may not have access to places where you can Craft. Medicine or Acrobatics could be handy to have for post-combat healing and more options in skill challenges.
Any of you can carry the Shard. If someone wants to attune to it, you need to let me know, and if you currently have a relic, you'd have to end your attunement to it to attune to the shard. I think two of you have relics, and there will be more in the second book.
I don't know if I will open recruitment back up. I like the group as is, and you all can grab healing supplies both in Highhelm and the fey city when you get there.
However, I am willing to listen to feedback about this.
Remember that Zothan can become an expert crafter with a day’s notice, thanks to his new tome implement.
In general, that should let other characters pursue whatever skills they find interesting, because we have the flexibility to cover any missing skills.
And again, nothing's stopping Jaxi from acting as a primary healer. Even picked up a Staff of Healing to help on that front!
I admit, I do feel better with a healer but I yield to the majority.
This is all very good, thank you! I think, given that, I'll pick up Medicine. I'm already expert in Acrobatics and I can't go to master yet. I also prefer a dedicated healer and wouldn't expect someone to change their character build to accommodate that.
While someone certainly could build a class with healing abilities to do nothing except heal, dedicated healers aren't really needed in PF2. A healing-focused character is a nice thing to have, but consumables fill in the gap pretty well, and out-of-combat healing is resource-free via medicine.
Remember to get a Healer's Toolkit if you have Medicine so you can use it effectively.
Also, Dyrm has no FA yet, is Trained in Medicine, and has Battle Medicine as a Feat, so he could take the Medic Archtype.
But, between Jaxi, and Battle Medicine, and half the party trained in Medicine, and the fact I'll be tossing more healing supplies into treasure, I think you'll be fine and we can adapt if needed down the road.
Also, this is not a super combat-heavy AP: There were two fights in Chapter One (the leeches at the crab and the sheep bodies), four in Chapter Two (the cavern, two in Thenur's Tower, and the Xulgath leader/basilisk fight), and just one in Chapter Three (Ygrin).
You could have had more - Korox bypassed the group around an ooze encounter, I cut two fights in the library, and the bakery could have been a full dungeon, but you used other tactics to take that from 5 fights to just one.
I was also going to toss some extra encounters into Book 2, to show the Darklands are dangerous, but I'm going to hold off on that for now until I see how you all do in scripted encounters so that I don't accidentally throw too much at you.
I'm playing a Fighter with the Medic Archtype and Battle Medicine in a RL PF2 campaign, at it works very nicely. My character is the primary healer, and can pump out reliable heals even while in combat. Godless Healing gives a nice boost to self-healing if you have Feats to spare.
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We'll pick up the adventure on Monday.
Make sure your shopping is done by then, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them.
Have a great weekend!
I've decided to take Medicine, as you can never have too many healers. Here's the breakdown of the money I spent on items:
2 gp for 5 weeks of personal food
2 gp for another 5 weeks of personal food (time gets out of hand down there)
5 gp healer's toolkit
9 sp 3 sets of replacement picks
42 gp cartographer's kit
So this brings us to a total of 51 gp and 9 sp, rounding up to 52 gp. This leaves a nice amount of money to spend in the aforementioned fey city.
In the future, remember to check with me with Uncommon and Rare-tagged things. I would have said sure to this one, so it's not a big deal, but I might not always say sure.
Ah, my apologies, I completely missed the rarity tag! Thank you for allowing this, I feel it's pretty important to have a map. I will do my best to be mindful of that in future.
I'm not sure about taking the medic archetype having given it a skim over. I DO need to pick something I know
I'm not sure about taking the medic archetype having given it a skim over. I DO need to pick something I know
You do not need to. You can if and when you choose to.
Are folks able to make more than one roll per "round" for this skill challenge?
No. Unless a hero point is used.
Jaxi has Animal Eloctunist (used to be Burrow Eloctunist), would that let Jaxi talk to the beetles?
Yes. That would allow Jaxi to use Diplomacy or Intimidation with the beetle swarm.