GM Jhaeman's PFS1 # 1-03 (#31) "Sniper in the Deep" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

Thanks folks, back on deck!

@Malachi re: ioun stone: I can see sound arguments for both interpretations. My rule of thumb with rules ambiguity like that in PFS is to decide in favor of the players (if it won't create any immediate disruptions). So for the purposes of this particular session, you can recharge with the wand. If we were doing something longer like a module or an adventure path, I would research the question more carefully and try to reach a more robust conclusion one way or the other.

Sorry everyone, it's been a crazy time.

We're taking in a friend who was about to literally be homeless. She makes over $20 an hour and she can't afford to live alone anywhere in town. This is not a major city. It's an 80,000 population area. But a high speed toll road was just completed to Toronto. And now rich a++!@@&s who don't mind driving to work are starting to snap up property. Like many places, bidding wars are starting over rents.

Anyway, to make a long story slightly shorter, we're taking her in. When I say we, I mean my wife, myself, and our severely depressed housemate. It's a 3 bedroom. We are about to have 4 people, and a dog, living in this place. There is one bathroom.

I'm not saying this to vent, only to give everyone a sense of the upheaval that is going on. This place was crammed floor to ceiling already with the belongings of three grown adults. Our new tenant is putting most of her belongings in storage; however, she still needs at least one room.

We call this place "The Madhouse" and that's becoming truer all the time.

So bot me all you want right now, and I'll be here more often soon.

There has always been a pricing issue with housing in the Toronto area (or even really well outside it as well as is your case) but now it has become completely untenable. The triple whammy of runaway inflation, higher interest rates and out of control immigration has spiked the cost of housing (of all types) to unmanageable levels. Frankly I do not see it changing for the better any time soon despite any superficial (and largely politically motivated) band-aids that might be rolled out by all levels of government.

On a more positive note at least you are there to help your friend out. We can manage to bot your character if need be. :)

Yep, no worries Calabaza. You (and your friend) have my sympathies. Rents throughout much of Australia have skyrocketed. It's gotten so crazy that when my current lease expires, I'm actually going to move in with my wife! (long story) Anyway, happy to bot as needed.

If I should miss a turn, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, ducking into people's squares, provoking first, then attacking as soon as I'm flanking.

Or it is a Summoner with a ghostish eidolan.

If this were a later season scenario I might guess Spiritualist + phantom (or one of the archetypes that gets a phantom companion). But it's season 1 so it predates both Summoner and Spiritualist classes :o

Very good point. No summoner then.

Kit starts dancing again (inspire +3) and Casts a Good Hope spell to boot.

Classic bard. Love it :)

(Will get a gameplay post up in a few hours time).

Ok, that's a wrap! A few things we need to sort out before Chronicles:

* You did miss the secondary success condition for not retrieving Airk's body. Kitoro, if you have a relevant boon, please provide a bit more detail, state if you'd like to use it, and (assuming it's a one-time thing) cross it off.

* A couple of you have temporary negative levels from the spectres. You have a choice. 1) You can wait 24 hours and attempt a Fortitude save for each negative level (including the penalty to saving throws that the negative levels themselves provide) to see if you get rid of them naturally. If you fail the save, the temporary negative level becomes a permanent negative level (and is more expensive to get rid of). 2) You can spend the money/PP to get rid of the temporary negative levels without waiting for the reward/risk of seeing if they heal naturally or become permanent. Please consult the Guide and the restoration spell for more info and let me know how you'd like to proceed. (There was discussion in Gameplay about a "Slush Fund" boon; if you could reproduce the text of it in this thread, that'd help me decide if it could be applied for this purpose)

* Day Job checks and notification of anything else I need to put on the Chronicle for you.

Thanks for running GM :)

prof.merchant, day job: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19 Mal earns a minimum 75gp on his day job thanks to the Slush Fund boon.

I expect The Rock's boon is the same one but he'll confirm one way or the other. I've included mine since it affects Mal's day job result.

@Malachi - Thank you for reproducing the text for the Slush Fund. I have the exact same boon and wording from Season 8. :)

Profession-Merchant, Minimum 50 gold earned due to the Slush Fund boon: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

Yes, I would like to spend the gold upfront to remove the temporary negative levels from my animal companion Ginger.

The cost for the Restoration spell should be 380 Gold. Part of the cost (50 gold) could be picked up by the Exchange if you feel that the Slush Fund boon can be applied here.

* You did miss the secondary success condition for not retrieving Airk's body. Kitoro, if you have a relevant boon, please provide a bit more detail, state if you'd like to use it, and (assuming it's a one-time thing) cross it off.

I have all my chronicles on-line. You can find the one for the Wounded Wisp here. I notate that a boon is crossed off by striking it out on my character sheet, which I just did.

@Malachi & The Rock: It's another ambiguously-worded one, but I'll go ahead and say you can use the Slush Fund to defray the costs of the spell.

@Kitoro: Thanks, that will get you the secondary success condition PP (but not the accompanying Fame). Do you have a Day Job check?

@Calabaza: Do you have a Day Job check and how do you want to deal with your two temporary negative levels?

Does anyone else have a boon like Kitoro to get the missing PP?

day job, Comedy: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (10) + 25 = 35
Kit makes some money mocking Hestram in her time off. he is an easy target and lucrative with the right audience. Harris picks up a few coins picking pockets, though Kit makes him give them back.

Good to know that Malachi (and one or two other Exchange characters I have) can potentially defray some adventuring costs with Slush Fund - I had honestly just not considered that before :)

I don't have any way to recoup the forfeit PP.

And now we know why there's a shark on the adventure cover and we never encountered any - the 'secret' side mission to a sea cave :o

Even without the body recovery we had 4 combat encounters, this must run pretty long in person.

@Malachi - Unless you plan on using the Slush Fund for some other purpose would you mind contributing your 75 free gold to Ginger's restoration otherwise it will simply be wasted?

If Calabaza would like to borrow my Four Leaf Clover (or other permanent equipment) to help with his saves on the following day he may.

Yes it is a long adventure. Surely the Spectres which we fought in the third encounter would have been deadly to a Core party. :)

Malachi's only other costs were a few coppers at the bar, which he'd take back after routing the sailors, so Ginger is welcome to the contribution.

I've just read the reviews for this scenario, and there are plenty of complaints about the spectre encounter. In theory a party has time to deal with them - it would take 2 rounds for them to kill 1 PC in tier 8-9 if they focus someone down - but they're hard to kill and even harder to escape from, and anyone killed by them becomes a spectre themselves. I was thinking maybe we could hole the ship hull to let daylight in, but nobody ID'd them and my boon was good enough in the end.

My biggest criticism is the scenario's expectation that the PCs go looking for a corpse instead of (or as well as) the Sniper having had no direction from the VC to do so. Maybe the intent was for the party to do that after bringing the Sniper back to Hestram and I suppose we could have got the cave location from the thugs we downed.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the scenario needs to be retired though, as some reviewers suggested. (I have said that about another very early scenario mind, there are some stinkers still out there).

@Malachi - It is just a badly written scenario all-around. That is why you often need OP characters in the group to overcome really bad writing. ;)

@GM Jhaeman - The cost for Ginger's Restoration is now only 255 gold out of pocket with both characters of the Exchange contributing their Slush Funds (125 gold total) to the cost of the spell casting.

Thanks for running. It is really appreciated. :-)

Kit would be happy to lend her clover if Ginger can figure out how to activate it. Can also cast heroism to help.

Personally, I don't mind the specters at our level. It does tend to penalize front-liners by forcing them to pay for restorations, but there are a number of creatures out there like that and it helps elevate the feeling of threat when a creature can do significant harm.

I'm going to take this as a reminder to get some gear to protect against energy drain. Thinking a lesser talisman.

Having some unfair encounters is really part of PFS experience anyways. While there is some attempt to put guard rails on the game with the CR system you can always count on a scenario writer to not understand the rules of the game, screw up the encounter or just be sadistic. Some people might see this as a bug but it is really a feature of the play experience. It adds spice to the game.

Compared to the old days of RP (like 1st edition D&D or Role Master) PFS seems like a very controlled and civilized experience. Clearly I am showing my (advanced) age here. :)

Ah, the Role Master critical hit tables! Spell crits that could liquify the target :o

I remember a game of Hârn Master where my character took an arrow to the throat on a crit - survived it, but his Voice stat was reduced to 0. Good job he wasn't a casty!

Yes, critical tables that made as much sense as English spelling. You have to love it. The game was so brutal that there was no actual expectation of survival so it was more of a matter of when and by which critical table your character's life or adventuring career would end then anything else.

First edition D&D games were all home games at this point so silliness reigned with crazy one offs being the norm. Can a 1st level Barbarian defeat a T-Rex. Let us see. How about teams of 1st level characters being brought into a high level module against the demon queen of spiders herself. Why not. It was a standing rule at some of these games to bring at least three first level characters just to save time in case a character or two dropped off. It was crazy but fun. :)

Talk about short life expectancy, ever play Paranoia?

Why yes, Friend Computer! And I had lots of (mandatory) Fun doing so!

Okay, game has been reported and Chronicles are available here. Any issues, just let me know and I'll fix them up!

Thanks for playing!

Chronicle is good, thanks again for running!

Thanks for being the GM. :)

Yea, I really appreciate the work you GMs do.

You're all very welcome. I'll now turn this thread to Inactive, but if you need anything, just PM me.