GMDQ's Forces of Nature (Inactive)

Game Master DeathQuaker

Amorphous anatomy is 50% chance, not immunity. (It is a different monster ability from "amorphous"; good job for being confusing, Paizo.)

Amorphous Anatomy (Ex): A protean’s vital organs shift and change shape and position constantly. This grants it a 50% chance to ignore additional damage caused by critical hits and sneak attacks, and grants it immunity to polymorph effects (unless the protean is a willing target). A protean automatically recovers from physical blindness or deafness after 1 round by growing new sensory organs to replace those that were compromised.

So Lazur, you should definitely do the following:

Mighty Trer, good luck with the WiFi.

I will post in the game thread this evening.

Ok thanks. I followed the link in the stat block and got immunity.

Apologies on the delay, got caught up in some pre-holiday work fire-drill. I will post today with what spell I lose,etc.

Updated mine sheet as well, I just crashed and wasn't able to update the little tiny statblock to delete the spell. Will probably post later today, if not then, then tomorrow.

GMDQ, could you put a link to the battle map on the campaign header please.

It's underneath my username in my "statblock." If that is not convenient I'll move it.

With apologies, I've a big deadline tomorrow and did not get as much done on my work today as I would like. I'll update tomorrow as soon as I can.

From Dec 23-28 I'll be attending family festivities. I expect I will be able to post some, but will be slow (and will not be online at all on December 25), and of course any of you who have upcoming plans, please of course put those first.

@Krowys, aoe spells like cone of cold dont suffer mischance. Its only individually targeted stuff.

Ah, thanks, either way wouldn't have missed.

Is it apparent that Krowys has been affected by Confusion?

Also, just as a note, quickened spells do not provoke so you dont need to cast defensively.

I think once Krowys begins babbling incoherently on his turn--which would be extremely out of character for him--you can make a reasonable guess that he is magically confused, especially since you, particularly, are one of the ones who rolled very high to recognize the keketar and knows it can do that to people.

Thanks for the reminder about quickened spells. God metamagic is annoying (from a management perspective).

I'd like to imagine Krowys "babbling incohrently," although obviously still massively out of character, is just quite literally stream-of-consciousness code-switching every word to the point of incomprehensibility. Dude knows 20+ languages, code-switching them all at the pace of a machine gun would likely count as "babble incoherently."

Does "with an item in hand" do nothing/babble incoherently if the character is quite literally holding nothing? I'll decide what to do at some point later today.

Great way to interpret that!

As I am interpreting the intent of that option is that the confused creature attempts to harm themselves, I would say that if you have nothing in hand you hit yourself with your hand and the damage you do is nonlethal.

By the way if anyone saw the size of the purple circle on the map change it's because I realized I made it the wrong size the first time. Nothing in world changed.

Okay, going to be largely offline starting now; I'll check in occasionally when I can but I'll be on my phone. I don't expect to resume normal pacing until after the New Year.

Likewise you should not worry about posting too much for the next week, though of course you are welcome to post actions and talk amongst yourselves when I am not able to post.

Happy Holidays! May the New Year bring you comfort and light.

Actually, I think both of you are correct in a way. The ground stops the Prismatic Sphere... but the effect is a filled sphere, not a 'dome' where if you bypass the external surface, you are safe.

A sphere-shaped spell expands from its point of origin to fill a spherical area. Spheres may be bursts, emanations, or spreads.

So you could burrow under the 'edge' of the spell but once you dig up into the open air of the active area of the spell... BLAM! Make your saves.

I think the 'dome' notion is a carry over from the D&D origins of the spell.

Interesting! I never noticed that before! Not sure if I agree, disagree, or what, but that's a cool interpretation!

Fair enough! So basically we are where we started.

Ball's in y'all's court as to next steps. If you feel leery about approaching it immediately, you could also go to other areas while you consider solutions (though as you are leaning toward transforming into something that can travel between the gap between the sphere and the Wellspring, you may want to do so while you have ample spell resources).

Will post tomorrow night. Happy new year!

Happy new year to you!

Happy new year to everyone! Well, not yet here, but you get the idea.

Happy new year!

Happy new year all. My posting might be a little slower. Spent NYE in the eye infirmary A&E with a very annoying eye infection which is making seeing stuff tricky.

Yikes! Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Posted short reply. Will update with the impending chaos tomorrow morning.

Repeating a question I posted in my combat turn, but got lost for understandable reasons:

I am trying to decide if the crystalline burst would do hp damage to the ice tomb (which the hex description notes has 20 hp and does not list a hardness). My groups have generally played that something that does physical area of effect damage damages objects (some evocation spells are a gray area depending on the precise damage description, but this isn't a spell so that's moot).

At the same time it is true, as Mighty Trer recently pointed out, rules for breaking objects generally involves sundering or Str checks which AOEs don't really fit into.

Would the crystalline burst damage (and destroy) the ice tomb (with the remaining HP hurting the xiomorn inside), especially as the ice lists no hardness. To be fair, it would also affect the wall of stone, but the wall of stone has hardness and a lot more hp (60 total per 5 foot square) so it would not be destroyed. I think it is logical that if something physical explodes, it damages the environment around it. (Fortunately the portal and the wellspring are nearly indestructible so that isn't an issue.)

(As for the box with the inevitable in it, I fully admit GM fiat to destroying the box but not the inevitable (which is not to say he can't die); it was a really tough interplanar box!). The other crates are a bit of a mess now too.

(As for the box with the inevitable in it, I fully admit GM fiat to destroying the box but not the inevitable (which is not to say he can't die); it was a really tough interplanar box!). The other crates are a bit of a mess now too.

Are you using a proper Arbiter statblock for the guy? If so, they're actually incredibly hard to kill, unless you specifically try. Because they have regeneration (chaotic), I am pretty confident they can't die unless its deactivated. If you're using an adapted Duodrone statblock, then I don't know.

Tell me if I'm getting regeneration rules wrong here. And I'm being real I just guessed at the AoE thing, if I had known you typically ruled AoEs can hit them then I'd have been fine going with that. But keep in mind they're staggered for 3 rounds after.

Hey DQ,

I didn't think your question was addressed to me, which is why I didn't answer it initially. Please note, I am not a rules lawyer and I tend to shoot from the hip if the rules are not crystal clear to me or my players.

After a bit of a rules search and thread convos, things seem pretty nebulous on how the Ice Tomb works. If it acts as an object (Ice has 0 hardness and 3 HP/inch) then we can assume the monster is sealed in nearly 7" of ice. And the talk about not suffocating in the tomb tends to support the idea that you are literally 'walled in' with ice. Plus, it is called a Tomb, probably for a reason. :)

That to me seems to be the intent. The rest I think is a GM judgment call. Since physical damage is typically how you break an object... I personally would rule that any spell that delivers physical damage from a magical explosion would damage objects around it. I'd also weigh more heavily in that direction because Crystal Burst is a Supernatural not Spell-Like power. I tend to give supernaturals a little more leeway. And since the definition of Crystal Burst does not mention targeting creatures specifically (unlike say 'Diamond Spray'), I'm inclined to think it hits everything... so the boxes, the ice tomb, and the wall of stone.

But that is strictly my view on it.

Personally, I'd say RAW no, but I wouldn't feel cheated if you said it did work. I will point out that I think the reason that spells don't normally do damage to items and the like is twofold: Gygax used to use fireballs to break monster's loot and equipment, and no one liked losing treasure to their cool blow stuff up spell. Secondly, tracking how much damage the surrounding area has taken from spells and effects means terrain elevation changes in the middle of the battle, and an absurd amount of paperwork as you track every 5ft cube's health and damage. It certainly adds to the fantasy of the sheer destructive power of evocation/conjuration spells, but some spells say that they damage objects, like fireball, while others don't, like cone of cold. Unattended, non-magical objects are always said to have failed their save (see breaking objects), but energy damage deals half damage to objects as well. At the end of the day, I think it's your decision, and I'll support whichever one you decide to go with.

On a somewhat related note, our mages should prepare more wall spells with the generous ruling that our GM has provided to wall of stone; locking a bad guy in a box with Trer is gonna be bad for said bad guy :)

Trer, that... is... GENIUS.

Mira changes her looks at little, throws up a wall of force around Trer and a 'contender', Lazur runs the betting, and we have... Thunderdome!

Oh Gygax... I can't forgive him for never writing back to 10 year old me and the Flumph. No one should be forgiven for that. XD

Though, a stack of flumph with maple syrup is delicious.

LOL I look forward to seeing Trer's thunderdome in action. (And I'm pretty sure my interpretation of wall of stone is RAW, it was just written poorly. If I'd been a games editor at the time I would have flagged it.)

Thanks for the input on the ice tomb.

I need to attend to some personal business today and tomorrow so I may be delayed in responding in game, please bear with.

With apologies I am stuck out of town unexpectedly away from my laptop where I have all my notes. Please excuse the delay. If I am delayed too much longer we can just handwave the end of the fight so we can proceed with RP.

Doh! Sorry to hear you are stuck! The game can wait a bit.

Happy to wait for you to get back. I hope all is OK.

Thank you!! Was visiting and helping out my dad, and the predicted 0.3 inches of snow became a reality of 3 inches of snow, which where I live is just enough to mess up the roads if the municipalities haven't planned for it (which they didn't). Especially as temperatures invited a lot of melting and refreezing into black ice. I know any folks from colder climes are laughing but I nonetheless didn't want to head home until the roads were clearer and slightly less idiot-free. And by the time I got in I had to log straight on to work, so.

Oh man, that really sucks! I'm from northern Massachusetts originally, so we've got the infrastructure for that sort of thing, but moving out to Seattle, they've got no contingencies for large amounts of snow and ice! I jest about people being cold in 30 degree weather because it regularly got down to -6 where I'm from, but if the roads are unsafe, it doesn't matter if it's 30 or -100, the roads are unsafe! Best wishes to ya!

Yeah largely the same situation here, GMDQ. Best wishes!

Small world. I lived in Seattle for 13 years. Even 2" of snow would shut down the city. And the joke was the county seemed to have 3 snowplows total.

DQ, don't worry about it! If the infrastructure to handle snow and ice is crap, you were far better staying put. The game can wait.

Sorry I thought I had posted an attack on vault keeper that was in reach. I believe I am down in the initiative a bit so I will wait.

I thought the DM said you could take your turn from the previous round?

They are all dead from the previous round I believe other than the one doing the summoning behind the wall. I have no actions I can think of.

Thanks all for your understanding!

Combat is over so we can proceed.

I see why you liked the idea of an Axis Pact Witch! Mechanus and Axis are kind of different, and I wanted to up-play their confusion to an extent. I hope that's okay.

I imagine Axis is more like mathematics, in that there may be many ways to solve the problem even if the inhabitants are still bound by its laws and goals, whereas Mechanus seems more like a machine than mathematical reality, always following the same set of steps.

I should probably have explained this: I'm sort of translating the original module's modron character into what might be a feature of the Custodians (as you surmised). They are meant to work in numbers as a semi-hive mind. This differentiates them from otherwise statistically similar Arbiters--and aphorites for that matter--who work as diplomats.

My imagined/interpretation of Axis is has features that can be machine-like as there are more elegant manifestations of lawfulness. After all each plane is infinite and contains room for different means of reflecting its purpose.

Ah, that makes sense with how the character is behaving. Would Krowys know that in-character, is the question?

Also Slag is presumably much bigger, Duodrones are Small or Medium if I recall correctly. Just noticed that and found it hilarious.

You may not be surprised some servitors of Axis speak like that--but may be the first time you've encountered it personally, as your line of work involves a different facet of Axis's function.

Slag is Tiny (same size as an arbiter). So itty bitty cube angel-bot. I'm not using modron stats.

Ah, alright. They'd still express the same amount of concern, regardless.

I am all for the moral dilemma debate and am in fact kind of delighted, from a narrative and character development perspective, it has emerged.

However, I do want to note that my bringing up "now all we have to deal with is the lava" is Mara's gentle way of saying "hurry the f$&! up and get the fire primordium." Which is not the same thing as saying there won't be a cost of lives if there is no other intervention, but any delay will also have a cost. I point this out not with the intent of strongarming you into a decision but in case my storytelling has not made certain factors clear.

One more thing, while I am here:

This is a short module; it was a "Free demo adventure" Wizards gave out eons ago to help promote the Manual of the Planes. The fire plane is the last major step before any denouement. This group has been moving very quickly so we could actually be done in a few weeks at the very most.

However, the module and my adaptation of it has made sure to drop possible threads of other directions to take. Where is Khyber Mercane? What was the nature of his agreement with Axis? Can the Machine be maintained on the long term, especially since all its inevitable caretakers are gone except one? Are the xiomorns going to invade? What can we do with Nissia the Scylla? Will that keketar that she dismissed back to its home plane have a grudge? Among others. Maybe you might just want to explore the world or find the other elemental gates, like Winter's Gate that you worked on in the prologue.

So something to consider as we proceed is if you want to carry on, and if so, for how long. Anything that proceeds from here will be far more sandboxy, and will involve me making up a lot of things on the fly, which can have benefits and drawbacks. I have my ideas for what's going on, but there is nothing "scripted" beyond this.

For what it's worth I think this is a good group and would be interested to see where you want to take things. I also understand if sustaining interest at this level for long may be a challenge. I welcome your thoughts.

I am absolutely all for carrying on. It has been a lot of fun and there are loads of tantalising threads dropped in throughout.

I'm all for carrying on too, it's been amazing fun, and as Mirabelle stated, lots of tantalizing threads dropped throughout!