Hello, I am so sorry, I am sick. Woke up from a nap and am going back to bed. Hope to update tomorrow and I am very sorry for the delay.
Not to worry, get better and we will move forward when you are.
Thank you, feeling a bit better after a lot of sleep.
Something seems to be going around. You are the third GM or player today that was down. Get well!
Thanks! Seems to be early spawning allergies or something weather-based, the good news being that with meds and shifts and barometric pressure improving I am doing better.
When y'all have positioned yourself as you like on the battle map let me know.
I'm waiting for Trer to pick a spot. Ariston will be right behind her to both reduce our target profile and because the plan is to ensure Trer gets into hand-to-hand range successfully while suffering the fewest amount of AoOs.
Alright. I still might adjust the positions a bit, but that should roughly be right. The plan is to have Krowys hex the creatures from a distance (60' is major hex range, IIRC), with Liber's Heal charge hopefully doing 170 damage to the Ravener. Let's see if SR plays nice. I do not think Liber will continue much to combat after that, even if she's near-unkillable, she can still go unconscious!
I put myself where I thought was reasonable, I'd like to be as far forward as possible, but I don't know what the situation with that is!
I have placed myself. I will be flying at ground level as well as invisible and mind blanked etc. Ariston, please try to stay within 30' of everyone so I ca haste us all at once.
Can't you just say that Haste was part of your preparations? Immediately before we encountered them? I'd hope this doesn't take 17 rounds of combat. If so, I'll probably move Liber back a bit since she'd have 70ft move speed.
I'm right behind Trer. I can also Haste myself through my boots, if necessary. Krowys and Liber are on the outskirts. To that point, the dragon is towards the SE corner of the map and we're hovering near the giants... is that the plan? Or should we be closer to where Krowys is?
I'm unsure. Heal can do a significant 150 chunk of the damage, and I didn't want to risk it going off on a Cherufe AoO, so I imagine the pair flew around to the outskirts.
Makes sense.
I am good. I am even with Trer and just within 30' from her so we should both be able to be hasted. I would have started things off further west but I'm ready to go.
Can't you just say that Haste was part of your preparations? Immediately before we encountered them? I'd hope this doesn't take 17 rounds of combat. If so, I'll probably move Liber back a bit since she'd have 70ft move speed.
I am always a bit dubious about how reasonable it is to prebuff with 1 round/level buffs. If out GM is OK with it I will and then I will be further away so we are reasonably spread out.
I appreciate that Mira, and I think as you'd be focusing on positioning and approach you'd wait to cast haste till you were sure you were going in, by which point the enemies are aware of you (bearing in mind lots of senses are active from afar and magic is afoot), i.e., initiative is rolled.
OUCH. 1 away from meets beats. Should have remembered to use Mirabelle's CL ioun stone, or that would have worked. Well, whichever party is up next is up next.
Anyways, have an angry metal ball. If I had known the SR was going to be this high, I'd have taken the ioun stone precaution.
Ack! Thought I posted.
Alright. Posted the pair's actions. Was debating between 20% miss chance and just fleeing, but went with fleeing.
Per the in-game thread, there's some decisions for you to make about what you want to do next.
The immediate choices are:
- Do you want to accept Orteza's offer of land, plus the materials and labor to construct a stronghold? You may choose the Ram's Tears or someplace else on the Free Coast (I can provide a map if you like). If you accept this offer, in addition to adequate land to build on, you will get 100 Goods, 25 Influence, 100 Labor, and 10 Magic to begin building your stronghold (see Ultimate Campaign's Downtime rules for Rooms and Teams, and Buildings and Organizations (the latter of which are prebuilt packages of the former).
- Do you want to help Ramsmouth clean up the town?
- Do you want to participate in the decision making about rebuilding Ramsmouth and what to do with the Mechanosanctum?
- Do you want to explore the volcano and look for Thrakterifax's hoard? (This will probably become a brief Underdark adventure.)
The longer term choices are:
- Do you want to assist with anything else in this world, e.g., asking Orteza what he's looking into and helping with that?
- What do you want to do with the not-modron, Slag?
- Do you want to look for/find out what happened to Khyber Mercane?
- Do you want to pursue why the proteans were trying to destroy the Wellsprings?
- Do you just want to go exploring, either this world or other planes?
- Do you want to follow up on any other loose threads and/or options for exploration? E.g., visiting the scylla and learning more about what she's guarding. (The Vault Keepers are also a potential future problem to deal with, though I am probably not going to immediately bring them in.)
- Is there anything else you want to do?
I can drop quest threads and/or drag you into storylines if you wish and/or if you are losing momentum, but this really is largely up to you and want to make sure I leave you plenty of room to explore before tossing anything more explicit your way.
Oh, one more thing: on the subject of rewards.
As I want to level you pretty slowly--this is a lot to handle, which is not unexpected--I still want you to feel like you get some story rewards. Hopefully the potential for a stronghold scratches that itch to some extent.
I've been seeing that Hero Points are pretty pointless at this level, but I would like to sustain the existence of Hero Points for two purposes:
- Avoiding death (per the standard rules).
- Asking the GM for a hint and/or inserting a story seed to help you along.
To this end, you each currently have 2 hero points.
Finally, I've been toying with the idea of giving you extra bonus feats. You all are obviously very powerful combat wise so I don't want to make all feats available, particularly combat feats (I mean, you just kacked a CR 22 monster in a couple rounds. Some of that was die roll luck, and your diplomacying the fire giants removed the extra creatures supporting him at the beginning of the fight, but still).
My proposal: you all can (1) EACH choose for yourself a skill-based or background-based feat (nothing that directly impacts combat) using the sources allowed during character creation, OR (2) all four of you can chose any ONE teamwork feat that all of you take at the same time. How does that feel?
The point is to try to give you something fun and flavorful while not breaking the game. Let me know what you think.
In terms of what we do next I particularly like the following:
1. Setting up a base. I dont necessarily want to use any sort of subsytem for this but I like the development aspect.
2. This I think leads to use keeping involved in the region. I would ant to help rebuild the town and also hunt down the hoard. I am also very interest in what happened to Mercane which also links in to the Modrons and Proteans I suspect.
3. I think the Vault Keepers are a really interesting angle as a longer term problem. They also work on a suitably epic level for characters of this kind.
As for development I like the idea of more flavourful bonus feats. It might also be worth looking in to story feats as well to see if there are any that are particularly appropriate. On advancement, I would quite like to reach level 18 at some point so I get to play with level 9 spells as well.
I have to ask one question about Gods, since I'm contemplating what to do for the final feat. Would you be okay nixxing an alignment restriction for a Certain Protean Lord? You have an entire plane related to language, for all I know she already moved shop out of the Maelstrom. The Edicts and Anathema in 2e very much seem like she doesn't want to destroy Axis, and might make a good fit for Sophis. It's just always felt weird how there was only ever the one god of language in Golarion's setting, and they're part of team Entropy.
I'm asking this mostly jokingly, but if the above is greenlit, would Monitor Obedience be a background related feat for a translator such as Krowys?
I imagine Krowys would go along with the land offer if everyone else does, but as a Rover, I imagine that if no one else wants to take the offer, he'd be okay with declining it as well. Just some roaming translator who sold his soul for tongues and got more power than he bargained for. I'm with Mira on the longer term problem. Granted they have mythic tiers IIRC and would wipe the floor with us, but they do seem like a good longer term problem. As for Slag and the Mechanosanctum, I imagine Krowys would want a hand in dealing with that. Possibly seeing if there's an alternate solution for Slag within Axis beyond outright reformatting. I mean, the guy probably has better Charisma than both Krowys and Liber already as a normal, non-Pact Witch-familiar Arbiter Variant! As for the Mechanosanctum, the same thing applies. The pair sold their souls to Axis, so I imagine they'd be the one to refer to regarding that fate.
As for development I like the idea of more flavourful bonus feats. It might also be worth looking in to story feats as well to see if there are any that are particularly appropriate.
Good point, will explore that.
On advancement, I would quite like to reach level 18 at some point so I get to play with level 9 spells as well.
As long as folks--including myself--remain energetic enough to play, you will level before we're done at least once, if not go up to 20th level by the end. But I want to take it slowly given how powerful you already are--as it is coming up with something that will challenge you but not kill you instantly is something I have to be dealing with constantly. I ran a long high level Pathfinder game many years ago and did fine, but it was before a lot of options were added to the game, and I want to be sure I've gotten a feel for y'all in particular before I start giving you more dangerous toys to play with.
If you want to level faster, be less effective. ;) (Kidding.)
I have to ask one question about Gods, since I'm contemplating what to do for the final feat. Would you be okay nixxing an alignment restriction for a Certain Protean Lord? You have an entire plane related to language, for all I know she already moved shop out of the Maelstrom. The Edicts and Anathema in 2e very much seem like she doesn't want to destroy Axis, and might make a good fit for Sophis. It's just always felt weird how there was only ever the one god of language in Golarion's setting, and they're part of team Entropy.
I'm asking this mostly jokingly, but if the above is greenlit, would Monitor Obedience be a background related feat for a translator such as Krowys?
So regarding the mechanical aspects of your question first, I want to stick to the source-restrictions that I gave you during character creation, which vastly helps me maintain my own sanity (noting that I also restrict myself to those sources for monsters, spells, etc.). And that feat (and character) comes from a restricted source. I'd also say a feat that gives you bonus HP is "combat related" so is no go on that level as well. There are some interesting Linguistics-related feats that are legal that might be interesting. (For example, do you have Esoteric Linguistics yet?) So sorry, but I hope that makes sense.
Regarding finding a demigod of language as a story thing for Krowys to pursue could be fine, and there are priests of Aurit (the god of magic, medicine, language, and writing) at the Mechanosanctum (once they return and/or stop being dead) who could engage him extensively regarding his interests if you wish to pursue that. The Mechanosanctum houses other artifacts besides Khyber's Machine, and perhaps a language-related one got damaged that needs something from Sophis/Magia to get it fixed.
Oh, didn't know the feat came from a restricted source. Oops on that. The bit about Ydajisk was just because that might be some "what the hell" moment for Krowys seeing a god solely devoted to language that... is associated with the forces of the Maelstrom.
And yeah, I've already taken every Linguistics-related feat I could find. Part of me internally reasoned that the plane-specific books would be on-brand since you included the planes itself, but I'm mistaken and that's okay. Admittedly Krowys's main in-character reason for the feat would be "oh hey, three more uses of comprehend languages," which was what I admittedly was also thinking. I don't think it gives bonus HP, but it has spells given dependent on hitdice.
I also didn't know Aurit had language in the portfolio, for some reason? I'll probably tack on a holy symbol to the list as well. Sorry for the misunderstanding! Now to try to think of what feat I could do should we ever get to 19th... there's no multilingual feat in PF1e, sadly. The Sophis/Magia thing sounds appropriate as well.
Oh, didn't know the feat came from a restricted source. Oops on that. The bit about Ydajisk was just because that might be some "what the hell" moment for Krowys seeing a god solely devoted to language that... is associated with the forces of the Maelstrom.
As an amateur linguistics nerd and professional grammarian, I agree that the one entity devoted to language is chaotic. But I always felt like some of Paizo's devs, much as I love them, have weird ideas about some of the alignment-based outsiders.
And yeah, I've already taken every Linguistics-related feat I could find. Part of me internally reasoned that the plane-specific books would be on-brand since you included the planes itself, but I'm mistaken and that's okay. Admittedly Krowys's main in-character reason for the feat would be "oh hey, three more uses of comprehend languages," which was what I admittedly was also thinking. I don't think it gives bonus HP, but it has spells given dependent on hitdice.
I was looking at it very quickly and completely misread it. Nonetheless unfortunately I don't want to really open up stuff from new sources. (If you look at the stuff on Archives of Nethys source is always listed under the title in bright teal italics).
I also didn't know Aurit had language in the portfolio, for some reason? I'll probably tack on a holy symbol to the list as well. Sorry for the misunderstanding! Now to try to think of what feat I could do should we ever get to 19th... there's no multilingual feat in PF1e, sadly. The Sophis/Magia thing sounds appropriate as well.
In fairness my setting summary document specifically says "writing" but not "language" in the portfolio description. But he is supposed to be the god of language as well---as also being the god of magic, his teachings are supposed to be very Hermetic, that language and written language are the keys to unlocking and shaping power. Among other things.
Oh I don't disagree that the Protean of Language Change is chaotic. That much is obvious, the thing I'm wondering was whether they'd be on board with the assaults on Axis or not. Out of all the forces in the Maelstrom, they seem like one of the least likely to do so. At least compared to the other Protean Lords, they seem far more reasonable of a character. No assaults on Axiomites, no possessing outsiders constantly to kill them.
And yeah, I am hopefully going to graduate school for linguistics coming up. I can attest to language change being befitting of a Protean, ha. We don't even know what the etymology of "dog" is!
Answers…
Do you want to accept Orteza's offer of land, plus the materials and labor to construct a stronghold? You may choose the Ram's Tears or someplace else on the Free Coast (I can provide a map if you like).
This sounds like fun to me and I’m fine with Ram’s Tears as a locale. I’m a sucker for waterfalls.
Do you want to help Ramsmouth clean up the town?
Yes. Most immediately, I have plenty of spells left that I can convert to Mass Cure X’s. My idea is to zip around to the areas where the wounded are gathered and blast heals over as many injured as possible. This can be done entirely off-screen. In the medium term, I don’t mind helping with clean-up whether it is offscreen or not.
Do you want to participate in the decision making about rebuilding Ramsmouth and what to do with the Mechanosanctum?
Yes! Ariston has some opinions about the myopia of not having Varan’s clergy (and possibly other parties) NOT included in running the Sanctum. I expect Orteza has some thoughts on that as well.
Do you want to explore the volcano and look for Thrakterifax's hoard? (This will probably become a brief Underdark adventure.)
I can take it or leave it. If the team wants to do a little expedition, I’m happy to go along.
Do you want to assist with anything else in this world, e.g., asking Orteza what he's looking into and helping with that?
If this is an easy way to rope us into adventure ideas you have (now or in the future), then I’m all for it.
What do you want to do with the not-modron, Slag?
At the end of the day, I don’t really care. We could invite him to be a staff member of the base if we choose to build it?
Do you want to look for/find out what happened to Khyber Mercane?
Yes. I’m curious about what happened to him and what the hell he was thinking in making this device that could go nuclear on this scale.
Do you want to pursue why the proteans were trying to destroy the Wellsprings?
Immediately, no. Eventually… I’m kind of curious.
Do you just want to go exploring, either this world or other planes?
Eh, I can take it or leave it at this moment.
Do you want to follow up on any other loose threads and/or options for exploration? E.g., visiting the scylla and learning more about what she's guarding. (The Vault Keepers are also a potential future problem to deal with, though I am probably not going to immediately bring them in.)
Yes. In time, I’d like to free Scylla. I’m wondering though if her proximity to the gate and the operations of the Sanctum are linked. In other words, how do we ‘stabilize’ the world and shut down the Mechanosanctum for good? Can that be done? What is the safe way to do that?
Is there anything else you want to do?
Not off the top of my head.
To this end, you each currently have 2 hero points.
Sweet! I love a free ‘DM Clue’ card.
My proposal: you all can (1) EACH choose for yourself a skill-based or background-based feat (nothing that directly impacts combat) using the sources allowed during character creation, OR (2) all four of you can chose any ONE teamwork feat that all of you take at the same time. How does that feel?
(1) Do you count channeling feats as ‘combat’ related? As I mentioned earlier, I mis-spent a channeling feat and I’d like a chance to fix that error, if you’ll allow it. Barring that, if we are getting a bonus feat, I’d like to address the error using that feat. If that isn’t possible, I’ll have to see if there are any skill or background-related feats that call to me.
(2) Hmmm… I’m not sure what teamwork feat would work for all of us, but I’m open to the idea of it.
Oh yeah, Krowys would be down to figure out why the Proteans want to destroy the Wellsprings. Though he'd just assume it's because they're set up by Axis and well... Maelstrom. But he would 100% be down to go against the Maelstrom's forces.
I like kingdom building over rooms and teams, but honestly I'm happy to go with either! And I prefer cool teamwork feats to show growth as a team, but there isn't a one size fits all teamwork feat we could all use... so I'd probably vote the skill feat. Sorry about the delay in response, I had no wifi for most of yesterday!
It sounds like most of you are game to try the stronghold at least. Let's go for it and if it ends up feeling more like homework than a reward we can reevaluate. If you prefer, rather than worry about breaking things down into labor/materials/magic costs we could simply break things down into gold piece costs, with Orteza giving you a certain gps' worth of "building stuff" to get started.
@Trer, I think if this group was planning to settle down and stay in one place awhile we could move toward Kingdom building instead, but correct me if I am wrong, that doesn't seem like this group's MO. It could be something we explore longer route (you build your stronghold, and later Ramsmouth comes under your control).
Ariston, (1) since we're approaching a downtime period, you're welcome to retrain the channeling feat. (2) Otherwise I'd say just let me know what feat you're looking at. I think something like that might be best judged case by case.
I've got some more explicit ideas for some possible quest directions to take now and will bring them in shortly.
For the downtime period, beyond setting up stronghold, is there anything you want to do? Is there anything you want to RP or shall we just summarize?
Finally--at a work meeting tomorrow and then I'm helping run a game night at my religious community. So I may not get to posting until Saturday or Sunday. Appreciate your patience!
Ariston, (1) since we're approaching a downtime period, you're welcome to retrain the channeling feat. (2) Otherwise I'd say just let me know what feat you're looking at. I think something like that might be best judged case by case.
I'm an idiot, I forgot to take Alignment Channel. You may now slap me with a salmon.
Which outsiders are going to be assaulted? You have to choose the type first.
Ariston, (1) since we're approaching a downtime period, you're welcome to retrain the channeling feat. (2) Otherwise I'd say just let me know what feat you're looking at. I think something like that might be best judged case by case.I'm an idiot, I forgot to take Alignment Channel. You may now slap me with a salmon.
I'd like to spare the perfectly good fish to use for dinner instead. ;)
I'd say Alignment Channel is definitely "combat related" as it allows you to expand the damage you can do with channeling.
But you absolutely can retrain a feat for free during downtime to gain it.
PS: On the linguistics and alignment, I like neutral as the alignment. There is extreme order to it and there is utter chaos. It evolves but it is a constantly evolving series of patterns and rhythms.
Plus I can say as a professional editor, I wield both law and chaos with equal ease. ;)
Yeah, am in 100% agreement. If you look at it at any one time as a static set of rules, it becomes akin to LN. But when you look at the change by itself, it veers CN for sure. The entire corpus of the thing Neutral
Question, is the dwarf refusing all healing magic, or just divine? Krowys's magic is arcane, not divine, so I figured I should ask.
He's refusing healing in general. (It's just nost who'd offer in the room are divine casters). You can engage with him if you wish.
I wrote my post while tired, which makes me wordier. Let me know if I meed to dial back the detail.
For Mira, she is interested in getting the town fixed first and then she will be looking into the location of Khyber. She might also want to spend some time studying the machine.
As far as bonus feat, how about Amateur Investigator or Ironclad Logic? If the latter she would look to retrain her Skill Focus (Diplomacy) to a different Skill Focus.
On the question of loot does anyone want any of the things we found? I have taken the level 1 wand of identify. The remaining gear comes to a total sell value of 39628.5gp, or 7925.6gp each.
I assume we keep the staff of journeys which Orteza gifted us. We probably should given it has some useful spells. I recommend Ariston takes it.
I can carry the Staff of Journeys. I don't recall anything in the loot list that really stood out to me, so selling it and splitting the cash works especially since I have to retrain a feat.
While technically, the city of Ramsmouth is large enough to be able to buy all your stuff, you might (as something handwaved during downtime, unless you want an adventure out of it) want to go to another large city to sell the gear since Ramsmouth is trying to recover. If there is something you want to purchase I can determine the likelihood of its presence elsewhere. You can also commission magic items to be made, which would take time to get them, but can get exactly what you want.
Re Loot List: it was randomly generated (though I picked that particular list generated, I usually spin the generator a few times) and I saw some stuff that seemed useful or interesting but there will be buyers for all of it somewhere. (I don't assume "magic mart" is in effect and that necessarily everything has a buyer and/or is available.) I almost just thought about handing you a level appropriate amount of gold but it made more sense for the critters assembled to have a variety of stuff. If it's easier in some cases to say "they have 32,000 gp worth of stuff" I can do that, but I know sometimes the fun of finding loot is finding that one random weird thing that is really cool.
I am happy with randomised loot stuff. Sometimes it will throw up things we want, often it will be stuff we want to sell off somewhere. I expect most of this lot will go elsewhere. We have at last two people fully capable of teleporting anywhere in the world, unerringly, so it shouldnt be a problem.
Before I respond to the posts made, any other party members have anything to say?
Also, if anyone feels like their character would not want to be present at the meeting (Trer would likely find this boring and Krowys is often noting he is a translator, not a diplomat) you can certainly find something else to do (explore the town, help move collapsed buildings, etc.). I don't think this is a moment where splitting the party will be problematic.
Sorry for the nothingburger of a post, but Krowys would like to know what the plan is even if he doesn't intervene in it. I've had a creative block lately. Blegh.
I have a post to make but will have to wait until later today.
No problem Lazur; I wanted to get my post off while I could but you can retroactively add in and/or respond to the post I just put up as well.
No worries, Krowys, just want to know when folks are here. (And yes, Krowys would know the response is a similar hand signal. Hand gestures are part of the "language" of the Rovers' communication and would be part of his knowing Rover pidgin. Probably a more interesting language for him to study, since it has nonverbal elements...)
Trer, are you still with us? Do you need something a little more suited for a barbarian to focus on?
I made a map of the waterfall area to help with planning your build but I don't like it so I am going to try again.
Some questions that have yet gone unanswered:
--- Would you prefer to just deal in GP costs of construction rather than breaking it down into labor/magic/materials/etc.?
--- Have you all decided to go with the feat thing or is it not helpful/interesting? If so, what feats are you taking? (Some folks have posted about this but not everyone.)
I got a post in about 30 minutes before you posted yours. Sounds like you may have missed it. Probably typing your post when mine hit depending on how long it took to type that.
I am not into the nitty gritty of building but I do know you need a way to track it. I'm good with either way.
A feat sounds good to me. Sounds like any of the +2 to two skills ones might work, skill focus. What about any of the +2 on saves or extra uses of class ability ones? Those too combat oriented? Disable Dweomer allows the use of disable device to suppress magic items. Would that fit? Otherwise it will be a skill focus or two skill one.
1. I like the Downtime rules for building stuff... so I'm favor of having both the Cash and Capital options available.
2. I like the idea of gaining a feat. I can't think of a good teamwork feat. I'll pick a few feats that seem good and you can decide which one or ones are valid choices.
3. I think we should put building a base/home/fort on hold until we've dealt with the devastation on the island.
I got a post in about 30 minutes before you posted yours. Sounds like you may have missed it. Probably typing your post when mine hit depending on how long it took to type that.
Yep, that is exactly what happened. Which keeps happening to me lately. We all post at once. :)
I am not into the nitty gritty of building but I do know you need a way to track it. I'm good with either way.
A feat sounds good to me. Sounds like any of the +2 to two skills ones might work, skill focus. What about any of the +2 on saves or extra uses of class ability ones? Those too combat oriented? Disable Dweomer allows the use of disable device to suppress magic items. Would that fit? Otherwise it will be a skill focus or two skill one.
Disable Dweomer sounds fine. Extra use of class ability is fine if it leads to a similar type of boost, e.g., if you want to take an investigator talent, I'd expect something that expands skills or uses of inspiration, not studied combat/strike.
The intention here is to allow for further concept fleshing and add narrative flavor.
It occurs to me you could also take two traits with the same restrictions.