GM Jhaeman's Dawn of Flame, Chapter Five: "Solar Strike"

Game Master Jhaeman

Ok folks, I'm off to sleep under the stars until Thursday. Please feel free to do as much discussion and planning as you'd like IC or OOC.

GM Jhaeman, I don't have such an item in my inventory and I'm not sure if it's in the game system at all, but based on the sedatives I have, I want to do something so deadly that the captured efreeti goes into a vegetable-on-legs state for a few hours (rather than an active participant). I have everything I need for such crafting with me. May I do something like that? (I mean, such substances are not a problem even in our world, not to mention the world of the distant cosmic future)

Off-hand I'd say the easiest solution is to put the efreeti into one of the stasis pods from the Sun Diver. (that avoids the problem of me having to make up a new sedative medicinal that may not really fit with how the game scales other sedatives at your level)

Sorry I was away for the week--on a training course. So looking at Gameplay, it sounds like current plans include:

* Bringing Nurleth in a stasis pod (or doped to the gills with sedatives);

* Having Amhesha sneak into the stands to provide sniper support;

* Checking over Leirol for hidden surveillance tech, etc.

Is all of that right, and is there anything else you'd like to do before we move on?

Also, you can now take a 10-minute rest and spend 1 RP to regain SP. If anyone has other negative conditions affecting their PC, let me know and I'll check the duration.

We're also telling them Grunph needs to be there in person to negotiate for them.

I think the controls for the stadium were also mentioned... first of all, we want to make sure they can't kill us by using them, and secondarily, it would be helpful to be able to turn different features on and off at will, if we knew what those features were and how to use them to our advantage.

Ah, okay, right. So we'll make sure Grunph is present and factor in something like arriving early so those of you good with computers can figure out the controls.

If there's anything else any of you want to do, throw it out now, and then I'll move us on in about 24 hours.

@Zharis: From the last XP post a couple of weeks back, it looks like you can go ahead and level up to 10.

Off-hand I'd say the easiest solution is to put the efreeti into one of the stasis pods from the Sun Diver. (that avoids the problem of me having to make up a new sedative medicinal that may not really fit with how the game scales other sedatives at your level)

Haha, it's settled!

@Zharis: From the last XP post a couple of weeks back, it looks like you can go ahead and level up to 10.

Yeah, I know. Just haven't gotten around to it yet, sorry. Let's play on and I'll fit it in when I can. Work is rough right now. ... I mean, not bad. I love my job. Just busy, and then I don't even want to look at a computer after for a while, so just have to find a space to fit it in when I am not brain dead.

I'll work harder on prioritizing it this week... but not today.

@Zharis: Of course, no worries. I've had periods in my life where leveling up was awesome and I would spend hours trawling through the various options, and periods (more recent of late!) where it's another chore added to the end of a very long to-do list . . .

Oh yeah. I'm going through that period now too. I need to level up 6-8 characters in the PFS/SFS, and before that, I still have to calculate the money & XP from +/- 30 chronicles, but the lifestyle now is such that I barely manage the most vital tasks. Oh...

Wedding anniversary mini-trip; back in 48 hours!

Have fun, and happy anniversary. :)

I'm out until Monday... niece's wedding, and then I'll likely be too busy catching up from all that to get back to the game until the weekend is through. Sorry. You can have Zharis do whatever you like, but try not to get her killed. :) ... and get it all on camera. :)

Have fun with the niece.

Just an early FYI that I'm going to be away on a training course from 9-25 May with no e-mail. Good news is we're moving into the final section of this chapter! I'm really enjoying playing with you all, and I'm looking forward to seeing what might just be an explosive climax.

A reminder to myself that I owe you all XP for avoiding the stadium trap.

Experience Points (Instalment # 40)

To aid in planning and discussion, I've put a map of the Spire as the new Slide # 2. You can assume this is drawn from anassanoi files and intelligence reports. You may remember that the original plan was to enter the building from below, using the magtrain tunnel access (that you collapsed in an earlier mission). That's G1 on the map. The psychic resonator/dampener is in G5, which intelligence reports is being used by the occupation as a command center. The Spire is a very tall structure, but only floors that haven't been rendered uninhabitable by battle damage (a spaceship crashed into it!) are included on the maps.

As it was asked in Gameplay, here's a bit on the psychic resonator:PSYCHIC RESONATOR LEVEL 12 HYBRID ITEM PRICE 40,000 BULK 100

I'm headed off this morning on my course. It's a good time for a pause, as you can continuing deciding on how you'd like to deal with the Spire. We'll get started with the assault once I return on the 25th. See you then!

Finally leveling up:

Level 10 Envoy

+1 BAB
+1 Ref Save
+1 Will Save

+6 HP
+7 Stamina
+10 skill points: bluff, computers (2), diplomacy, disguise (2), engineering (2), perception (2)

Ability Increases (wow, should have done this sooner): Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Charisma

+1 Envoy improvisation:
Doooom! (Ex)
When you use this ability, choose either a 120-foot line, a 60-foot cone, or a 20-foot radius burst within 60 feet of you. As a standard action, you fearsomely foretell the devastation that your next attack will inflict on creatures in the area, convincing them to scatter. Attempt a Bluff or Intimidate check, applying the result to each enemy in the area; the DC equals either 10 + the creature’s total Sense Motive skill bonus, or 15 + 1-1/2 × the creature’s CR, whichever is greater. Unless you are wielding a weapon-like object, using a supernatural ability with a fearsome appearance (like token spell or activating a solarian’s stellar attunement), or leveraging some other obvious prop to make your threats, you take a –4 penalty to the skill check.
Each creature against which your check succeeds must do one of the following on its next turn: fight defensively, use the full defense action, move out of the area, or move to an area that grants them cover against your attacks. Whether your check succeeds or not, you cannot affect that creature with this improvisation again for 24 hours. This is a fear effect.

+1 Inspiring Combo:
At 10th level, as a full action, you can instead make either two attacks and use an envoy improvisation, or one attack and use two different envoy improvisations. You take a –4 penalty to your attack rolls until the end of the turn, and you treat your envoy level as 4 lower for the purpose of resolving the improvisations’ effects. If you use an improvisation that also allows you to make an attack, you increase the penalty to attack rolls to –6.

Doooom! looks cool .)

The fools dare challenge the sheer practicality of a dwarf

Now to check if energy field and the exocortex fire rest stack. If so, she can probably just walk through the wall of fire.

She probably won't though. But fire resist 12 sounds pretty handy.

Crit! Watch as she goes manic. God I love playing an absolutely unhinged Protean cultist, nice change of pace from my more stable characters.

Lots of combat in close succession here as you reach the climax of Chapter 5, but you're making good progress. Thanks for sticking with it. (I haven't forgotten I owe you XP for the last couple of encounters).

@Tulgram: Are you still with us? You haven't posted in a couple of weeks.

Sorry about the delay. I'll add narration in a couple hours wanted to get rolls up in case GM was up early. Early my time anyways

I took Adaptive Weapon for my level 10 Trick. Haven't updated xylian sheet yet

https://www.aonsrd.com/MechanicTricks.aspx?ItemName=Adaptive%20Weapon

Not much to do once Amhesha hits 10, since she'll only be a Mechanic 9.

@Xylian: It doesn't matter for this guy, but just so I know if it does become relevant: is the part of your damage that's fire just the extra 2d8, is all the damage both P&F (so that it would do half of each?)

Overcharge says "you deal 1d6 additional damage of the same type the weapon normally deals." Sp i think the extra 2d8 is P and F like the weapons base damage type

My main question. Where are you getting a Piercing-Fire weapon from???

Looks like hailcannons do cold and piercing naturally (https://www.aonsrd.com/WeaponDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Gelid&Family=Hailca nnon). And the mechanic trick that he pointed out above changes the energy type, so it would become fire and piercing at his touch.

The Hailcannon is P/C. Use Adaptive Weapon to change the C to F.

Well, I know what mechanic trick I'm picking up next. I didn't realize he used a mechanic trick to ddo that. Way cheaper than buying a removable doo-hickey instead of baking the cold into the weapon.

Since Xylian is so reliant on his cannon to contribute it seemed pertinent.

I thought about experimenting with the Spell Chip line of Tricks to help with our lack-of-spellcaster issue, but that's several Tricks and I think this is the last one we'll get before finishing the whole AP and the best Trick can only be used by construct ancestries anyways.

What level does this AP go up to again?

@Everyone: Posting will be a bit slow this week, as this were-croc is traveling to the big city! XP from the last couple levels of the Spire below.

@Amhesha: Formally speaking, Chapter Six (the final chapter of the AP) expects the PCs to start at Level 11 (and I'd guess maybe they'd earn another level or two during it). But we're splitting XP among 5 PCs instead of 4, so progression will be a little slower.

Experience Points (Instalment # 41)

There's room for another trick then.

Anyways, 10 Slashing reduced from her temporary HP.

I put it as 12 fire resist, but if that's not how that works I switch it to cold resist 4.

As far as I can tell, Tulgram's player hasn't posted on the Paizo site since mid-June. He's generally pretty active, so I hope everything is okay! I'll continue to bot Tulgram for the rest of this encounter and if he's still not back for the next one, I'll have the PC "evacuated to safety" or "guarding the escape route on a lower level" or something.

How will we grab a new player in the middle of this?

@Amhesha: We'll go down to 4 PCs (the standard for these APs) until the end of the chapter. Then, I can recruit a fifth PC to join us for Chapter Six.

Try and recruit someone who can fix curses.

Finally got around to updating Xylian's sheet. As said above, took a 10th level of Mechanic, taking Adaptive Weapon as my level 10 Mechanic Trick. New Ability Scores: 13, 20, 12, 20, 14, 10. Put 10 skill points into Mysticism. It's not a class skill and Xylian's Wisdom isn't great, but I guess it's better than no one having any points in it, at least we can attempt the checks now lol.

Try and recruit someone who can fix curses.

I'm sure there's someone amongst the resistance that can do that ;P

Is the psychic resonater thing in this room?

At least from where you are in the lift, you don't see anything that looks like it.

Zharis wrote:

Don't forget to update your tagline. To us, it seems like you still have zero stamina.

Zharis is pleased to see Theo looking a lot better. Bedraggled bears were even scarier than normal.

Zharis: Argh. Yes, thanks.

Mysticism I don't have. It's a very pretty dragon. Damn thing's organs are probably in all the wrong places.

Xylian just invested in Mysticism with his recent level up!

Really sorry everyone, camping trip ran long and I just got back and am exhausted--I promise a post in the morning!

Ok folks, what happens next?

"But now you're trapped with nowhere to go!"

Bold statement for someone who just walked into a small room with a giant bear in it.

These bad guys buy ego at discount bulk wholesalers.

- Giant Bear, PhD
- A celebrity
- A fanatical cultist
- Massive armor and a supped up hailcannon.

Certainly a group we have.