Abraham Z.'s page

Tull stands over the spot where Jathyl has dissolved, axe ready to begin chopping if she should reanimate, and shouts at where she once was, "And stay gone... If you know what's good for you!"

He looks at the others. "By Desna's Delicious Dessert, it seems we are victorious."

The sight of the fearsome dog-god fills the normally stoic Razzm with dread. He arches his back and his fur stands up and he begins to hiss. Fortunately, like so many of his kind, a hearty meal makes everything well again, and the sight of the jade cat jewelry positively cheers him up.

Good playing with you all! Thanks for running, GM!

My kid starts her week-long spring break today and we are going to visit Grandma. I'll still be able to post but likely with reduced frequency until after April 13. I appreciate your understanding.

Evindal will maintain two investigations moving forward: 1) how to defeat the Aspis Incursion? and 2) what really happened to the ruined dwarven cities?

Now that we're out of the water Evindal will use his advanced Alchemy for the same assortment as earlier: 3 moderate darkvisions (given to the same folks as before) and 2 each of silversheen and cold iron blanch (given to Kernal and Joli as the most frequent frontliners), unless there are any requests for other items. He can make poison too... :-)

...

Upon entering the temple area, Evindal peers around carefully, certain that there may be clues to his different investigations.

Investigate for exploration activity. Note that once every ten minutes he can Clue In - give a +1 circumstance bonus if someone makes a check that would be relevant to one of the open investigations. Kind of hard to do in PbP but GM please assume that Evindal will do this at the first opportunity ever ten minutes; it's a reaction.

Just to clarify: Evindal made 3 Moderate Dark Vision (1 hour duration) as part of his Advanced Alchemy (so they can be used whenever you want during this day) and gave them to: Mrs. Perkins, Shayla, and Henri (the first three who asked). He's also given everyone a Sea Touch Elixir (that could have been consumed before entering the water) which gives a swim speed 20' for 10 minutes.

Before entering the water Evindal quaffs his own two elixirs (darkvision and sea touch), as well as the potion of water breathing of course, so that he'll be able to see and maneuver in the murky water.

Evindal swims forward to be able to see the creatures and then quickly hurls two bombs, both designed for underwater action!

◆ Swim/Stride 20'

◆ Quickbomb Moderate Sticky Algae Bomb, Bless, no lesser cover, 30' range vs. Purple: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 1 = 28
Sticky Algae Bombs are designed for underwater and don't take normal penalties for underwater combat (which I'm not actually even sure what they are anyway!)
Poison dmg: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8 + 4 Poison splash dmg (to Purple, Red, and White); on a miss (but not a crit miss) the bomb does 5 Poison splash dmg to (only) Purple.

◆ Quickbomb Moderate Sticky Algae Bomb, Bless, no lesser cover, 30' range vs. Purple, MAP: 1d20 + 12 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (2) + 12 + 1 - 5 = 10
Poison dmg: 2d8 ⇒ (8, 4) = 12 + 4 Poison splash dmg (to Purple, Red, and White); on a miss (but not a crit miss) the bomb does 5 Poison splash dmg to (only) Purple.

Versatile vials used: 4 of 6

Has anyone attempted those recall checks GM keeps posting - perhaps having Red Mourner's name may swing things one way or the other?

Evindal did both Knowledge checks back here, learning "all of them are undead, incorporeal spirits. He knows the three ghosts are resistant to physical damage except for ghost touch, vitality and force damage. They can also moan in a way that frightens people close to them.

The mourner has a symbol of Torag embedded in her forehead, but it's been desecrated. Maybe she was a follower of Torag in life but undeath has caused her to forsake him. Divine casters can be interrupted with her reaction or to her touch. She is drawn to priests or Torag like a moth to a flame, or she may flee in terror within their presence.

He's pretty certain all of them are trying to kill the Pathfinders."

GM, Evindal's second bomb was a crit miss (nat 1) so it doesn't do anything, not even splash dmg.

Btw, I have family visiting this weekend. Posting will be a little limited through Monday but I'll do my best to keep up.

My apologies for the posting delay (and missing the encounter with the statue sisters!). Got back from my trip a few days ago and have been busy catching up. Should be back to normal posting schedule now.

Evindal Mog wrote:

Also, I have two backfire mantles I'd like to give to two frontliners to protect you from the splash from my bombs. Any takers?

Do you have the stats?

Backfire mantle gives you resistance 3 to the splash from my bombs. I can also choose to have splash only affect the target (bomber research field) but the mantles mean that I can have the splash function normally (and hopefully also catch another enemy or two) without worrying about harming my allies.

A couple of things to note about Oskar:

* He has the Battle Cry feat, granting a free Demoralization attempt against an observed foe when he rolls initiative. He uses Performance to Demoralize so this will be +20 (or +21 if he has Musical Accompaniment active - he'll keep Musical Accompaniment going all the time unless we are trying to be stealthy or avoid notice). For ease of use in the PbP format, GM please feel free to select the target of Oskar's Demoralize attempt if you wish. He'll prioritize foes within 30' (because of his Dread armor rune) and avoid foes that seem obviously mindless or otherwise likely to be immune to fear; all other things being equal he'll attempt to Demoralize more threatening seeming foes first.

* He has a Dread armor rune (purchased with an ACP boon). "Frightened enemies within 30 feet that can see you must attempt a DC 20 Will save at the end of their turn; on a failure, the value of their frightened condition doesn’t decrease below 1 that turn."

* Oskar will spend 1 focus point as a free action whenever an ally within 30' attempts to Recall Knowledge, letting them roll twice and take the better result. (Loremaster's Etude).

* If anyone has a Level Bump for this scenario, Oskar can offer the Rugged Mentor boon.

* In combat Oskar has a few Reaction spells that might come up: Lose the Path (trigger: a foe within 60' Strides); Overselling Flourish (trigger: a foe within 60' damages Oskar); Wooden Double (trigger: Oskar is critically hit; can be cast using either a 3rd or 4th rank slot).

* At the start of combat, especially if the foes are far away, Oskar can cast Loose Time's Arrow, giving everyone in the party a free Stride action for one round. It may be worth waiting in the initiative order for Oskar's turn to come up for him to cast this to get the martials quickly up to the front.

* Oskar has Bardic Lore, letting him attempt to Recall Knowledge about any subject. Out of combat, if we need to figure something out it may be worth having Oskar cast Share Lore (1 minute casting time) on up to 3 friends, also making them trained in Bardic Lore for 10 minutes. Since we've got at least two Int-based characters in the party this might be very useful.

* Oskar is quite squishy and has no particularly useful melee options so he'll do his best to stay behind his comrades.

I think that's all of Oskar's shenanigans. Most of the time he'll start combat with Courageous Anthem & Lingering Composition, which will give everyone +1 to attacks & dmg. Please make a note of it when you post your attacks so I don't have to bother posting "did you remember to include your +1/+1 from Courageous Anthem?" :-)

Hope we all have fun!

Yroh of the Snows wrote:

And if anyone has a party for floor 9 of Emerald Spire, I'm available to join!

I might run that after New Year's.

Anyone willing to run The Witchwar Legacy or The Harrowing? :)

I would be interested to join either of these if someone decides to run it. :-)

By the way, good work handling that room - potentially a *very* challenging encounter, especially in a caster-heavy party. The fireballs that are triggered by the Dispel Magic effect are 1d6 per spell level, so when I played it we had a very rough time, nearly a TPK.

Hey y'all, will one of you ping the game play thread a couple of times in November so that the game doesn't disappear from everyone's active lists? As noted, I won't have internet access Oct. 22 to Dec. 3.

Ok, simplest solution, Blue just moves around Jey to attack Yanda but without flanking. Sorry for the confusion.

...

Oy what a mess that was. I think I've got it all solved in the fairest way possible. I used Jey's first attack for his AoO to see if that would take Blue off the board before his attack against Yanda. It nearly did but not quite. So Blue's first attack against Yanda still went forward but after that Blue was destoryed by Jey's spirits at the start of his turn. So Blue is gone and Jey still has their actions.

Hope that all makes sense and thanks for your patience as I sorted it out!

I'm not available until mid-December but would be very interested in joining at that point!

Also, due to the delayed interactions borne out of the wonderful medium that is Play by Post, would it be safe to assume that the adventurers would have hashed out their capabilities BEFORE the esteemed dwarf banged on the door with adamantine goodness for an untold amount of time? ;)

Sure, that's fine.

Hero Point - save; now have 5 in reserve.

Deck upgrade:
Blessing 5: 1d1000 ⇒ 509

I think this means that Ak and Augustille can both take Blessing upgrades, Jirelle Item, and Damiel Spell, and it doesn't look like anyone else wants an upgrade. Sound correct?

Assuming yes, Augustille uses Blessing upgrade to replace Prayer with The All-Seeing Eye.

I'm so sorry everyone. Childcare and work responsibilities got the better of me and I just haven't been able to keep up. I'm back now and will do better. My apologies and thanks for botting me.

Hearing Vanessa read the Tale of Zarta's 1001 Nights - ... or was it 1001 Knights!?! - nearly causes Bon Jon to faint and he hurries to listen to other, less salacious, stories. Alas for the poor monk - he soon finds that the gossips of the Grand Lodge have taken to speculating about the legitimacy of old Venture Captain Rosenthal's progeny - I had no idea pathfinders could talk like *that*... - the poor monk blushes beet red and scurries in the direction of the drinks table, hoping that perhaps a cup of nettle tea or a glass of tallgrass juice will help calm his nerves.

I'm very happy with the way you've been GM-ing and I agree completely that most of these older scenarios and mods are too easy for modern optimized characters.

Traveling with family this weekend so may not have a chance to post until Tuesday.

Agata has provided you Mind Blank (which also gives immunity to fear/charm) and Heroic Invocation, and can give you Heroism if someone else hasn't already done so. Also, Delay Poison Communal. The fortune hex is no longer in effect. I don't think Haste has been activated yet (Sweet Mawd will use a scroll to cast it once her turn comes around unless something horrible has happened).

Yes, I wasn't deliberately trying to have Jacques flout the plan. On the other hand, it does seem in character for him.

An EDITING REQUEST: it would make the rules much more readable if the same baseline things weren't repeated over and over. For example, instead of giving the exact same rules for when you get new skill feats for every core class (except the rogue), just define that once in a section called something like "The Skill Feats That Every Class Gets" and then add a section for the rogue (and later the investigator, swashbuckler, etc.) that indicates that they get some EXTRA skill feats.

This wouldn't be changing anything from how things already are now, but it would draw the reader's attention to the fact that there is something unusual from the norm for the Rogue, and it would also allow the reader to not have to read the same baseline pattern over and over again, wondering if there is anything different that they need to note.

As far as I understand, people who are flying are immune to the prone condition.

Also, unless the bull rushing PC used Acrobatics while approaching to avoid an AoO (or approached using a 5' step), the movement up to attack her *would* provoke an AoO (as soon as the PC leaves a threatened square - so if she has 10' reach, when the PC leaves the square that is two squares away and enters the adjacent square). However, because this AoO is triggered by the movement, not the Combat Maneuver, a success on the AoO will not affect the Combat Maneuver (unless the AoO itself does something, like knock the PC out, or trip them, or whatever), in contrast to the AoO that is provoked by a Combat Maneuver (when the initiating character doesn't have the Improved Bull Rush (or Grapple or whatever) feat); in that situation, if the provoked AoO does damage to the initiating character, that damage is also a penalty on the CMB check for the maneuver.

Thanks for running, GM! That was great fun. I will definitely try to burn another replay to play the next part when you run it again.

Drukpa eyes his reflection in the cracked mirror. "What a damned fine lookin' fellow that is! Hey, mister, whatcha doin' down here and why ain't you show up a little earlier so's ye coulda helped us?!? That's a mean looking bardiche yer carryin', nearly as good as mine, though mine's a bit broke. Anyway, sure woulda been nice if'n ye had gotten here a few minutes sooner and lent a hand!"

Drukpa startles from the reverie that left him nearly like a statue and belatedly swings into action. "This shadow stuff makes me mad! Really mad!"

Free action to enter bloodrage

Move action to move; standard action to attack the hound

50% miss chance, high is good for me: 1d100 ⇒ 60
Cold Iron Tri-point double-edged sword, haste, bless, rage: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
P dmg: 1d10 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Drukpa's AC (with haste and rage) is currently 18
Bloodrage rounds used 8/12

P.s. thanks for botting my will save and especially thanks for rolling a 20 on it! :-)

Fitting, somehow, that Drukpa still managed to cause the trouble, even when he wasn't doing anything!

DC 14 Reflex: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Yeah I had trouble finding a good image for him - I wish paizo would open up the site and let us use our own images - or at least give us more choices and better filtering options for finding them.

Incidentally, the jumping off point for his character creation was when I was reading the CRB one day and realized that Paladins' mounts have an Int of 6. After that I really wanted to make a character that would be dumber than a Paladin's horse! :-) I don't think he's played with a mounted Paladin yet but if I get a chance to I'm hoping to play up the 'intellectual rivalry' between Drukpa and the horse.

Drukpa will also soon be going Dragon Disciple, so that he can really be a dragon, just like Granmaw!

(When you dump Int, and then you plan for a prestige class that requires 5 ranks in Knowledge Arcana, it's *painful.*)

"non-lethal, the poor man's breath of life" !!! - love this, gonna steal it if you don't mind! :-)

Drukpa obligingly takes the two stones back. "Ye'll let me know, I hope? I never got past two in me countin' lessons."

Flint, you get to roll twice for one d20 roll per round, not every d20 roll. And you have to declare that you are using it before you see the die roll. Sorry if that wasn't more clear.

Alie, yikes! One in 400 odds of that...

Reminder that Theodoric, Flint and Alie are all hasted, which will give +1 to their Reflex saves vs the fireball.

Reminder that Flint and Theodoric both have Fortune, which is usable once every round on any d20 (such as a save) and its use must be declared before rolling. GM, would you mind adding "Fortune" to the tracker for the two of them as a reminder? Thx.

Sorry, I missed that there is another stone! I guess that does fit with Drukpa having a 5 Int though... (He really is dumber than a Paladin's horse!)

Ok, works for me. In that case Drukpa took 17 non-lethal and 4 lethal from the various damage in that last fight, exactly exhausting Ablative Barrier. He gets one charge of his CLW wand back and is, again, fully healed. His Ablative Barrier is fully used up.

Really hoping that whatever is happening in your life works itself out in the best possible way. Sending good thoughts to you.

Gripping his bardiche in both hands, Drukpa advances cautiously into the room. "Brrrr, ain't none o' these dungeon masters hearda heatin'?"

Drukpa's speed is only 20' so in the difficult terrain it is a double move for him to move to his new position. He has reach with his bardiche and will definitely take an AoO if anything moves towards the group.

Drukpa looks around to make sure there are no traps and then leads the way through the newly opened portcullis.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

"There are no traps - I'm sure of it!"

Razzm has the Combat Mentor boon, which could be useful for Mafalda (gives +2 to attacks instead of the usual +1 from a level bump).

Unless anyone objects...

Drukpa can't stand to watch Jilla's agony and he quickly steps forward and flips the lever. What could possibly go wrong? he thinks to himself.

Prior to this latest pair of attacks, Drukpa had (only) 1 point of non-lethal dmg. Of these two most recent attacks, Pink's misses but Yellow's hits. Of the 7 points of damage, 5 are absorbed by DR 5/adamantine from Clay Skin (15/25). The remaining 2 are converted to non-lethal by Ablative Barrier (22/25). The easiest way to think of this is that the first 10 points of damage from an attack against Drukpa will be converted to 5 points of non-lethal (unless, of course, the attacks are adamantine or already non-lethal - which I'm not expecting too many non-lethal attacks in Bonekeep!) Each spell will only provide it's benefits for 25 points, which is why I'm tracking what they've absorbed so far. I do have one more scroll of Clay Skin that can be used after I go through this one. TLDR: Drukpa currently has 3 points of non-lethal dmg.

My suggestion for tracking buffs, which I've found to work really well in the games I run, is to state a time that the adventure starts (e.g. we enter the dungeon at noon) and then when each buff is cast, note the time that it will expire (e.g. Ablative Barrier will expire at 3:00 pm). Then you don't have to keep asking the GM, how long has it been since I cast X. You just ask the GM to tell you what time it is now (or the GM can even just add that detail to the regular tracking information).

Drukpa Marpo will throw his hat into the ring! He's a level 4 Bloodrager - frontline martial type - he's not crazy optimized but not too shabby either. Due to low AC (17 when bloodraging) he's probably pretty likely to die but I'm ok with that (and if we can squeeze two more prestige out of the scenario he'll have enough for a Raise Dead).

Note that I've played this before (though I don't remember the details) and would be using a replay so please give my spot to someone else if you have enough players who have never played it.

Thanks!

Yikes - hope it goes smoothly!

Agata listens to the banter with the succubus with amusement, cackling and coughing from time to time. Afterwards, as the others debate the pros and cons of diplomacy, she giggles and hisses, "yessss, yesss, hee hee, haw haw..." though it is not even slightly clear which side of the debate she favors.

When it comes time to find the path forward, she summons her trusty maidservant to step to the front. "Sweet Mawd Junior, enough o' yer lolly gaggin' - time t' do a bit o' work fer a change. These nice friends gonna ask ye some questions - do yer best 'n see if Desna - bless 'er drawers - 'll answer any o' em. An mind yer p's an' q's aintcha - yer still on the clock no doubt about it!"

Sweet Mawd will cast Commune if the party wishes (6 yes/no questions - all have to be done in quick succession - the spell doesn't let you pause for discussion, though of course we can discuss ooc beforehand). Personally, I'm really rotten at thinking of good questions so I hope someone else will have some ideas.

Other than Commune, I'm not sure that I have much to offer to help us find the way forward. Agata has a casting of True Seeing still available. And if we decide to rest in the Fairy Ring Retreat again I might be able to prep some other spells that would be useful though nothing immediately comes to mind.

Oh, and one other idea...

Agata thinks for a moment and then casts a quick spell before trying to determine if her long years of experience may have taught her something relevant.

Casting Whispering Lore before making a knowledge check to try to discern anything useful about where to look next.

Investigative Mind to roll twice and take the better result
Knowledge check: 1d20 ⇒ 3 OR Knowledge check: 1d20 ⇒ 3 Lol!
Well, that will still be 3+4 (insight bonus from whispering lore) + 20-40 (depending on what type of knowledge check it is)

Catching up on the thread now - some of this will be out of date I'm sure.

Regarding Commune, which is still available when/if we decide to make use of it, note that a) it takes 10 minutes to cast it, b) the (six) questions have to be yes/no questions. If someone comes up with something they would especially like to know, let me know and Sweet Mawd will cast it at an opportune moment. She can cast it once/week.

Earlier...

When the group leaves the Fairy Ring, Agata casts her usual assortment of spells, including those requested by her comrades. Mage Armor (herself, Sweet Mawd, Marta - using two pearls of power), Ext. Delay Poison Communal, Merge With Familiar, Defending Bone, Ext. Heroism, Ext. See Invis, Ext. Investigative Mind, Overland Flight, False Life, Clear Ear, Alch. Grease, and Heroism on anyone who requests it, and if possible, two charges of Endure Elements from Flint's wand.

False Life: 1d10 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

Now...

Upon entering the Shrine of Rest and Fulfillment, Agata and her maidservant both gaze around with wonderment at the surroundings. Agata smiles at the tapestries, as if recalling bygone pleasures of her long long life, while Sweet Mawd blushes so fiercely that her celestial skin turns nearly purple.

Knowledge (Religion), planar penalty: 1d20 + 32 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 32 - 2 = 37
Agata nods in agreement with Flint, "Aye, they's not quite approved fer the goddess, that's fer sure, not t' mention what them exercises'll do t' yer back! Me lumbago ain't come from nowhere, I'll tell ye that much!" She sighs with nostalgia.

When the attendants offer the pathfinders a bath she recoils in horror. "Desna's Drudgery! Ain't ye got no idea how many centuries I bin layin' in this dirt? And the sweat! That ain't easy t' come by! An' now ye jes' wanna wash it all away...?!? Hush yerself!"

Sweet Mawd listens to her mistress' diatribe with a wistful look, as if a nice hot bath is a nearly forgotten pleasure... She glances around, as if looking for the promised baths. Sweet Mawd has constant Detect Evil and Detect Magic.

Once Sweet Mawd and Marta identify that there is some unknown evil presence about, Agata calls her comrades closer and quickly puts a blessing upon all of them. Casting Communal Mind Blank on the entire party - 24 hour duration split among the party members - among other effects, it gives all of us a +8 resistance bonus (won't stack with cloak of resistance) vs mind-affecting.

She will also tap herself with a wand of Heightened Awareness and carry her rod of Grasping Hexes in hand.

Also, I forgot to roll to see which save is impacted by her Dragonbone Divination sticks in the morning:
Divination sticks, 1 F, 2 R, 3 W: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Once again, Agata sends her faithful maidservant scurrying about, providing healing for anyone who needs it.

She auto-succeeds the UMD checks for the healing wands. Go ahead and roll your own healing and let me know if I should mark any charges off my own wands.

Agata wrote:

* Major Ameliorating hex on everyone in the party (she'll do this every day so I won't bother mentioning it again)

Whatizzit?

If anyone in the party becomes blinded or cursed, that effect is suppressed for 17 minutes. Basically it gives us immunity to blindness and curses while a fight is going on.

@Agata

I'm going to give you the same advice Flint gave me. Cast the spells that may be extended more than 24 hours the night before. It gives you more flexibility, though not as much so for a prepared caster as for a spontaneous cater.

I've used this tactic in the past, including with Agata, but something about it always rubbed me the wrong way and I've finally figured out what it is: in order to have pre-cast a long duration spell (say Mage Armor) the day *before* the adventure actually starts (call it Day 0), in order to give yourself another available spell slot on Day 1, you have to "know" that nothing is going to happen on Day 0. So on Day 0 you prepped Mage Armor, but never cast it on yourself because you knew that there was no risk because the adventure doesn't actually begin until Day 1, and then you waited until 11:59pm at the end of Day 0 to cast it to give yourself the benefit of it for the whole next day after you wake up.

But there are two problems with this.

First, without metagaming, there's no reason for a character to "know" that they won't need Mage Armor when they first wake up each day. In game, there's no reason for them to know that it is Day 0 and the adventure doesn't actually begin until Day 1.

Second, even if you handle this by saying, no, the character *did* cast Mage Armor at the start of the day 0 and then they simply renewed it (perhaps with a pearl of power) to cast it again at 11:59pm on Day 0, well, won't they need to keep doing that for each successive day? In other words, even though they don't need to prep Mage Armor for Day 1 (because they've already cast it at the end of Day 0), if they don't prep it for Day 1, they won't have any way of casting it at 11:59pm on Day 1 to make sure that they are covered on Day 2.

In short, I can't see anyway that this tactic doesn't involve somehow "gaming" the, er, game.

So that's why I no longer use it (and honestly, Agata's got tons of spell slots and hexes and scrolls etc. - she doesn't need extra help!) but I have no objections to others who do like to use this tactic.