Thanks for allowing Cobb to journey along with you guys.
As with all Bold Strider games, this one was a nail biter at times ~ it's always more fun when it's a challenge.
I'll go ahead and toss the credit onto 15208-17.
Search Posts
Cobb tips his hat to his fellow companions, Lady Origena and the Kells, requesting little by way of award or adulation, but nonetheless is gracious when bestowed the knighthood. His departure to Dragonfen is swift upon receiving the baroness's letter, and his words are brief. "Looks like we ain't quite done yet..."
Cobb considers wiping the sweat forming on his brow as he watches the brutal savaging of Alrik. Exhaling with his next pair of shots, he tries to make their aim as true as he can.
for
for
for for Cobb Status:
Cobb frowns, recognizing the scroll Katja was about to reach for before the dragon's frightening aura took her. Knowing his time is limited, he fires off another pair of jet black arrows taking more time to aim the precious limited resources before considering hunting for a scroll of his own. for
for
Cobb Status:
Cobb barely stands his ground in the dragon's awesome presence as he draws a pair of the jet black arrows from his pack and follows his first two shots.
for
for
Cobb Status:
Random thread on bane stacking. I defer to a GM call here. Will start using arrows next round even if they don't stack, since he's not likely to see any other dragons in his career.
Cobb considers tipping his hat, but opts not to given he needs both hands to fire as many arrows as he can as fast as he can. "'Bout time you introduced yourself, Green. We brought you some presents..."
for
for
Cobb Status:
Cobb fires off a pair of arrows while he contemplates how to best coordinate his allies.
for
for
"Fall back out of the dark! Just the dragon's up! The dark is likely coming from one of the corpses!"
Cobb Status:
Cobb grimaces as he observes Katja still fails to move. He sizes up the distance between himself as the sorceress, but then assesses there's just not enough time to bring a wand into play and restore her to active duty himself. "Dragon incoming! 'Bout two dozen steps ahead of you all. Stay spread!"
for
Cobb's face shows little by way of satisfaction as the first of the grioths fall. "One down, two to go. Asha! Right shoulder! Alrik! Twelve o'clock!"
Cobb blinks as instructed, a grin spreading across his face yet obscured by the shade cast within the darkness by Golarion's greatest 'stache. "Three what's that? Grioths? Grioths-on-a-stick coming right up!" Emboldened by his newfound sight, Cobb seizes the speed granted to him to fire a trio of arrows.
for for If that attack in the prior post hit: Add Bane Damage:
Cobb, knowing that once he's in the darkness, he'll have nowhere to aim takes a gamble, and backpedals aided by his swift feet. Sighing as he crests the darkness after a dozen steps, he quickly calculates the center of the sphere and hopes his assessment is correct - that whatever is causing the darkness is an enemy and is at the center of the black.
for
Cobb, suspecting something is at the dead center of the darkness, fires a pair of arrows, hoping to do some harm to whatever is generating it. for
for
Cobb glances sidelong at Katja after hearing her incantations and seeing little end result. "Well? Not magic darkness?" With the darkness looming, he double-times it back towards the entrance, hoping to buy time for his allies to give him a good shot.
Cobb looks over his shouldr at his allies. "So, we got a big ball of darkness coming this way - we got something to deal with that?" He fires off a pair of arrows at what he imagines is the center of the ball.
for
for
Cobb narrows his eyes at the dragon in the distance, giving a nod to his allies as their magic wards wash over him. "There's a big ball o' dark the dragon's talkin' to." Cobb follows that intel with some work of his own.
Cobb Status:
Cobb inhales sharply as his eyes narrow at the lush cavern. He gives a nod to Tessa. "That's gonna draw something out..." Wanting to be prepared in case it is the dragon, he unfurls his newest scrolls and quickly reads the words upon it.
Cobb gives a nod to Sarasha while moving along with Tessa to keep an eye on her.
Cobb hesitates at the cave entrance, squinting at its unknown depths. "Too bad we don't know how deep this goes. Could go on for a mile or two and all our wards and spells might wear off." He gestures to Sarasha. "You've gotten quieter... I can't even really hear you breathing no more. Perhaps you can take a few dozen paces over there real quiet like and then check back?"
Let's consider that voidglass blade sold for the cap of 5,000gp and that we purchased all of the: Five (now three) scrolls of Spider Climb available, one scroll of Heroism, six potions of Enlarge Person and two potions of Shield of Faith. Cobb will grab the scroll of heroism, and we can hand out the shield of faith and/or enlarge to front-liners. Everyone can spider climb up and we're good to continue on?
If you follow the link, it looked to me at least like you wouldn't object to the ring, then there was a brief discussion if it would work for Lukas, which didn't seem to pan out, so I imagine it defaulted back to you since he never took it. Given the time crunch, I'm not sure if there's any opportunity to really "sell" big expensive items in town in this semi-AP, so GM Bold will need to weigh in on what we can do with the wealth. If nobody plans to use the ring of force shield, I'd imagine it would make sense to swap it for something, anything, available in town that we could use to face a dragon. @GM Bold: How can we handle liquidating any of the found loot? And what can we procure? Could we get 5 scrolls of spider climb? Could we pick up a wand of bless or a wand of cure moderate? Potions of enlarge person? Potions of shield of faith or barkskin? A scroll of heroism or two?
Here's the items and how we appear to have allocated them... Note some of us were very wealthy level 6 PCs (standard WBL for level 6 is around 16,000gp). It appears Sarasha acquired 71,615gp in items since we began. Cobb acquired 9,530gp since he began and at 10,894gp is just over 5,000gp behind average level 6 WBL. Without any other gains, he just has the 55 odd starting gold from his original purchases left to find a way to climb a cliff (or to sell his bow/arrows). He can contribute but since he only really has the new bow to sell, he's looking to some of the wealthier folks to maybe help here. I'm not sure how much we can do, but I imagine if we still have Sir Echtyr's circlet, that should sell as a tradegood and let us find a way to spiderclimb a group up the cliff, assuming a buyer can be found for the the circlet, and a seller of some sort of way up the cliff could be found. Otherwise, it's a 300ft long rope and a slipper delivery mechanism. Loot By Party Member:
--------- Party Pool --------- Sir Echtyr's circlet .. 2250gp Large breastplate ... 200gp +1 crueld voidglass falchion .. 18,375gp+ (not sure voidglass value) Total: 20,825 ---------
Total: 32,509gp ---------
Total: 71,615gp ---------
Total: 26,900gp ---------
Total: 54,000gp ---------
Total: 9530gp
We should ensure everyone has what they think they have, as clearly some of these items are very helpful and valuable.
Since it seemed we didn't have any idea what kind of wealth we have, I went through the thread and tried to capture times we acquired wealth. (I only did this for the time Cobb was present, starting in March) Loot Recap Mar 2016 to Sep 2016: http://paizo.com/campaigns/GMBoldStridersDragonsDemandFlaxseedLodge/gamepla y&page=32#1554 The group pushes open the sarcophagus to see Sir Echter. Sir Echtyr's corpse wears around its brow a circlet worth 2,250 gp. The armor the dead knight wears appears to be golden full plate-it is in fact +1 glamered full plate. A clasp that holds the remains of a rotted blue cape about the corpse's neck is an amulet of natural armor +2, and on one hand the body wears a ring of major acid resistance. One his other hand you see a ring of strength sapping and a +1 acid resistance light steel shield rests over the body. AoNA - Celes
http://paizo.com/campaigns/GMBoldStridersDragonsDemandFlaxseedLodge/gamepla y&page=36#1777
http://paizo.com/campaigns/GMBoldStridersDragonsDemandFlaxseedLodge/gamepla y&page=36#1788
http://paizo.com/campaigns/GMBoldStridersDragonsDemandFlaxseedLodge/gamepla y&page=39#1927
http://paizo.com/campaigns/GMBoldStridersDragonsDemandFlaxseedLodge/gamepla y&page=42#2072
Bringing the climbing shopping over to OOC table talk vs in-game since it's completing our in-town prep. A scroll with 5 x spider climb is 750gp, so we could just bite the bullet on that if it's available. I'm not sure how meta we get here, did our Iroran friend keep all the treasure on our fallen allies? What little do we have to spend and are capable of buying in this town? With the semi-TPK, passage time also has gotten a bit wonky as well. Also - Did we address the major points of preparation for the dragon? Resist energy? (Cobb has this, but potentially not enough for all) Something to counter/bolster against fear (our new paladin?) Anything to help with the party for one big epic fight - haste, blessing of fervor, bless, aid, heroism?
Cobb rubs his chin and considers the reported 300ft ascent. "300 feet... that's a long fall if we're not prepared. I know wizard's often have some sort of spell to catch 'em when they fall. I suppose the good news is the dragon ain't likely to have a lot of minions in their lair at this rate. We sure we didn't miss a hidden passage the kobolds take to leave their tribute?"
Cobb chews on the sudden discovery that Sarasha walks Golarion again for a moment, any expression hidden behind his majestic mustache. Sighing, he turns his piercing eyes to scan the Iomedean and elf among them. "So, you two are ready to get roped into this? You hear what Asha here said? We lost half the crew, and that weren't even facing the dragon proper."
Cobb's updated to 6th. He picked up Invisibility and Coordinated Shot which were his key crunch changing variables.
I don't think it is unwinnable, but this party is lacking the normal synergy that Paizo might expect from a 5th level party. Relatively little healing, no Haste or Inspire, no other buffs or debuffs to overcome the high AC or protect from his high attack rolls. So it seems to me as we tuck our tail between our legs and take this moment to regroup, we should evaluate our crunch and take the fact we need to slay a dragon a bit more gravely. We certainly should try out best to cover the bases of:
Cobb considers whether or not Desna has forsaken him this afternoon, and suspects it has to do something with firing his arrows at something that's truly not evil. "Well, Kanjo. Not sure what this Dark Window is, but we were arming for a fight with a dragon, not an Iroran. You're a lot harder to hit with an arrow than a big dragon, if you catch my drift." Cobb nods as Lukas pulls back from the room, his eyes lingering on the fallen forms of his allies. "Ain't fear leading us out of here. It's common sense. We gotta pull back, reassess and figure out how to stop a dragon from leveling a whole town."
for
for
Cobb Status:
Cobb nearly spits in disappointment as his arrows mean little and doesn't even continue his draw of the next arrow. "So, mummy. You got a name? And any interest in slaying a dragon doin' all sorts of evil? Cuz I'm thinkin' you'd pass a recruitment drive comin' up in town with flying colors." Cobb smiles, half serious, half trying to make lemonade out of bitter lemons as he focuses on the greater of the tasks at hand. "Just sayin'. We're down two and if you let me, I can save ol' Jeb's life before he bleeds out next... "
Cobb gives Lukas a glance, waiting to see what his ally's response might be, but looks to Sarasha and Celes's fallen bodies with concern. "Ain't nobody stopping this dragon if we all die." Starting to believe the Iroran mummy invincible, he sighs and fires off another pair of arrows, expecting to see both plucked from flight followed by a revised statement that three arrows will be needed "right here". for
for
Cobb Status:
It's unfortunate Celes went down - she's essentially our best mummy-killer. Presumably a good strategy for really tough foes is indeed Lukas acting as a "cork" - forcing a melee opponent to face him, while giving Celes reach with a spell like Longarm or a feat like Lunge... although I have a hard time advocating someone with a 12 Con being up in front. :) With GM Bold's dice, the dragon's likely hitting AC20 for 60-70 damage a round whenever we get to facing it should it get a full round attack sequence off, which is enough to drop nearly 2 full party members!
Cobb sighs as his well-aimed arrow is plucked from its flight. "Well, shoot. That figures. Look fella, I feel like you keep changing the rules on us, here..." for
for
As Cobb watches his two arrows fire off more at ceiling than mummy , he winces. "See that? Them's warning shots. Hit that ceiling real good. See how it's crumblin' now like a Taldan ring-pastry?" Squinting at his foe, he decides to add to his half-challenge. "Besides? Ain't you good? Shouldn't ye just be beatin' us silly instead o' murdering us? Like training us to help make the world better n' all?"
Cobb Status:
"Right there, eh? I'll try to oblige..."
for
for
Cobb frowns as his second arrow goes wide and he begins to count the seconds until Sarasha joins Celes in the afterlife. And to think, the dragon'd be tougher than this damned mummy... Cobb Status:
Cobbs eyes widen in a mix of admiration and shock as he witnesses the strange mummy essentially taunting them and providing commentary for his outright control of the fight from the moment it broke out. "Guys, he's talking a good game. Maybe we should give him some room." Cobb studies his foe for a moment, trying to get a sense of his movements , before calling upon Desna for additional firepower this fight Cobb Status:
"Hmmpph... strange. Looks like a mummy, but not like one I've ever seen... usually they'd be leaping at us while we flee in terror by now." Ever cautious, Cobb stays at the ready until Jeb explains that their foe is usually not evil. "Iroran eh? Maybe you should give it a hug, Celes?"
Cobb diligently and quietly follows Sarasha and Celes from not far behind, quiet as a whisper.
"Oh?" Cobb raises an eyebrow. "... better than necromancy, at least if you can spot the flaw in the illusion, it's less likely to rip your heart out."
Cobb rubs his temple for a moment, squinting at the statue. "Saint Kyerixus." He then looks to Tessa as she heads to the courtyard. "Let's keep moving."
"While that's true, somehow the universe deigns to position the resistance in places like this like chess pieces, each separated into their own cubbies rather than lump them all together." Cobb shrugs. "Or at least, that's how it seems." Taking in the vista, along with Belhaim in the distance. "Well, if she's not here, and she's not in her bath tub... maybe there's a chance she's abandoned the dragon for greener pastures? Maybe she was charmed and the spell wore off?" Cobb kneels and looks for signs of recent use of the belfry.
Cobb does his best to tend to the injuries of his allies with what little Desna provides this day. The wand in his hand glows with heat like a hot rod from a forge by the time he's complete. "Alright. We're beaten and bruised, but we got a dragon that's gonna get away if we linger too long. It can't be much further, can it?"
Cobb rubs his chin. "Let's see how much Jeb can do. When do you pray, Jeb? The time for Ol' Dessie is midnight. Not sure if you're the kind of fellah that needs to wait 'til sun-up?"
Cobb looks down at Sarasha, who can barely walk, and he states the obvious. "You can barely walk..." He looks around the immediate area. "What do you think, Jeb? You able to patch her up enough so that resting here ain't gonna get her killed?"
Cobb nearly drops his bow as he rushes over to Sarasha and kneels, looking at her wounds like a doctor without any positive bedside manner. "Yep. This ain't good." Tearing some cloth from somewhere, he immediately begins to dab the wound, hoping to soak up some of the poison and improve her chances.
If This Tactic Is Successful:
Cobb stretches his neck as he exhales, launching a pair of quick arrows, praying to Desna they find their mark. for
Cobb Status:
Cobb sucks in some air as he watches two fairly aimed arrows ricochet off the Naga. "Alright, time to call on Desi and see if that makes the difference..."
Cobb Status:
Cobb smacks his lips and prepares himself for the inevitable by studying his foe.
|