DM Le Roy Batty's page

Yeah, I think we've put in a good effort to keep this thing going, but at this point at think we should cut it. If you would like to replace me as the DM and keep on going, that's okay by me as well. There are some people on the forums I've seen take over a campaign before.

I just don't have as much time to check in recently. compared to when we first started this, and it's really slowing the game down. Also, Wrath of the Righteous is really combat heavy - much more so than any other campaign I've run - (I think they are trying to level the players as fast as possible) which really makes it a drag to play by post.

Honestly, it's like this with every PbP game I've been in: everyone starts interested, then everything moves at a starfish's pace after a month or so.

Yeah, it seems hard to keep up. The enthusiasm level for the group can really only be as high as the lowest enthusiasm level of the individuals in the group. It seems like it would work better if not running a campaign out of a book and just riffing on whatever the characters were into at the moment. Still, using Pathfinder rules, the speed of play is the killer.

I will say I had fun though, especially when things were flowing more quickly and there was more roleplaying. Again, I think the AP itself kind of ground us all down with the constant fighting. Even with an in-person game I don't really like more than 1 or 2 combats per session.

Pathfinder allows you to pass through a party member's square. This is in the rules. This is not something specific to minis.

Ending Your Movement: You can't end your movement in the same square as another creature unless it is helpless.

If we are going directly by RAW, without thinking about if an action is physically possible or not, still there is no space for you to end your movement on the ladder. Sioned is right behind Kloss.

She has offered to switch places with you. Do you want to do that?

Suryani - are you passing this turn?

Continue eating popcorn since I am not allowed to move through my teammates squares.

I'm not allowing you to move through their squares because they are on a ladder. I'm not sure how you plan to pass through someone's space if they are hanging on to a ladder, regardless of how pathfinder miniatures rules work.

Is it possible for Caleb and Sioned to each use a move action to switch squares? He's better at hitting things than I am.

Yes. That's fine, you would climb up and off the ladder and he would climb on.

Sioned: 17 (HP 11) Attacks (miss)
Suryani: 15 Touch of Good (Sioned)
Rats: 14 Continue to attack
Mongrelmen: attack
Caleb: 12 Eating Popcorn
Caliban: 9 (HP 2) ---
Kloss: 7 (HP 9) attack (hit)

---

Heroes:
Sioned tries another attack, but can't seem to make contact. Suryani leans in behind her and her touch brings a small spark of good energy to the inquisitor's actions. (Sioned touch of Good +1 Attack / Saves / Etc)

Enemies:
The two remain rats scuttle and attack in the disgusting tunnel...

Kloss, Caliban or Suryani: 1d3 ⇒ 3
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Crit Miss?: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

Kloss, Caliban or Suryani: 1d3 ⇒ 1
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Bite Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 [Kloss 6HP]

... one bites towards Suryani, but she pulls away, while the other latches onto Kloss. The mongrelman lines up a stab with his spear...

Mongrelman: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
crit confirm: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
dmg: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 [Caliban -2]

...and punctures Caliban's armor with a perfectly placed shot. Caliban's hands release his sword and the ladder and he clatters to the ground at the end of the tunnel.

Heroes:

Caleb waits while Kloss and Sioned continue their battle. Kloss swings his axe mightily, and slays another rat. The mongrelmen call up to Kloss menacingly from the bottom of the tunnel, unconscious and bleeding.

---

Up Next:
Everyone
Caliban - make a fort check
Sioned - you have +1 to rolls from touch of good.

Do Caleb and Suryani have any actions?

Am I close to Caliban?

The current layout is like this: Caliban, Kloss and Sioned are hanging onto a ladder, in a tunnel, fighting 2 large rats that live in the torn up cloth around the tunnel walls. Caliban is at the bottom, the Kloss above him and Sioned above Kloss. One of the mongrelmen is standing at the bottom of this tunnel, attacking up at Caliban.

You can not reach the rats around Caliban and Kloss with your sword, neither can Suryani.

Sioned: 17 (HP 11) Attacks (miss)
Suryani: 15 Unable to reach
Rats: 14 Continue to attack (miss) (miss)
Mongrelmen: attack (miss)
Caleb: 12 Unable to reach
Caliban: 9 (HP 2) attack (miss)
Kloss: 7 (HP 9) attack (miss)

---

Heroes:
Sioned attacks from the ladder while Suryani watches from above. She's unable to connect with her flail however, as the dog-sized animal darts in and out of his tattered home.

Suryani sees there's no way to get her a hit on these creatures while everyone else crowds in the tunnel.

Enemies:
The two rats that are left squeak in a frenzy towards their fallen brother...

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

... and attack the one that killed him. But Kloss kicks and dodges out the way.

One of the mongrelmen from below gets in position at the bottom of the tunnel and pokes up with his spear...

Mongrelman: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

... but misses Caliban by some margin. The other yells at him and pushes him forward.

Heroes:

Caleb stands beside Suryani at the top of the ladder. Without reach or a ranged weapon there isn't much he can do from up here but wait.

Caliban and Kloss fight back against the rats. Kloss nearly lands another swing of his axe, but the rat ducks away at the last moment.

---

Up Next:
Everyone

Sioned: 17 (HP 11) Moves down the ladder, attacks (miss)
Suryani: 15 Draws scimitar, unable to reach
Rats: 14 Continue to attack
Caleb: 12 unable to reach
Caliban: 9 (HP 6) ray of frost
Kloss: 7 (HP 9) attack

---

Heroes:
Sioned charges down the ladder to help with her beleaguered friends. She swings at a rat, but fighting on the ladder isn't as easy as it looks. Suryani takes out her scimitar at the top of the tunnel, but no one else will fit in there until someone moves either up or down.

Enemies:
The rats continue their assault on the two heroes...

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17
bit dmg: 1d4 ⇒ 4 Caliban [HP 2]

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Rat bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

... sensing weakness, they frenzy around Caliban. One bites Caliban's outstretched arm, causing him much pain.

Heroes:

Caleb takes out his sword, but like Suryani is stuck at the top of the hole fated to watch for this round. Caliban casts a spell at the creatures, trying not to get hit... (I'm assuming)

cast defensively: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

... but the spell is lost.

Kloss on the other hand, reaches back and slices through one of the little buggers with his axe! No time to rest now however, as the Mongrelmen on the other side of the tunnel sneak a peek from below and start readying their spears.

---

Up Next:
Everyone

----

Initiative Order:
Rats: 14 (surprise)
Sioned: 17 (HP 11)
Suryani: 15
Rats: 14
Caleb: 12
Caliban: 9 (HP 6)
Kloss: 7 (HP 11 - I think this is what you have?)

---

Enemies:

Once Caliban and Kloss noisily enter the laddered hole, previously unseen rodents pounce out at them from inside the tattered cloth around the tunnel. It catches them by surprise...

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Rat 1 bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
bite dmg: 1d4 ⇒ 2 Kloss [HP-13]

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Rat 2 bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Rat 2 crit miss?: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

Kloss or Caliban: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Rat 3 bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Two rats jump on Kloss, one biting him fiercely and the other unable to find anything but armor to chew on. The other rat tries to pounce on Caliban but the Elf is too quick for it.

---

Up Next:

Sioned: 17 (HP 11)
Suryani: 15

Sioned and Suryani will go before the rats go again, and then we can have standard initiative where everyone goes.

Hm Kloss reacts to the brash action of Caliban. How about we get them to come to us. We can wait for 'em at the end of the tunnel, and pick 'em off one by one.

Kloss holds Caliban back from re-entering the tunnel just yet. The party waits for a few moments and hears some hushed conversation in that same strange language down to the other side of the tunnel and then everything goes quite. No one can see anything through the hole of the tunnel, but only one person can fit down this at once.

The paladin will detect evil.

Caiban can feel nothing from down the hole. Either the creatures are not evil, or they are not powerful enough to register even a faint aura.

No amount of yelling down the hole changes the current stalemate.

"If no one objects we should continue forward. " Caliban says, indicating the hole.

Horgus whispers (as well as he can) "I'm not going through that hole until we're sure whatever lives in there is dead!"

Spears scrape on the ground in the other room, through the tunnel, rushed whispers continue and get closer.

Sioned casts light on a nearby rock and tosses it to the center of the hallway. Shen then slinks back down to report.

The small room at the end of the hallway lights up, and surprised noises can be heard followed by some quiet conversation. It's the same sort of language that she has heard the Mongrelmen speaking before. Sioned sneaks back through the tunnel to report.

This is the room I scouted into, yes?

Yes, scouted it out now! Do remember though that you will be taking a light source in order to see.

As the party goes over the loot Caliban uncovered in the cave, Sioned scouts into the next room.

As Sioned steps on the old iron ladder the rotten oder becomes increasingly pungent - the source seeming to be the ripped cloth surrounding her. Silently passing down the ladder and through the tunnel, she exits on the other side into a room lined with the same material: shredded, stinking cloth. She can't be sure, but it smells to her like animal waste.

From this room she can see down through a long hallway that ends in room with another battlement and a rusty iron door on the wall beyond that.

Caliban will use detect magic and attempt to determine the properties of the items.

Everyone climbs back up the rope and backtracks through the hallway to the previous room with the 2 dead cultists in it (1 now). This was the "trophy hall" - a large worked stone room filled with shelves of persevered animals trophies.

Horgus is there, still waiting with the others. He eyes the very wet Elf and inquisitor and remarks: "I take it you found no exit that way?"

There is one way out of this room that no one has ventured through yet. An only iron ladder that leads down a hole, surrounded by shredded cloth. It radiates no evil, but does have a foul stench.

Caliban quickly casts Detect Magic on the gear before gathering it up. "I am coming back across, Everything is fine."

Caliban makes it back to the shore with the help of the paladins rope. And not a moment too soon, it seems as the creatures in the water have grown quite.

---

Everyone gets 250 XP for dealing with the creatures and recovering the treasure.

Kloss, still waiting ashore, tries to see if there is a way across without swimming. Is there a way to set up a line? I'll just sink like brick if I go in there, and join those corpses. I'm a woodman, not a carp.

With some climbing tools one could hammer in a piton, but the natural cliff face doesn't have many places to tie off a rope securely,

Caliban will steel himself and pry open the chest.

Caliban Per: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

As Caliban steps towards the chest but his foot goes straight through the flooring!

reflex: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

As he falls forward into the concealed pit he manages to land his arms above the ground and catches himself at the edge. It knocks the wind out of him for a moment, but other than that he crawls out unscathed and opens the chest.

Within the chest is a very elegant Elven light wooden shield, a ring made of bands of thin rope, 2 scrolls, 2 potions and 250 gp in a sack.

The paladin will seek a connection with his god and detect evil.

There are no evil auras visible in this part of the cavern system. It feels very natural to you.

Caliban will strip off his armor, obviously disturbed by feeding the corpses to the fish, and enter the water to swim across to the hidden door. Climbing out of the water he will attempt to open the doorway he spotted from above.

Caliban swims across the river successfully, although it is at the edge of his ability, and climbs out onto a ledge concealed underneath the shallow water there. Hidden in the boulders on this side of the river is the outline of a doorway, that gives way to a smaller chamber when pressed upon.

A thick layer of dust coats the inside of this chamber. Near the far wall sits an old wooden chest covered with cobwebs.

Unhappiness obvious on his elven face, Caliban follows Sioned back up the rope to the top level and assists her in gathering a corpse to drop into the water.

May I receive better treatment under the stars than we give here today

Once the bodies are gathered up and dropped into the water, that is a different story. Everyone can see the strange fish-like creatures are attracted to this offering. Two or three roll and fight on the surface for control of the body and seem quite distracted.

Swim check DC 12 to swim across the river. You can take a ten on this check.

have we explored everything that we can down here?

No one has dared swim to the hidden doorway on the other side of the water yet.

Okay, I'm back. Hopefully that's the last distraction for a while. Let's get back to it!

Hello all, currently battling a bit of carpel tunnel in my left hand. I have been staying away from all typing and computer work for the last week. I will be back in a few days, hopefully.

Caliban will leave the bodies as he found them, instead opting for the jerky, dropping it into the underground river.

The dried meat doesn't seem to make much of an impression with the underwater beasts. It disappears under the water and Caliban does not see any signs of the creatures from the rock.

I'm back! Hopefully everyone had a good holiday.

Caliban and Caleb go back and find the bodies much as they left them, although having a day to sit hasn't made them smell much better. They can get them back to the top of the cave fairly easily and lower then down onto the rock with ropes. Or just push them off from the top.

The paladin will detect evil again.

Nothing in the water is inherently evil. The cavern seems to be entirely natural.

Caleb 7 - Waiting
Kloss: 21 - Rapid Shot (hit, miss)
Sioned: 15 - Heal
Caliban:13 - Swimming
Suryani:12 - Spiritual Weapon (hit)

Heroes:
Caliban makes it back to the shore as Kloss and Suryani continue to direct their weapons at the fish creatures. [-5HP, -9HP]

Enemies
The creatures, losing their prey, decide not to be floating targets anymore and submerge deep into the river water, out of harms way.

---

End of Combat, unless anyone wants to swim after them. :)

I'll update a bit, but let's plan on taking this week off until Kloss gets back. Holiday season is busy for me as well.

Caleb 7 - Pull Sioned (success)
Kloss: 21 - Rapid Shot (miss, hit)
Sioned: 15 - Swim (fail) Swim
Caliban:13 - Atack (miss)
Suryani:12 - Spiritual Weapon (hit)
Creature: 8 - Attack Sioned [-5HP]
Creature: 8 - Attack Caliban [-6HP]

----

Heroes:
Caleb pulls on Sioned, trying to get her out of the water. At first she doesn't move much, but after a few seconds of struggling, he pulls her back up to the shore!

Kloss rapidly fires into the water again and bullseyes one of the creatures. [Creature 1 -5HP]. Suyani's magical scimitar attacks the other [Creature 2 -6HP].

Caliban tries to attack and then swim back to shore, but only manages to drop his dagger in the current. He struggles to keep his head above water.

Enemies:

Creature1 bite: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Creature2 bite: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Creature2 crit miss?: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

The water creatures try to attack Caliban, still in the water, but they swim and bump into each other ungracefully.

----

Up next

Caleb: 7
Kloss: 21
Sioned: 15
Caliban:13 (currently in the water, swim check to get out)
Suryani:12

Kloss: 21 - Rapid Shot
Sioned: 15 - Escape grapple (fail)
Caliban:13 - Spell strike, in water
Suryani:12 - liberating command
Creature: 8 - Attack Sioned
Creature: 8 - Attack Caliban

----

Heroes:
Kloss fires a few arrows into the water, but it's hard to pick out a target. He is happy to have missed his companions.

Sioned struggles to break free, but it is not until Suryani casts her spell that she finally breaks free.

Caliban bravely jumps into the water to deliver a spell with his dagger but he is unable to hit river dwelling creature in the struggle. His dagger is still charged with magic.

Enemies:
One creature continues to attack Sioned, while the other bites blindly at the new target that just entered the water nearby...

Creature1 bite: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Creature2 bite: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Perhaps not used to food that fights back so hard, the creatures flail wildly, but bite into nothing. Our heroes are both safe for now!

----

Up next

Caleb: 7
Kloss: 21
Sioned: 15 (not grappled! Swim check to get back to the shore)
Caliban:13
Suryani:12

Sorry for the delay, seems like whenever I try to update the site is down lately. We have been having some large wind storms here in the pacific NW though. Caleb you can use that last roll to aid Sioned on her swim back if you want, or do a different action on this turn.

Has anyone else been having trouble logging on to the Paizo.com for the past couple days? I think it's been down. Updating in a bit.

well, that was underwhelming. If I'm incorrect about what I can do in a round, please just let me know - but with it being this horrific...

Sadly, you were correct in what you can do in a round. Now that you're in the water though, you will need to make a 10+spell level caster level check to cast spells.

It is a d20 roll right?

Yep that works, but it will help her next attempt. Your initiative # is 7, the post with everyone's initiative rolls got pushed to the previous page.

Sioned attempts to swim to the shore.[dice=Swim]1d20+2-1

You need to break the grapple in order to move anywhere.

Is the last part of the previous post with the character name next to a number the iniatiative rolls? If so I guess I sit this combat out?

You can tell me what you're doing, but you will be going after the monsters at the end of this round.

Caliban:13
Creature: 8

----

Suddenly, Caliban casts a spell into the water and cries out. From under the water a large human-sized aquatic creature, with sleek scales and an alligator-like mouth, breaches the surface. It attacks Sioned. Another shadow rushes in from beneath her, roiling the water below with it's violent movements.

bite: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
dmg: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7 [Sioned 7 HP]
grapple: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
bite: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
dmg: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 [Sioned 3 HP]
grapple: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16 [Sioned 3 HP, Grappled]

The first one, spotted by Caliban, bites Sioned in the water but she frantically pulls her arm free. The second one however, catches her by surprise, biting into her leg and holding it.

----
Up Next:

To answer some questions that may pop up:
- The aid another action (pulling the rope counts) can give Sioned a +2 bonus to CMB to get out of a grapple.
- Sioned however, cannot swim or otherwise move away while grappled. I would allow an opposed STR check to pull her towards the edge, which you can also use aid another on.
- She will be under the water on her turn if she doesn't swim. She can hold her breath and take actions for 12 rounds. 24 if she takes no actions.
- Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. The creature's CMD is 15 to break free.

Kloss: 21
Sioned: 15
Caliban:13
Suryani:12

Am I still on top of the crag or did I move down?

Since you are holding the rope attached to Sioned, I assumed you had come down. Kloss is the only one that didn't climb down, but he has a good view of the situation from up top.

Sioned's head submerges under the water for a few seconds, but she soon flails back to the surface, a few feet downstream of where she started. Caliban notices that Sioned's frenzied movements have seem to brought some unwanted attention as a large shadow moves with alarming speed towards her!

Kloss: 21 - surprised
Sioned: 15 - surprised
Caliban:13
Suryani:12 - surprised
Creature: 8
Caleb: 7 - surprised
----
Up Next:
Caliban is the only one able to react as soon a he spots the danger, everyone else is yet to notice the creature's shadow.

Can I pull on the rope to help her?

You can help pull her back in, if she's swimming back.

Sioned wades out into the water, but it quickly drops off below her feet. She pushes off into the water, but there is a current here in the underground river, especially under the surface. With her armor weighing her down she can't make much for progress without running the risk of going under.

Swim check DC 12 to swim across the river. Taking a 10 only gets Sioned to an 11 with her armor on. She will have to roll twice to reach the other side.

Back from vacation.

"I suppose I can take a quick look," Suryani says, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

Taking 10 to climb down, gives me 10.

Suryani climbs down easily, with Caleb holding the rope. She lands on a small out-cropping of rock sticking out of the middle of the river. The markings on the bank across the water look like they are the outline of door, in the wall 20ft away from Suryani's current location.

If she shines her light (I'm assuming a light spell) it will show that the water between here and the door is deep. There is no pathway to walk on.

Sioned, it is difficult when no updates are forth coming.

Sorry folks, travel got in the way for the last two days. Poor weather in America. Updating now.

Shall we try and get over there? Kloss finally says, not so much a question as a statement.

Maybe we can lower a rope and get down there?

There is already a rope to get down to the small rocky outcropping in the middle of the river. Climbing does not seem to be much of a problem (the rope could be knotted for even more safety). Getting to the side of the wall may involve some swimming however, it is impossible to see how deep the river is from here. The river water isn't moving particularly fast.

No problems, just checking in. I'm still on the road and without great internet.

Anyone around? Or are you just waiting for Caliban to fall in?

Kloss and Caliban enter the hallway to the east of the "trophy room".

A muted roar echoes down the walls of this hallway. Near the eastern end, the worked stone give way to natural cave walls, just before the hall ends at an open shaft. Hanging over the edge of the shaft is a knotted rope—the other end tied to an iron spike driven into the ground.

Down the shaft is a 40 ft drop to an underground river of some sort. There is a eddying pool near the bottom of the rope that looks to be still water surrounding a small 5x5ft uncovered stone area. The river extends into the dark in the north and south directions.

Hello all,

I will be traveling and on vacation from today until Dec 3rd. It shouldn't effect my updates much, but if you don't hear from me for a couple days, that's why.

The paladin will detect evil to see if he can figure out what is still around (at least if evil is still there).

There are no evil auras present as Caleb searches through the areas the party has been so far.

In the rooms below, near the dining room, it is much as it was the other day. It does not seem that anything has come to move any of the furs or other treasure left behind. The room with the hole in the floor has an unchecked exit that turns out to be only a garbage chute. (H4)

All the way back to the top, in the room that held the cultists (H10) there are two unexplored exits. This room is an eerie trophy room, with one door to the east and a dirty tunnel lined in cloth to the north. The cultists bodies and bedrolls still lay here.