I'll mark this campaign as inactive during the weekend. When I'm ready to start a new game I'll contact you all!
Yeah, a short break. I had four PbPs ongoing at the same time, and now I had all three final battles at the same time. But you did fill the void with character banter quite well, something I see too rarely. I'm up to run another one once I'm done with the current ones, maybe in a few weeks. @Khellek: Tomorrow you'll get your updated chronicle!
I'm so glad the dice bot decided to fail miserably when attacking with the mummies.
As the mummies come into view, their wretched appearance strikes fear into any living creature's bones. All are petrified except for Doodle, and the cyclops. The mummy in front gets to swipe at Doodle, and the rest pour out of the corridor.
The blue comes next to Doodle and swipes.
Green leaves the corridor, also coming next to Doodle!
Yellow moves closer, but is unable to get in time for a hit. And cyclops gives a little clobbering to the head.
Irizati
I doubt anyone else could write any reports with Khellek supervising all the little details and grammar of his "students". ;)
Once you've rescued Jilarni, there's really no time limit. And to be frank, this is how spelunking an ancient tomb should be like! Not like rushing it in a few hours, hastily grabbing whatever you can, and then bolting back to base.
I'm so glad you had a druid, and there's spell called Control Water. And yes, this fight is designed to be underwater, and the Evil Eye curse... *sigh. Two saves and you go into a comatose, from which you'll wake up if you succeed three times in a row. I have newfound disdain towards Jason Bulmahn's scenario design philosophy.
Doodle doesn't really care about the hag's vicious looks. Instead, she tries to stab the eyes with a spear! And so she does, with gusto! The hag screams with a high screech echoing in the chamber! The red sea hag, noticing how the obnoxious leopard is keeping its eyes closed and still finding its mark, latches onto it with its sharp claws!
Doodle
Doodle grabs the scepter and manages to pull it out. Almost instantaneously, the portcullises all pull into the earth, and another set of portcullises rise up. And a secret door opens on the side, revealing a cramped closet holding two sea hags who appear to have been there for way too long. Gone absolutely mad with each others' company, they scream as the door opens, attacking pretty much anything on sight.
Since Irizati is the only one able to see a glimpse of one of these abominations, the mere sight is giving the chills.
Initiatives:
Doodle
I think this scenario is a showcase. I guess you've already figured out Alarka is not a core rulebook class character.
Rilla Nevon was way ahead of Will with freeing the people, who nod to Will's gesture. They tell various tales of how they were captured and put into the hold, none of them giving a hint of the true perpetrator. The Pathfinders gather what they can and return to see Zigil on the deck, inspecting the slavers' corpses, kicking them to see if they are alive. "Typical," the dwarf comments with a straight face, and looks at the group emerging from the cargo hold. "Fighting stopped. You done?" she asks, but rather than wait for an answer, motions them to get back to the rowboat. "No crew, no navigation to port. Tomorrow then," she sighs, and assigns the Pathfinders again to row the boat back to the Harbormaster's Grange. She has to take two trips, since now the freed slaves are with them. On Pilot Island, inspector Lilia Ginsi rushes over to the pier as she sees the boat coming back. "Have you people any idea how well sound travel on open waters?!" she yells with a hushed voice, "whatever was going on there, I'll need an explanation!" Explaining what occurred on At Sea makes her a lot more contemplative. "Slavers? Indeed, and a bounty as well. Then... I guess it was justified. I'll have a crew navigate the ship back to port at dawn. Since you were the ships, err, liberators, the bounty would fall onto you. I'll prepare the paperwork for that and send it to... right, the Grand Lodge. Of course." The trip back to the docks is uneventful, and the streets are empty at this time of night. Tired, the Pathfinders take a short night's rest before going to report their adventures to both Lady Darchana and venture-captain Ambrus Valsin. It was trivial to schedule an appointment with Lady Darchana, and she sees the Pathfinders first thing in the morning. They are treated well with exquisite cuisine and drink. After their tales of zigzagging around the city to find one culprit after another, Lady Darchana is pleased with the results. "Pathfinders, you have done a great service to Absalom today. The full extent, understandably, may never be widely known or recognized by the sleeping masses, but know that the Pathfinder Society can count on me as a friend and ally, and I hope that I may call upon you again in the future should the need arise." Upon returning to the Grand Lodge, the debriefing begins with the task at hand. As Ambrus learns the papers had a signature "Muhlia" on them, he sighs heavily. "A former ally of the Society? I wonder what she is after... but this is definitely a clue. A shame you were unable to retrieve the documents intact, but some foes are smart enough to destroy damning evidence."
Rilla recounts what she can to Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin and the Pathfinder Agents about her time spent in the Okeno slave markets on Stonespire Island, confirming several interactions with a heavily veiled humanoid woman who forcibly took blood samples on two occasions. "What about my colleagues who were assigned with me, captain? Any word of them?" Rilla Nevon inquires. Ambrus Valsin shakes his head, "No contact,"
Busy days at work, exhausted at home. Will post as soon as possible.
30' radius, I presume. It's the width of the entire room, I so don't find any way of putting it there to take care of the wall without hurting your allies in the process. It might be far more beneficial to put it in the mouth of the corridor (it'd reach Tere), and it would hit all the enemies but not the last pathfinder (who has been omitted from the combat, but resides right behind the corner in the chamber, I placed an X to mark her spot).
Busy days at work, exhausted at home. Will post as soon as possible.
"Talk?! You really think I believe this is the correct time to have tea and biscuits?! This isn't a goddamn therapy session!" the captain blasts, being seriously hurt by Sylvester's magic missiles. For her fortune, the massive half-orc lady's blade misses as the tight space limits mobility. As the smoke from the burning papers in an iron brazier begins to get thicker and thicker, the captain has the biggest conundrum. There isn't an option to flee, there are no window holes on the deck, and there's grease, a huge greataxe in the way, a panther... pretty much everything in the world is against her now. This is it, so long, and thanks for all the fish, she ponders, knowing she has nowhere to go, no place to hide. She takes a bottle from her belt, and smashes it into the brazier. The hungry flame grow larger, hotter, other parts of the captain's cabin catch fire. "If I'm going down, you're going with it!" she screams.
Captain Waheeda Wardak
As Khellek speaks wise words, Doodle backs away from the fiery wall while casting defensive spells. The raiders advance, drawing their scimitars and attacking Baloo.
Tere
I noticed I made a rather stereotypical error there, referring to Waheeda Wardak as a he/him. This is due to my native language lacking grammatical genders. So there is no one with Wardak.
Erica moves in closer to the foul-mouthed half-orc. Umdar gets over to the gnome and starts untying the knots. Realizing it'd take a long time, he instead rips it open with his sickle. The gnome lady immediately shakes the loose ropes off of her and rips the mouth gag out. "Am Rilla, glad ta see ya!" she exclaims, "ya gon need sum faya ta get dem trolldogs killed! Lemme help!" Rilla immediately begins casting a spell, and a fireball appears in the air above the red trollhound, lowering down to burn the abomination.
Meanwhile Droogami takes a bite out of the ill-tempered fellow, but is unable to claw through the leather boots. The same earth elemental as seen above deck appears, and slams the yellow trollhound in the face. While Ny'a is unable to make her contribution, the dog takes a bit of the red trollhound. The cursing half-orc surely makes other sailors look bad with all his swearing, "The f*+~ are you even doing here? Get sunk, you cocksucking ass hats! and furiously swings his falchion at Droogami.
And what do you know, the trollhounds regenerate! Both of them seem keen on eating the dog.
Erica
Will manages to bleed a bit, blood dripping from his nostrils, before Umdar casts a healing spell on him, and he wakes up, bruised and battered, laying on a small pool of his own blood. Umdar's own minions attempt to make Curtzog into minced meat, but only Droogami is able to push its claws through the half-orc's breastplate armor. Florin's strike just hits the first mate on the chest, making him gasp for air. That's not enought to down an experienced gunslinger, though. Ny'a's blade easily finds the soft spot in Curtzog's, who is evil, armor. The wound, however, is not so severe. Curtzog has a chance to club Erica as she apparently flees the combat.
Curtzog, red
Will Hawk is the first to climb up the ladder on top. On the deck four pairs of eyes look at him, closest belonging to a mean-looking half-orc "You're the pilot?" the half-orc questions, clearly expecting someone else, but he shrugs, "odd for a humie to come by night. Eh, guess they hire anyone these days." A human behind the helm peers in the moon light to see what's happening. "First Mate Bleoran Berttio," he introduces himself firstly, "come to make the inspection? Good, better to get it out of the way as soon as possible." Two gnolls on the port side of the ship just glare at Will.
I adjusted the Google Slides document so all the tactical maps are backgrounds, so phone users (Doodle, namely) can't accidentally move the tactical map. I also included Doodle's information to the document.
Every day is leg day. Imagine the calves of those lighthouse keepers.
Bigguyinblack did tip about there being a lack of high level core games. I thought about starting with this tier 5-9, but I could be starting a tier 7-11 at some point. But after the gameday. I promise.
I'm doing some background research regarding all the little details in the scenario, and every so often I encounter something ridiculous. The Absalom Lighthouse is located on the Pilot Island (as is the Harbormaster's Grange). The lighthouse is said to be 655 feet tall. For comparison, the tallest lighthouse in the real world is only 431 feet tall. And I doubt they have any high-speed elevators to take the maintenance guy to the top. The standard stair step height in USA is 7.5 inches, so at maximum the lighthouse has to get to the top! Maybe the light is magical, I sure hope so!
Maybe in the future I'll opt to join gamedays in advance... but hey, a game's a game. Thus I'm going to open up [u]another recruitment thread[/u] for [u]#6-08 The Segang Expedition CORE[/u]! I've noticed there to be more of a demand for core games, so I'll deliver.
Muesello nods at Henrikuaxian's questions. "Let me rephrase: take as little as possible. Copying texts is preferable, and for that exact reason," he then pats the pile of papers accompanied with ink and pens, "I'm providing you equipment for that task, free of charge!" Lady Gloriana Morilla picks up the conversation. "The hidden part of the library and its layout are utterly unknown to us. But we know it to be underground. So no windows or backdoors." ---- Once all but Makras have left the lodge, venture-captain Muesello looks at the strange dwarf curled into a fetal position on the floor, and rubs his chin as he looks at Lady Gloriana. "I'm beginning to second guess my picks..." "But his recommendations are favorable," Lady replies, "a dwarf in a library excavated in stone. Their innate abilities with stonework could prove to be important." "...But was he really the only dwarf available?" Muesello seems unsure but even he can't turn an invitee away at this point. The Pathfinder Agents' union forbids that.
Just before Ezren shoots his flying colors. "What are you do-" And then he sleeps a very vivid, lucid dream. Waking up later he blinks several times before getting up on his feet. Rubbing the corners of his eyes he takes a look around. "Threat neutralized, I see. I wonder where the shrine's clergy is... hopefully not succumbed by the same thugs." He makes a cursory glance at Ezren, disapproving his actions.
1. We don't know. Previous GM didn't make us roll anything in particular, and skipped the encounter quite quickly (though Ezren demanded Heryn Gale to speed up). I think only the half-orc twins were befriended; Yargos Gill (?) didn't answer to Kareem at all. 2. We never had an intervention from an NPC, so this is a DING! 3. Grimnir told the man how awesome Kareem is (or how shining he is), rolled a natural 20 for intimidate, and we cleared the encounter without needless bloodshed. DING! 4. Same as above? DING! 5. ...thanks Grimnir. Thanks Zarah. They both destroyed the door AND the window. 3/5, just.
"That went beautifully!" Eveline exclaims, momentarily forgetting her own dire wound. She presses her hand against her chest to block the bleeding. Eveline grits her teeth as the pain stings again, but nevertheless shows a rare, genuine smile behind the agony. "Alejia is captured—make sure she lives to face exact punishment—and Gurukaza survived. Damn fine job, all!" Eveline goes over to Gurukaza, and pulls out her healing wand. She applies charges from the wand to revive the scholar. "Welcome back, Gurukaza!" Eveline says with a smile, wincing the sudden sting of pain again, "we're pathfinders, tasked to save you from Alejia and her goons, and we are very glad to see you!"
Besides a 2.5 week hiatus doesn't mean the players should remain silent. They could try to come up with an improvisational theater type of thing and keep the show going on and on and on and on. I'm configuring that Dragon's Demand on RPoL (the o is lowercase for some reason), and I could give a short report about how it went down, among other things. I don't mind trying it out.
Eveline is excited, this is her first mission abroad and away from the bustling city of Absalom. She has yearned to live a little and explore the world, live in the wilderness away from gazing eye. When the call comes to report to the Heidmarch manor, Eveline is happy to oblige. For the first time in a long long time she has felt happy. She swings open the door, and for the briefest second she has a loving, joyous smile on her face. Right up until her gaze meets up with Lionel, her smile turns into that familiar frustrated frown, once Lionel especially is familiar with. Her face turns into disbelief as she spots Numair as well. Eveline is a female halfling, a tall one at that, and has an extraordinary physique; a mix of an athlete and a glamour model. She has tried her darnest to guise the latter, but clothes have a strange habit of being ill-fitting–or rather 'form enhancing'–despite being tailored. "The gods are toying with me," she whispers to herself, stunned for a moment at the door. Eveline snaps out of it quickly, and heads to nearest free chair (away from the couch, of course) and promptly flops onto it, starting to rub her temples as if she has a headache. "Hello, Numair. Hello, Lionel. Hello, elf. It'd be polite to speak a tongue we others understand as well, don't you think?" Eveline starts off, showing her charming nature as a nice first impression, "I'm Eveline Bleakrock, and I'm the meanest little archer you'll come across."
Painlord, here goes. A Some players, as stated before, post irregularly, and even then their posts contain little to no content. You can't continue on those, they don't pose questions that would require interaction; they are automatons tagging along to collect a chronicle. This, at least, is how it looks like to me. B Such a little detail, but so irritating... names. Character names. Are most players really that unimaginative? I've seen Jarlaxle Baenre, which is a straight copypaste from R. A. Salvatore's famous novels. I've seen Michael J. Caboose, which was also a clone from a webcomic called Red vs. Blue. Currently I'm playing in a game with a character named "Zorro the Swashbuckler". That Iron Man? Pass, I've seen a Finnish player play a weird ranger/wizard/eldritch knight/something that mimics Iron Man in a tasteful way. There are most likely some other examples as well, but none of them come to mind right now. C Lack of hooks. The characters can't interact with each other, if there's never anything to react to. I've noticed the best way to create RP situations is to be create verbal conflicts, hence why nearly all my characters are grumpy, rude, and generally dislike all other pathfinder agents. Delzden is different because I noticed this pattern of hatred among my characters. D Grammar and punctuation. I deliberately checked how you write stuff with quotes, how you place dots and commas, just so the text would be right. I don't mind people deviating from this slightly, but writing in lowercase, leaving out a dot from the end of a sentence, or infuriatingly replacing "you" with just "u". Examples:
"This is how you do it in English," said the man, "it's easy!" "This is how you do it in Finnish", said the man. "It's easy!" E Sometimes it's the GM who's rushing it, leaving almost no time for RP. Like making multiple updates and driving the plot forward during weekend which commonly is quiet time due to family time and whatnot. I must point out I'm not perfect myself; as a GM I still sometimes struggle to push the game onwards, in a weird way hoping for the players to start posting. In one instance I had a three-month long Core game, where I maybe needlessly waited for them to devise an elaborate plan. This resulted in two players not posting anything for two weeks, and when asked why not they said something in the line of "their characters had nothing to do so they opted to wait it out". To me it looked like they vanished completely. Although no one really likes to be critiqued, it's the only way to get better. I'm unsure whether it's a cultural thing, but Americans tend to thank a lot regardless of the game's outcome. I could be wrong though, letting the general "stereotypicalization" flow through me. EDIT: When it comes to style of play, I'm adaptive. I do like some serious gaming with no-nonsense and real emotions, but I also like light-hearted games that show the characters maybe even as ridiculous caricatures consisting of just one key characteristic. Problem is players rarely speak out about the style they prefer, they just all bunch up together and play individually.
"Pooka really ate some grumpy berries, he!" Delzden remarks to Xûll, chuckling quietly, "got to say, though, he's the feistiest halfling I've ever seen! Most of them are just slackers and opportunists, but not this one, he!" "Well, Pooka, commander Wardroxan did give us the directions, so we can get going. Let's get our horses, and wolf, then, it's going to be one abyss of a ride, he!" Delzden does attempt to try and leave the scene in case Sir Ilivan decides to engage in a verbal dispute with Pooka. Delzden's friendly and joyous demeanor doesn't really fit the atmosphere right now.
Don't be afraid to cut and paste and redraw maps if necessary to increase awesomeness. You're right there. I should have probably disregarded the awful maps provided by the scenario and instead pick some sensible maps, like flipmats, and take the goot bits to use. That dock... I've never understood that. Also, if you have a keen eye, you see how botchy the photoshop work had been back in the day... Duly noted. Replace maps if originals stink of donkey balls.
Dhastrach Orisialis is a dwarven priest of Nethys, yet his appearance raises many questions. His skin is charcoal black, and he lacks hair completely, meaning he has no beard either. When idle, he browses a thick leather journal full of small print notes. Dhastrach takes meticulous notes of all the colleagues entering the room. Conveniently he has not left Tymon after his last mission, and has had time to do errands and concentrate on his literary works. "I am known as Dhastrach Orisialis," Dhastrach begins with his deep, raspy voice, "you may rrememberr me frrom such worrkss ass Taldor — A Hideous Affliction — The Story of Decadence and Genetic Degeneration orr The Wondrous Adventures of Lander Lebeda. Or in case you *do* follow yourr prrofession as a pathfinderr, I wass parrt of the team who found the lost Sky Citadel. I'm a prrofessional scrribe and will be conducting the finalization of documentation that will be deliverred to the superrvising venturre-captain at the end of ourr quest. I value knowledge and so I wish you all behave ass properr agentss of the Pathfinder Society."
Eveline eventually rejoins the group once they take all the heavy loot with them and return to Skelg the Ripper's manor. She's reluctant to discuss the happenings at the warehouse, especially her poor performance. The halfling woman feels useless in the group's efforts. Eveline remains rather silent at the manor, only observing the conversation from the background. She's concerned about the consequences of the bloodshed at the warehouse, feeling they died in vain although the Ulfen warriors most likely wouldn't have done otherwise. She hopes Tullo Baltias won't come back demanding reparations. As Eveline sees the tapestry's portal open, showing a cold landscape, she shivers at the sight, not liking what she sees. The halfling checks she has everything with her, and after a deep sigh she enters the portal. The chill is something she barely tolerates. "Why did you have to open the portal even when we knew the place is encased in ice?" Eveline asks Draylan, irritated, "like waltzing to Irrisen with beach clothing." She holds close to the braziers.
"Sure sucks to be you!" Devon taunts as he rapidly shoots with his pepperbox. So many rolls:
Grit 3/5
Grit 2/5
I reviewed Mysterious Stranger's Stranger's Fortune ability, and it says I get to ignore the misfire. I didn't find a clear ruling whether I just ignore the malfunction or just the downside of the roll (e.g. can it still hit?)
TL;DR Attack #1 vs. touch 18, Attack #2 vs. touch 12*, Attack #3 vs. touch nat 20 (conf 12) Damage #1 = 15, Damage #2 = 11*, Damage #3 = 16 (crit +39=55) EDIT: Those could probably hit because the enemy is blind, yes? -2 AC and no dex to AC
Once the merchant is out of ear's reach, Eveline walks to the closest shade and addresses the group. "Finally we know where this Bengeirr fellow is. Now, we better talk about how we want to approach the warehouse here rather than get to the doorstep," she proposes, "and I wouldn't mind getting myself a drink, getting thirsty in this weather."
Devon rolled less than Wembly and Whiskers. Maybe there was some other criteria? It can't be because of alignment; Horatio is good, Wembly is not, neither is Devon. Spellcasting maybe? Or then it did have a fear effect, which boosted Devon's will save from +4 to +8 to a total of 13, one step higher than Wembly/Whiskers' totals. So it could have been DC 13. Does seem a ridiculously low DC for this tier. (And I had to check whether or not this would be subtier 3-4 or 6-7. According to my calculations the party APL is 5-1/6, which would make us play the higher subtier with 4-player scaling. Can't cite the guide now.)
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