Elena Neidhardt's page

"Sounds like our usual tactics. And they've worked so far." Elena says, as she readies herself to support the martial characters and Axton should he need it.

Elena will use her buffs at the start of the surprise round as is her wont. Also, I apologize for the large delay... so many things have happened that kept me distracted and tired. But I'm trying to get into the habit of posting again.

Sorry for my absense, everyone. I'll try and get back into posting somewhere today or tomorrow.

Hey everyone, my apologies for going silent. I am on a vacation right now, but honestly i've had a lot of bad stuff happening in my life recently that is really draining my energy and motivation to post. I hope to feel a bit better soon and get back into posting when time allows. But dont hesitate to bot me if needed.

Hey everyone, my apologies for going silent. I am on a vacation right now, but honestly i've had a lot of bad stuff happening in my life recently that is really draining my energy and motivation to post. I hope to feel a bit better soon and get back into posting when time allows. But dont hesitate to bot me if needed.

perception, level 12 values with HA: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (14) + 28 = 42

"Not that hard to see. The six Skulks are posing as figures from Neo-Abadarran art style while the fresco's themselves are more retro-Desnan. The perspective and disruptions of dead spacing completely clash with their intended hiding. They are a living atrocity against art."

She rolls up her sleeves. "And so they each deserve to die."

Her eyes shine through from behind the Abbes' veil - but what speaks then is a far more sinister voice than her own. "The Mother of Monsters does not look kindly upon your tresspass. She thanks you for your sacrifice."

Then, four many-eyed and moutheded aberrations spawn into the room which immediately begin eating the skulks alive.

Summon monster V, gibbering mouths: 1d3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

These technically celestial and totally good/not evil aberrations can attack straight away since sacred summons applies to them. Unfortunately for the Skulks, they also have 6 attacks each and both grapple, blood drain and swallow whole them at the beginning of their next turn should any grapple succeed. I do not see anything in the summoning rules that forbids them used in such a way to a good charater and could just play it as such. But flavorwise it is much cooler to just have an evil god voice their displeasure over having one of their temples destroyed, am i right?

Elena smiles at Bharak as she enters the room, nods and steps over the fresh body without breaking stride. It was routine at this point, the battle already over before she arrived.

"What strange arrows..." Elena says as she finds she can push one right through a bunker. She quickly gathers them up and begins following after Bharak. "Let's see what else has taken residence here."

Elena Neidhardt wrote:

There is a notable silence as Elena completely ignores Vhane's contributions. "I wish he wasn't so good at using that gun of his so I could make fun of him, the bastard. Are all dwarven adventurers so ridiculously competent?"

LOL!!!

Trying to write Elena's dislike for Vhane in an entertaining way :)

Yeah, let me check my list of 'win more' spells... hm. Not going to waste any I think.

Seeing the enemy fall rapidly before them, Elena strides forward and blesses Bharak with supernatural luck. "Go get 'em Bharak! You've got this! And you too, Axton and Koriah! That was great work."

There is a notable silence as Elena completely ignores Vhane's contributions. "I wish he wasn't so good at using that gun of his so I could make fun of him, the bastard. Are all dwarven adventurers so rediculously competent?"

Move, cast bit of luck on Bharak, sticks for two rounds on him. Pass turn. Just to check, @DBH, is Koriah getting the benefit of inspire courage, flagbearer and discordant voice? In total it adds +5 hit, +5 damage and +1d6 sonic damage to her attacks.

Sorry, if it is coordinated like that and Freedom of Movement was precast on Bharak as we moved into hell/the creepy door, Elena's action is to just begin performing, which would add +3 hit and damage and +1d6 sonic damage to attacks while it lasts. Also there's still the static effect of +2 morale bonus to hit and damage within 30 of her.

"I guess we're just barging in? Bharak opens the door and Axton throws in a fireball or some other spell, and we improvise from there?" Elena whispers, pretty much ready for anything.

Elena would have prebuffed heightened awareness on herself and Freedom of Movement on Bharak before we descended the stairs into the enemy lair. If that isn't allowed at this point, she just stands by until the action starts.

Yeah, kinda agree with Bharak. Maybe we can do this encounter with 4 people and have Amalexis join when they have the character updated? It has been two weeks or so, feels like we're stalling.

There are also some really nasty bardic masterpieces that could be used offensively. There is one that slows the entire enemy team and gives them increasing attack and ac penalties each round they fail the scaling willsave and such.

Hi all!

I'm still in the process of bumping Lexi up from 3rd-level to 12th-level, but I figured I'd report that she's currently got both displacement and haste penciled in for known spells. Also, she's got cure moderate and cure serious wounds so she can be a secondary healer as needed.

Welcome and nice to meet you! Also, thanks for chipping in. I like her character description from the profile :)

On character building, I'm not sure what you were told beforehand but this group thusfar has not needed much if any healing. I think there were two instances across all books in which my cleric ever had to do it in combat, and out of combat her channels were always enough. It might be different now that one of our tanks/melee dps has left but I probably still wouldn't invest into that. Bharak, Vhane and Axton are all high on damage and Elena can do it too via summoning and buffing. Usually the opposition dies before they get a hit in.

One question I had is what combat style Amalexis wants to use? If it helps, Elena has a lot of overlap with the bard's buffing role, having spent a lot of resources into getting inspire courage and she provides constant morale bonusses via Flagbearer and sometimes Good Hope.

@Vhane thanks, but what should we get? And how much money does vhane want to invest in a wand?

We have enough to buy one with third level spells. Sidenote is that Axton will have to be using it as Elena, as a level 1 bard, only has a 75% chance of success when trying to cast haste (bard 7). It will be a level or 2 before i have enough ranks in UMD to bypass it.

Some spells i can think of that might be useful:

3rd: displacememt, haste, jester's jaunt (teleport bharal and vhane into full attack positions or save grappled allies).

4th: freedom of movement, blessing of fervor, death ward maybe.

@GM Thanks for the info. We had a 10% discount when buying things in Magnimar too, right? From book 1, the market princess' gratitude for finding her father's remains I believe. That would lower the price of a fully charged spell level 3 wand to 10125, which would leave us with 375g leftover. This assumes the wand with spell level 4 can be sold for half price of 21000; 10500.

I'm curious to see who the replacement player would be.

I'm sorry to hear that too, Robert. We've only been in two campaigns I believe but you always were a solid poster as far as I can tell. And with 45k posts that is a pretty legendary career/portfolio to have achieved. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors and you will surely be missed!

Well, that's a really nice chunk of cash! I dont think a wand of cure critical wounds will see much use in this party, though. Is there anything the group would have wwnted me to get while in this city? One option perhaps is to sell that and instead buy a fully charged wand of haste or fly.

"Right. Let's politely ask them if they've seen any wayward demon worshippers as they make their way out to Pharasma." The cleric readied her spear and flag to direct the assault in so much as it was needed. "Bharak and Elathras are very strong, Koriah. Perhaps you can let them take the front and back them up to engage from the flanks where needed?"

I am assuming we know her combat style from her gear and discussion on hpw she likes to fight. If she is a bow archer Elena was instead referring to just shooting injured targets near them.

Ooc, I'm curious to see what happens if she accompanies us rather than immediately disappears from the story by escorting her father out. She offered to stay if her father was safe, so why not? She is apparently a level 12 ranger too.

Ic, Elena feels sorry for her and wants to see/help her regain her confidence. Also she is a female pathfinder and the group has been a saucage fest since Uma left :')

That said it is mostly for my curiosity. If she is outvoted and we rather have her away from us then she would accept that.

"Hm... I might have a way to get her father to safety quickly, which would allow Koriah to stay with us. I could teleport myself and him to Magnimar, then buy a second teleport back here. There is a small chance my way back might be off-target; but if that happens I can compensate with another teleport of mine when it happens." Elena ponders as the group confers on how to proceed past the gathering of the revealed emergency supplies. "Still, so long as we don't open the door downstaris and are set on resting the rest of the day anyway that seems fairly safe."

With Koriah still seeing a bit shaken. Elena does her best to cheer the other woman up. "It's okay; it happens. Yes, going alone was risky and it doesn't always work out. But your father needed your help and you almost got to him alone. That makes you a hero in my mind. Besides, that is why we're pathfinders, no? We have eachothers backs if things go south."

Assuming Elena can prepare her 6th level spellslots the day she gets them, she can teleport Koriah's father out with Word of Recall to the Temple of Shelyn in Magnimar before the group rests. Then she can rest and buy a spellcasting service for Teleport back. If that fails, she can prepare another word of recall and teleport herself back to The Abby after the group finishes resting. The latter assumes she can depict the hall of clerics of all the major gods here as a sanctuary target to teleport back to. If the group is okay with this I'll go ahead and teleport the father and myself out pre-rest, buy whatever the group wants me to back in Magnimar if anything, rest and purchase a teleport back. I could also hand in the splinter for that Claistrean priestess' whip while I am there.

"We might already have the combination, though. If one of my interpretations was correct, the Poem we found earlier in the book on the Abbot's desk describes how to use the key."

She glances up from the notes in her chronicle. "That would mean inserting the key, then turning it left twice, right thrice, left once, right twice, left twice and finally right thrice. " Assuming the sun rises in the east on Golarion and moves west.

"of course, we might take extra time searching just in case we missed something earlier. It might be advisable to do it while we rest, since the moment we breach it, the enemies downstairs might know they are no longer safe. And I could use some rest recovering my magic."

When Elathras asks Koriah and her father what they wished to do, she adds: "You are welcome to join us and we would welcome any aid. However, the enemy *is* likely to be fairly powerful. Please be cautious and only follow us if you know you are good in a fight and can handle giants, mummies and the like. I know Koriah can probably take care of herself since she got here alone, but what about you?" She asks the Desnan cleric.

This might be a good time to take a rest, assuming we cleared out the entire floor here. And we can then use the rest of the day to more thoroughly search each of the rooms since we rushed through it thusfar.

For the sake of simplicity, if we agree on searching the rooms more thoroughly, Elena will take 10 in each room which with guidance which gives a 35 perception result on finding stuff.

Saddened by the confirmation that the masked abbott was in fact dead, she mutters a prayer for his soul.

Similarly to Axton, Elena asks a series of follow-up questions:

-Does he know anything at all of the temple lay-out below the basement? There are no rumors, documents or sayings among the Groetus worshippers?

-Who of the five remaining fulltime clerics here are now unaccounted for? (Assuming one of the five was the masked abbot, two of them are traitors and he is the Desnan cleric in front of us, who is left?)

-What can he tell us about Zolerim and this missing fifth cleric?

-Are there any religious customs or rites to this place Elena should be aware of as a cleric?

Elena hesitantly approaches Bharak during his cussing session and gently lays a hand on his shoulder. "Take a deep breath, dear friend. You've faced worse. If you reach out to him in this holy place, Torag might assist his kin."

Guidance, which makes his first attempt succeed.

"That's assuming he's still there and that there isn't some monster holding him hostage. The rest of the church has been taken over by them... why would they not take the tower?" Elena says. "I would take a cautious approach where possible and see if we can sneak inside as we've done thusfar. But if the group at large wishes to throw that caution to the winds, I'll support you as well as I can."

With nothing useful coming out of Khorah and her mental and physical state appearing sound enough, Elena nods. "All right. Bharak, can you try picking the lock at the tower door outside? We should check on her father if he is still there. If not, we might have to force it open. Or teleport through if Axton is able to."

This wasn't the super evil lock with the aura of dread, right?

Koriah Azmeren's eyes dart around the room in shock and confusion, they narrow as she see's the party. "What? What is happening?" She calms down when she recognizes Elena & Axton, taking several shuddering breathes.

Noting the other Pathfinder's distress, Elena does her best to calm her down and raises her hands in placation. "Easy. It's all right; you're safe now. Do you need a bit of time to get your bearings?" She offers, rather than going straight into an interrogation. "It's good to see you again, Koriah. Do you remember me? I am Elena. We met a few months ago in the Magnimar lounge. It's very impressive that you managed to get this far by yourself." She smiles warmly through her veil. "If you're injured, please allow me to see to your wounds. Afterwards, are you feeling up to joining up with us as we search for your father and the other missing clerics?"

1d8: 1d8 ⇒ 8 :O First time above average in 9 levels!

+1 bab, +1d6 channel, +2 6th level spellslots (mislead (D) and heal).

+1 wisdom.

FCB: +0.5 use of bit of luck per day. (10.5).

Skill points: I'll do this later, want to check the total ranks first.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

"Boys," Elena says, arms in the side and looking at the others disapprovingly the same way an admonishing mother regarded a group of unruly children. "There is a fellow Pathfinder petrified in front of us. Surely we are not considering heading back down now and leaving her to her fate? Especially when this 'moisturiser' is actially Stone Salve which can change her right back?"

Not waiting for an answer to that, she takes the ointment and approaches the statue of the half-elf. "I know there's a chance she won't survive changing back, but I'll try to give her the best chance I can. Shelyn, guide my hands..."

I'll start a performance as I apply the salve. If the half-elf fails the saving throw I'll dismiss performance to grant her a reroll. If she fails twice that's obviously the GM's bad luck coming to bite us for once then I'll cast Breath of Life on her right after she dies, assuming that works.

"If only I had some sort of illusion prepared to cast over her eyes."

"That's... brilliant! Way to go, Axton!" Elena says, taking out the shard of pride. She concentrates and casts Major Image around the medusa, upon which an illosionary blindfold materialises around its eyes. The priestess' full attention is on making absolutely sure the illusion moves with the snake-woman until she dies.

TBH I have no idea if that actually works to shield the party from the gaze attack but it sounds very flavorful.

willsave 18: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (11) + 19 = 30

Not confused. I will wait with Elena's other actions until I know the results of the confusion and petrify. There's a good chance she has to dismiss her performance to grant someone a save reroll which means she has reactivate it. If someone fails either, feel free to claim the saving throw reroll. Elena only has one available this round, though.

Also, @Vhane you can assume she either has performance still active or that she will reactivate it before firing. You should have the +5 hit/damage and +1d6 sonic damage from her buffs on attacks when you shoot.

Oh, I forgot to mention: if Elena suddenly has to roll against an effect that is likely to cause petrification (she probably would know from her knowledge if she sees it coming?) she will also use her lucky horseshoe daily ability to add a +3 bonus to that save.

Okay, thanks.

You asked for any ongoing effects; Elena currently doesn't have them other than the performance. She can, however, dismiss the performance to grant one person in range a saving throw reroll and she has her daily luck domain ability to reroll a d20 once per day as a free action. She will hold into both for when we face whatever might have/likely caused the petrification.

Elena peers intently at the statue as the fighting begins, her eyes widening in alarm as she finally puts it together. "Axton! We met that woman when we first met Sheila. Something here probably turned her into a statue! Be careful, everyone!"

"But what, though? The pool? An unknown enemy? Is the redcap or giant a practioner of magic...?"

Unsure what to do or how to best protect the party from also becoming statues, Elena begins her song, hoping Shelyn's protection would find those who needed it most.

Standard: Start inspire courage. This also opens up Saving Finale in case someone fails a critical saving throw.

If less than a minute has passed since fighting the Vrocks, the Ant summons also move south in preparation for following the frontline into the room. I'd like to think Elena stuck close to the frontline and moved with them behind the tanks as usual.

Gm, what does it mean that Elena and Axton recognize this statue? It it a religious figure or diety? Is it someone they actually know from the area/our travels? As if it is a statue of an acquiantance, i think Elena is smart enough to suspect there might be an unknown source of petrification nearby.

Gm, should i roll the confirm rolls for those 2 nat 20's you rolled against yourself of the ants' AoO's?

Can't fail the knowledge check.

"Vrocks. Demons. Cover your ears and use good-aligned weapons if you have them. I'd tell you more but they'll probably die too quickly."

The veiled cleric steps forward and points towards the two large demons in their very cramped room. She'd wonder what were they even doing in there but had long since stopped asking herself those sorts of questions.

"Leave these sacred halls and crawl back to the abyss that spawned you!" She shouts, and four celestial giants ants enter from Nirvana who waste no time in tearing into the demons!

Standard: cast summon monster V (giant ants, one of the few celetial animals not Large but medium in size), move: start performance. With sacred summons as a feat, they attack right away. I'll summon the ants in an L shape in the room as there is barely any room to move in and I don't think they'll survive one round. The ants all smite the demons so they ignore their DR.

Summon monster V, give up Break Enchantment: 1d3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

attacks, ant 1, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, bite: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25
attacks, ant 1, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, sting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20
damage, above buffs +discordant voice: 1d6 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (1) + (1) + 13 = 15
damage, above buffs +discordant voice, sting: 1d4 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (4) + (5) + 13 = 22
if bite hits, Grab vs FF CMD: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (3) + 18 = 21

attacks, ant 2, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, bite: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34
attacks, ant 2, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, sting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18
damage, above buffs +discordant voice: 1d6 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (2) + (1) + 13 = 16
damage, above buffs +discordant voice, sting: 1d4 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (3) + (6) + 13 = 22
if bite hits, Grab vs FF CMD: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (8) + 18 = 26

attacks, ant 2, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, bite crit confirm: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29
damage, above buffs +discordant voice, extra crit damage: 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16

attacks, ant 3, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, bite: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16
attacks, ant 3, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, sting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18
damage, above buffs +discordant voice: 1d6 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (6) + (6) + 13 = 25
damage, above buffs +discordant voice, sting: 1d4 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (3) + (5) + 13 = 21
if bite hits, Grab vs FF CMD: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 38

Ant 4 is most southern and attacks Yellow instead of Red.

attacks, ant 4, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, bite: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33
attacks, ant 4, smite +2, IC+3, flagbearer +2, sting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24
damage, above buffs +discordant voice: 1d6 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (5) + (3) + 13 = 21
damage, above buffs +discordant voice, sting: 1d4 + 1d6 + 13 ⇒ (4) + (3) + 13 = 20
if bite hits, Grab vs FF CMD: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (2) + 18 = 20

"I'll quickly detect the room for any traces of magic. If nothing turns up, we should go."

I'll detect magic the room in cones, is there anything turning up other than us?

"I wonder if any sort of worship was performed in this room, or if it was a hall for meetings only..."

Religion? Am I supposed to offer respectful greeting/prayers to these symbols in the hall?: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32

The scaping sound pulls her from her musings and the petite cleric goes a bit white in the face over seeing Vhane essentially vandalizing the place - and Calistria's chair no less. "A-Ah. I, uh, was hoping we could just find the splinter without damaging an arguably holy site to a goddess of vengeance. But okay, I will keep it as safe as I can." She promises once it has handed to her, upon which she wraps it in a cloth and places it her Handy haversack.

"Please don't harm us, lady of wasps. He only did it at the request of your high priestess. Surely she intends to use it to spread your worship outside of these ruined halls."

"Well... we know the remaining five clergy were not worshippers of Mestama. If this poem is scribbled down, was it done by the attackers perhaps? If so, why? If it was, that might reinforce the idea that these are somehow instructions on how to get further in."

The veiled priestess shrugs. "Hopefully we will find more answers soon."

"Perhaps, operating some machine, but before you said that, I had in mind some sort of maze. At any rate, the creatures and people listed in this poem are all known worshippers of the demon lord Mestama, who seems very much in line with this place's new motif.

"That would work too, so long as the maze has no option to head forward in any sense." Elena thinks. "Hm... Mestama? Do you think all these attackers are followers of him? It is a very unusual collection of enemies, ranging from Ettins to mummies and undead bugbears, but none of those creatures as of yet. I think that something about this doesn't fit, but I can't think of an explanation based on the limited information we have."

Unsure what else to do here, she regards the unused door. "Only one way to change that. Shall we keep exploring?"

Elena listens intently, then ponders the poem for potential meaning. "I'm... not sure. If I had to guess... instructions for opening or operating something? There are only two directions - left and right-, along with a set number in each of the lines. Maybe if you follow the directions when using something, that might help. As to what, I don't know. Since there are only variants of left and right, it might refer to the movements of a key or clock. Maybe once we have one of the missing Keys or run into a puzzle of sorts where movement is needed, it will make more sense? I don't know what the iconography means, but if the poem wasn't important, it probably wouldn't have been scribbled down on his own table."

religion: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17

When the group continues searching, she lingers near the obvious desk of the Abbot and gently lays her hand on the woodwork. "I pray for your safety. Please, hang on."

I think the books here can aid on this knowledge check? But with a natural 1, Elena isn't making that.

@Bharak you were prebuffed with Bit of Luck, you can roll your attack rolls twice and take higher!

Hm, good to hear that. I've played the original BG games with a lot of QoL and content mods back in the day. Was probably the first D&D like game I ever played as a kid back in High School as well. Good memories, I remember playing a Kensai Mage with the flail of ages. Nothing really stopped that :)

Maybe I'll give the rerelease and that new expansion a try. That said, I've read a lot about how supposedly 'man-hating' the new characters and NPC's in Siege of Dragonspear are, is that true? As honestly I really do not want to waste any money or time on a game that would try to shame me for being male or such.

With this spicy combination of elemental damage on each hit, I'm starting to envision Bharak as wielding a lightsaber flail. :)

Maintaining her performance as another presumed enemy was inbound, Elena walks over to Bharak - ignoring the stench of the sizzling undead corpse - and blesses him with luck for the coming fight! BoL use left: 6/11.

My first round was to move up the strairs and then start performing for the martials before they attacked. This prep round will be spent moving adjacent to Bharak and giving him Bit of Luck, so that he has advantage on all d20 rolls for two turns. Elena will maintain her performance, expecting another fight.

May I ask what direction the locked stairs at A10 are going to? Up or down?

"Okay. So we have the locked doors in the courtyard, the other foreboding locked door and going up th stairs to search the second floor." Elena summarizes. "I'd say we head up to the second floor now at A16 . If we unlock the central door, whatever is inside might be alerted to our prescence and that something here went wrong for them. I'd suggest we try and conceal our presence to the rest of the enemies while we can, then fight them when we are at full strength."

"I suppose that, if we can open it safely, we might as well glance inside while we are here."

I'm not entirely sure on which floor this trap door is but assuming it leads down, we can always check i guess?

"I just hope there is someone left to return it to - and if so, that they're still willing to stay in the abbey after this assault," Elena says after her summons vanish, her mood growing more somber with their departure. "Okay... not much left to search on this floor. Let's do the south tower and then decide the next action."