Father Sidious's page

This is a well run game, and the work Aku puts into it is very obvious. but…

The fact is that I was very hesitant to join an evil game which I expressed to DM Aku before joining. I do not really enjoy that aspect of the game and now that Aku is pushing for more descriptive posting (which in other settings I would welcome and applaud) I am finding that I do not enjoy or look forward to the game. I had a long post written up for the desecration of the Knight's temple but was concerned about posting it from my work computer - it was that graphic. Then I thought "What am I doing? This is not who I am." I want my gaming time to be spent playing heroes and doing heroic things. And I want to work in a team of people who help and encourage each other.

I do not see myself becoming less busy in the next year. In fact I was asked to increase the over time I work yesterday to 8 more hours per week and I am already working overtime. I am in a number of games (both table top and PBP) and find myself over-committed in life in general. Combine that with the fact that Aku and I seem to clash and I think the best thing for me to do is to bow out and let someone who will enjoy this game more, and have more time to give the game join you.

I would greatly enjoy playing with each of you in another game in the future. Good gaming.

She will not like what I have in mind. Sidious says but reveals no more at this time.

No point in draggin this. Gz, that was a well-played ambush.

Without showing a hint of mercy. Our band of villains slaughter each member of the wanna be adventures, except for the Priestess. Her fate is another.

In their bodies, this is what is to be found:
** spoiler omitted **

If any of the villains wanna claim their spoil of war with the priestess, I will not be against, however, be careful how you phrase it, due to Forum rules.

Also, I need everyone Weeks action. Sidious from his organization, Agrippa, Eldred from his Hirees, Johan from the boggards.

Ahhh. I thought that was a great lead into the Terrible Remorse spell.... :) Dwarf would have likely made his save. I was assuming he has the standard +2 against magic that most dwarves have.

When the two of you are through with her, I could use her for a little ceremony I have in mind in a certain knight's temple. Sidious says.

Round 3

Casts Terrible Remorse - DC 17 Will Save. If he fails he uses his action to attack himself dealing 1d8+ strength mod points of damage to himself every round for 7 rounds or until he makes the save. When he makes the save he is staggered for 1 round and takes +2 to AC.

Round 2 AOO

Sidious, ready for the man's approach, stabs at him before he can get past the spears reach.

+1 longspear: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 1 = 281d8 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

If James is still up he needs to roll to see if he has hit Sidious or his image. Sidious's current AC, With active spells is 24 vs good opponents.

Round

His spear at the ready Sidious moves forward 20 and targets the fighter not held in the tentacles with Hold Person.

Will save DC 15

Congrats AGrippa! Happy for you

I am at a work thing this weekend and we barely have cell signal. Working til 9:00 tonight and no down time. Might not have reliable internet til Sunday late.

Agrippa, I actually like how you did the rolls, but the spell specifies that you only roll once for the entire spell effect each round. I am good either way of course, but thought you might want to know.

Sidious' round 1 action is a little dependent of the results of the spells cast and saves and what his teammates do in their surprise round. Assuming that not all of them are held in the tentacles and that some of his team advances in the surprise round Sidous will advance a move and cast Hold Person (DC15 Will save) on a non-caster. If the non-casters are all grabbed he will double move.

Surprise Round

Medium Range and my allies are scattered so;

Sidious casts Unholy Blight to strike the group of enemies.

Unholy Blight: 3d8 ⇒ (6, 6, 1) = 13

Rounds Sickened: 1d4 ⇒ 3

20' Radius spread to catch them all. DC 17 Will save to halve the damage and a avoid the sickened condition.

Sigh. It really seems that every time I post to close some late action I get one or two more actions to clear up. Seems like I am at work. :)

So, the fast zombie was fine? I am happy to go with the regular skeletons for now. Later, if the material components are available I'll be pleased to animate more advanced undead from those Boggards and Hound archon skeletons. That Hound archon skeleton has particular appeal.

Casting of Animate Dead - 14 hd per casting

Casting 1: Animates the 6hd Minotaur as a Fast Zombie and 8 Burning skeletons.

Casting 2: Animates 14 bloody skeletons

I think set the burning skeletons go guard the forge room or some other place where their fire will not be a problem. The other skeletons and the Minotaur could go anywhere but I am thinking that having them guard the way to the second level makes good sense. Thoughts?

OK - Here are some responses that I am late on:

1) Glyphs of Blindness will guard the two higher entrances. I do not true the Frog Men to not randomly set of our glyphs.

2) False information I am trying:
Week 1: No need for the people of Farhold to do anything about any goings on in the Briarwood. The king is sending in a force to deal with it soon enough.
Week 2: The Baron has an iron grip on the happenings in the Briar and will take care of any problems there.

3) Week 3 - The Frame up: Some priest of Mitra in Farhold has been sKimming the tithes for illicit/sinful purposes. The goal would be to encourage locals not to give as much to the church and to begin to distance the people from the church of Mitra.

4) Cohort: While Inquisitor is tempting, we have Johan already and he is hard to beat. How about a straight martial type. LE fighter who is totally devoted to Asmodeus. I'd build a high AC shield bashing defender type.

Working on the undead now.

EarlierDo we want all of them alive, or just the priest?[/b] Sidous asks. I could use a sacrifice or two myself.

At the ambush point Sidious will cast Bless and Communal Protection from Good on the group. He will cast Shield of Faith, Nondetetion, and Copycat (1 mirror Image) on himself. He will be ready to cast Terrible Remorse (if close enough), Unholy blight (if the enemy is very close together) on the enemy group, or Prayer on his group (if the enemy is spread out and too far away.)

Father Sidious wrote:

DM AKu, your posted the information about the 3 gems above. Does that mean that we know about the gem's power and can or even have seated the gems into the statue? It makes a difference for creating undead among other things. Thanks.

You must set then on the statue before you start the ritual, that's when you discover they are more than simply gems. Then it's only a matter of spellcraft to identify what it does (One of the reason I put it there already is because in the end, Agrippa wouldn't rest until he knew what they did.)

However, as stated before, none tried to identify it, because they looked nothing more than magic gemstones that did nothing! (You would need that 3rd level spell to know what they did.)

Again, the process of undead making happened before you guys started the ritual, so the bonus on creation does not applies, but the other bonus from desecrate and atk still applies.

That makes total sense. I was not sure about how we knew what they did when you posted the information about the three. I'll work up my undead created before the ritual. How many days passed before we began the ritual? An entire week?

And I am good with the two glyphs; could not recall how much material component we had purchased Might want to get more later. Seems like good bang for the buck. Guarding the entryways makes best sense to me too, but I might not put one on the lower level where the frogmen are. They may be likely to set the glyph off accidentally. If the enemy has a cleric, simple damage seems almost moot. A couple of channels would heal up any damage the spell does (its only 3d8, save for half. ). What is everyone's thoughts on spells other than a blast? Can do Bestow Curse, Blindness, or a Summon Monster III )Fiendish Crock.)

And finally, was Sidious able to desecrate the consecration at her knight's shrine?

Thanks. I guess we do not know the DCs before we try an action.

Espionage 1: False Info: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Espionage 2: False Info: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Espionage 3: Frame someone of importance to the enemy cause: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

DM AKu, your posted the information about the 3 gems above. Does that mean that we know about the gem's power and can or even have seated the gems into the statue? It makes a difference for creating undead among other things. Thanks.

Sidious' first order of business is to remove the consecrated area in the temple. He will invite the others to watch/participate with his ritual of desecration. Once the taint is removed he will dedicate the place to his master and begin his church in unrest.

He will then begin to create his undead, raising first some advanced skeletons and then the Minotaur as an advanced zombie.

Once a good number of undead are raised up (Hopefully bolstered by the third eye) he will memorize and cast Make Whole to repair the Golem's eye. The cleric also lends a hand in the cleaning up and construction any new fortifications by casting Stone Shape and Summon Monster III (Earth Elementals). Are there any entrances we should try to close off completely? Finally he casts a number of Glyphs of Warding at critical places (need help identifying places). Some do sonic damage and act as an alarm while others curse the intruders (50% chance to loose an action).

Sidious would like to complete the summoning ritual for the Nightmare if it is not instrumental in someone else's plan.

I could have Abraxas to out and check on the progress of this adventuring party that is headed our way. Shall we allow them to enter, or deal with them outside the horn?

@All

Please RP for a bit while I prepare the next part.

@Sidious.

Yep, I know, Life is hard. I'm not diminishing your troubles, but we all see that the others, Johan and Eldred, while real busy try to keep a minimum posting rate, since it was what we agreed in the game.

With that said, take your time and don’t worry. Get your things together and once you are ready, we will be here. However, the longer you take, harder it gets to get up to date in the game.

The way I see it, what you need to do is simple:
1º: Do you want to create an organization? Read it HERE if the answer is yes.

Bellow, only if the organization was created:
2º: You have 3 organization actions, which can be used to perform These actions, or any other else you think about.

3º: Decide if you want a monstrous cohort or a NPC, and I’ll create/integrate it into the game.

And that’s it.
It’s kinda simple what you need to do, you are just bogged down with a lot of things and thinking it’s hard, because the task feels hard, but it’s easy when you start putting things together.

This helps a lot. I had read about the orgs but not in a while. A couple questions - Do we get three actions/week, or does this represent 3 weeks? ( I am thinking the latter). And have we formed a council or not? Does forming the council limit total actions? i.e. if my org gets three and Agripa's org gets three, would the combined org get 6? and I think I have points to assign my org, right? Thinking about putting them all into espionage and work to spread disinformation and frame good people.

Lets go with that - Two actions for disinformation and one for frame someone in town. And Sidious wants an NPC cohort - maybe a religious fanatic. I am happy to let you decide who shows up.

Thanks for both the help and patience. Almost there.

Edit: I can't find where you discussed the alternative to Leadership - Was it called Fiendish Leadership? Do you mind linking that reference for me?

I just need some time. I am already spending 4 times as much time on this game as any others but I am not caught up. I had a con, and a family trip and am behind on everything. I am working 11 hour days at work. Taxes are looming. The house is a wreck. Both my kids are having some personal problems. My back is out which is causing bad sleep and pain and prevents exercise. I am running a home game that takes a lot of time (all evening yesterday to prep and all evening today to run). And on top of all that my dog just up and died. She was only 12 and as a small dog that is pretty young. It all adds up to a lot of stress.

Right now I see this game as an obligation only. No fun. No enjoyment. I am holding you guys back but that is not likely going to change. My choices are to take the time to understand all the options and make good decisions, or to make quick, ill informed decisions and feel bad about not doing a good job.

I still do not have a good handle on Leadership vs. fiendish leadership and how the house rules impact this. Do I get a cohort? If so do I find it? What about this Evil org? Do I have to understand its rules> Am i expected to run it? How do I possibly know what actions my minions need to take? What is important now? What will be later? I am simply lost.

So sorry to hear Aku. I will do my best to use the time to catch up.

I am back and trying to get caught up on work and my games. Worked 10 hours today plus did some taxes plus scouts. I think I will have to wait til tomorrow to update this as I have to go back and make sure understand the rules for both Fiendish Leadership and for the organization.

Agrippa, I was always good with a combined org. Do you have recommendations for my actions? At this points I do not know the options. And we we also get actions each? Sidious has some spells to cast and temples to desecrate.

Level 7

Hit Points: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9 One of these is favored class bonus

BAB+1

Saves do not change

Add 1 second level spell and 4th level spells, one is a domain spell

Feat: Fiendish Leadership But I need to review this to make sure I want it over regular Leadership.

4 skill points:
3 into diplomacy since Sidious seems to be the face
1 into Perception

So, I have skied three days and today is the first day I am not totally exhausted. I think I am suffering from weekend warrior syndrome and and altitude sickness. And since today is better I am updating Sidious now. And I am taking leadership. It might be the first of next week before I have my "church" defined though.

Thanks for being patient with me. That con back to back with the ski trip has put me behind.

Sorry, I am in Breckenridge Colorado for a quick ski trip. I hope to have time to post some, but that did not happen this first travel day. Totally exhausted and have to get up early. I'll be home Sunday.

I am back from my con but headed on a family vacation. I should be able to post in the evenings though.

Sidious calls the knot to him for healing and channels the power of his deity. He excludes any prisoners they want to keep alive but makes sure any other good creature is included.

Channel Evil 3 times: 9d4 ⇒ (3, 1, 1, 4, 3, 2, 2, 4, 4) = 24

@Knot

Any of you has any means to detect invisible enemies? If not, I'll end the combat.

Sides can summon a fiendish dire bat with Blindsense. It lasts for 6 rounds and cannot pinpoint but can determine the square the creature is in.

Edit - I see Agrippa had the same idea.

@All

I wasn't able to find anything on Sidious Sheet which allowed him to use copycat as swift, and I've given some time for him to answer, but since he is in a com, he may not had time to check it.

I'll assume the following:
Instead of moving, he used copycat.

That would be correct. Not something I use a lot. It is a move.

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

Ignoring the dog-man for now, Sidious casts Cure Serious Wounds and allows the invisible Abraxas to deliver the spell. As a swift action he uses his copy-cat ability, creating a double of himself and he moves 50' to the West.

Wow. This blew up last night. :)

I am glad to see the rules discussion. I have learned a long time ago that the rules are complex enough, with enough changes over years of multiple systems, and with both official and unofficial errata, and RAW vs RAI that no one can know all the rules perfectly.

In this case I agree with the consensus that Adamantine does not bypass DR other that that which is stated for the material It is not magic. It is a bonus that Aku even allows blanched weapons to act as Masterwork. I would not even give them that like I would for true Adamantine arrows.

Now let me catch up on the game play post.

I am still not exactly sure I have moved up enough. Each round he cast and moved. Seems like I only moved him twice, but I have now lost track. :/

Round 3

I think the 20' movement was a throwback to 3.5 where the max movement was 30 or your move speed, whichever is lower. Now its 30 to up to Max double movement, which ever is less. So 30 for Sidious.

Sidious continues with his plan, casting his spell and moving up a total of 50'.

Seeing the strange singing half snake woman he wonders about what she might be.

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Confused about the bow range issue. A ranged weapon can fire 5X its range increment, taking -2 per range increment. So the shot can miss, but there is no problem firing 500 feet with a longbow, right?

At the risk of being repetitive…

Surprise round: Sidious casts Communal Protection from good and 5' steps forward.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

Round 1: Sidious blesses the party and moves 20' forward (40 if he is already hasted here)

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

Round 2: Sidious casts Shield of Faith on himself and moves forward 40

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Agrippa casts Haste, getting Eldred and Grumble Sorry, the others weren't within 30' of each other. Unless the GM rules I do it BEFORE Johan charges, then I get Johan..Sidious is too far away from the clump of people.

** spoiler omitted **

Note that I did not place Sidous on the map and have not moved him. In order to cast his first spell he had to move and touch everyone so he should be beside everyone. Was waiting to hear the result or round 1 before moving. Edit: I agree with Johan's assessment of the order but am unsure what exactly happened from the DM in the surprise round and round 1. Has Sidious cast first two spells, moving forward as he can? Is he hasted?

Sidious casts Communal Protection from Good before the group can scatter and follows that up with Bless and Shield of Faith.

Sorry, but I do not understand. You said "He does not found anything. Only the treant, which looks at the imp direction..." Are you saying the Imp sees the Treant? Or maybe the Treant heard and tried to look for the Imp?

A crystal ball is not all that great a deal. First its price starts at 42000 and goes up, so I do not think we can afford it. Second you have to scry on a creature, not an area. So no cctv. And third, the creature gets a save AND may realize they are being scryed upon.

It is high. But once set does not expire til used. And if it saves one of us its cheap. Imagine using it once we have minions...

I am good either way though. I do not really want to heal the enemy and can already channel.

Sidious commands Abraxas to scout ahead while invisible in hopes of giving the knot some warning of any threat.

The morning they group is heading back Sidious changes his daily spell selection some and is prepared to go. There is at least some chance we will be surprised by the Treant again. He can look like a tree and hide quite well. And we may meed a foe other than the Treant we seek. Sidous warns. But I am as prepared for fighting trees as I can be.

Are we sure where the Treant is so that we can cast short duration buffs? If so, Sidious will cast Bless, Shield of Faith on himself, and Communal Protection from Good on everyone. These all will last 6 minutes.

Right. So if the DM sees that way, make me 5 or so bolts. I have always allowed a mix at my table.

Another question for the group, although it may be too late to implement without a "go back" now. I think I brought it up before but do not recall if anything was decided about it. Is it worth 500 gp for Sidous to prepare a Symbol of Healing? Did he already do that? Basically its a last ditch healing expendable that heals EVERYONE in a 60' radius 2d8+6.

Once the Knot stops, and battle is coming, Agrippa casts the following spells
Flame Arrow on Eldred's Arrows [60 minutes, +1d6 fire damage for 50 arrows]
** spoiler omitted **

I believe you can divide up the ammo type for that casting. If so, can Sidious get 5 or 6 bolts enchanted as part of your casting?

Sidious nods to Agrippa. Fire and slashing. I shall be prepared. The Baron has been most helpful to me. he adds. I shall remember him when I next speak to Thorn. He assumes that the Baron is listening in somehow… :)

@Sidious

It took some attempts to convince the manservant to actually summon the baron. It seems Johan’s actions displeased the man greatly, but in the end, after some effort, you finally were able to meet face to face with the man.

Of course the Baron isn’t alone, and he does not pretend to hide his ‘elite’ bodyguards, stationed inside the room while you talk. The message there is kite clear If you don’t behave as guests, then I have no obligation to behave as host.

”You do well with this.” the half elf says ”Buying large quantities of that items may bring, oever time, a mitran inquisitor, which is something that none of us want. Give your list to the manservant and we’ll handle it for you.”

"What can you tell me of your efforts in this fabled horn? Judging by the amount of silver and gold you returned with, it seems you found something there."

Sidious uses his best honeyed tongue for this discussion. He is formal and complementary with the Baron. Thank you for your time my Baron. It shall done as you say. I would like to bring at least the larger stone and a small handful of the small ones with me when I depart if that can be arranged. I consider them essential for the defense of the Horn. He hands over a folded note to the man indicated. I should like to once again accept your superior hospitality while I am in town. I feel so much safer under your roof than any inn.

Choosing his words carefully Sidious endeavors to enlighten the Baron without revealing too much. Yes, we have had some luck there at the Horn. We have met with much resistance. In some cases we have been able to win that resistance over to our side and in others we have and to put down potential valuable allies. There exists there a shrine consecrated to Mitra that is a poison to me. I hope to eliminate the blemish as soon as we return. And the place is large. It might be difficult to garrison and guard, but, with your assistance I am sure we shall not fail.

Hey gang!

I know that none of you need it, but here is something really cool and interesting to read! Give it some attention, I know you’ll find it interesting too!
Advanced Play-by-Post Play

A good read.

Sidious tries to meet with the Baron personally. His is polity and courtly. If he is able to get such a meeting he assures the Baron that all is going as planned but that they expect to be at the Horn for the better part of the year. He will express gratefulness in the Baron's continued support and assure the man that their mutual master will be quite pleased with him. leaving it open if Sidious is referring to Thorn or to Asmodeous.

Her will broach his need for material components (silver and diamond dust, and the large number of black onyx needed for certain spells. I fear certain people may be watching for attempted large purchase of such stones and would be in your debt if you could arrange for their purchase for me.

Wow. both of these are significantly better than normal skeletons. The additional casting requirement is not a big deal to us. Lets make some of both. Note that Sidious can make more than a total of 24 hd but the first ones he created become uncontrolled.

are there better zombies that can be created with the Animate Dead spell?

Yes, the unholy water is flowing for free now!

Re animating undead: Wouldn't you be better to create bloody skeletons? they would come back if they were killed, ultimately saving money. Ditto with the minotaur, though its a full corpse - would it make a good fast zombie? I'm not too familiar with the mechanics animate dead, but a quick read of the spell says the variants cost double to create, not to control.

I thought I recalled that about the unholy water. Cool. Sidious can only make regular skeletons and zombies with the spells he has access to. If this is not right please let me know. Create Undead is 6th level and it only does Ghouls until you are 12th level or higher.

So I guess we did hand wave the trip back?

Before leaving the for the city Sidous pays a visit to Agrippa. I may have been unwise in trying to keep one of these iron plates for myself. It occurs to me that we cannot tell which plate will control which dameon, but if one of us has both plates then he can control either or both and knowing which is which becomes less important.[/b[ He offers the second plate to the wizard. I have some skills at binding such creatures, but I doubt I will ever be as good as you can be. So I give you this and ask only that you allow me to assist you when you are summoning so that my strength can be added to yours when it will help.

Sidious uses Abraxas to scout for the group but is still surprised that the group did not encounter the Treant on the way back to the city. Once there he has little else to do but to try to fill his shopping list and asks the entire party for help. Silver and diamond dusts will draw some attention but not as much as requests for large black onyx. If you see any of this stone purchase it discretely but I think it prudent to place any orders for it through the Baron and his contacts. Thoughts?

Wearing the visage of a northern spearman he will shop for his spear, belt, ring and sickle. He will also offer to help anyone else on any of their quests. I can be somewhat persuasive, if you need that skill.