GM Ambnz's page

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

Long story short, my previous position at my former company was dissolved after a merger and I've found myself looking for a new job.

I'll have to dedicate all my time to job searching and won't be able to run any games until I figure this out, and even then I'll likely have to wait for some time afterwards to figure out what sort of free time I have available to me.

It has been a pleasure running this game with you all, thank you for being great players. I know we did not get very far, but that's just how these things go sometimes.

If you would like to take over the game (or if you know someone who may be interested in taking over as GM) you are more than welcome to.

Thank you all again, and I hope to be able to game with you all again sometime after all this blows over.

Peace,
ambnz

Also, quick rules update:

The optional poison harvesting and trophy rules in Ultimate Wilderness are available for use now that I have the book if anyone would like to utilize them.

For those that don't have the book (I believe that some of it is already on d20pfsrd) the general guidelines are as follows:

For Harvesting Poisons:

Survival check to retrieve the poison from a dead creature- DC 15+CR,
Failure causes all venom to be lost
Failure by 5 or more exposes you to 1d3 doses of the poison automatically unless you have the Poison Use feature.
On a success you get 1 dose of poison, plus an additional dose for every 5 by which you beat the check.
The poison only lasts 24 hours unless it is preserved and treated with a Craft (Alchemy) check at the same DC to craft the poison normally, but without having to spend any gold.

For Trophies:

Step One: Identify potential trophies with Knowledge check appropriate to creature type
Step Two: Harvest parts with either Survival (for external components) or Heal (for organs or other internal features)
Step Three: Craft the actual trophy with Craft: Alchemy, Jewelry, Leather, or Taxidermy, depending on the type of trophy desired.

Trophies can be sold and have value dependent on the CR of the creature in question, and some trophies from rarer creatures can be used in the creation of magical items to reduce the total cost of the item (the amount varies due to a number of factors).

Again, the rules above are optional but they seemed simple enough and I figured the party may wish to take advantage of having an alchemist in the group.

With the androids of the party impartial to the decision, Logan and Toyama clearly sound their opinion that they should avoid conflict with the Old Man and the Skeletons whilst DarkDealer is mumbles a nonanswer.

With that, the Old Man, having no more wisdom to give, simply waves at the graveyard gate.

Erin, for her part, after carefully listening to the exchange and remaining silent simply leaves without a word, heading back towards town with her gear. Perhaps the new information affected her and she needs to process it alone or perhaps she's received a message of some other emergency or need. Either way, she simply nods and leaves.

The rest of you are now free to continue as you wish. You still have the general location of the giant cobra, or you can resume travel to the mysterious maps location and continue ARODEN's goose chase.

What would you like to do?

Hey everyone, just wanted to stay thanks for staying with this game! It's gone much differently than I expected it too so far, but I hope you're all having fun with it despite it being my first time running a PBP.

That said, with the holidays fast approaching my ability to post may be even more limited than usual do to travel. I will do my best to still have at least one post a week, and in the even that I suspect I can't I will let you all know. I really appreciate your patience.

That said, let's move on from this dreary graveyard then, at least for now!

The Old Man shrugs and waves to the remaining skeletons to follow. The head towards the graveyard entrance, but stop suddenly at the gate. The skeletons try to go through, but it looks as if there is some sort of barrier.

"Hee, it wasn't a bad idea. In answer to your earlier query, yes we do feel pain and yes it'd hurt if you killed us.

Now. If you want to fight us, and earn that loot, I don't blame you. You'll likely need all the help you can get to beat the damn bully. But none of us are going to roll over and let you t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-take it either.

The creature's voice glitches during his final words, and the repeated opening and closing of the undead's mouth is unsettling.

Not a problem, you'll be welcome back whenever you can make it!

The Old Man shrugs.

"Don't make much of a difference to me. I'd decide soon if I were you though, Aroden might be, hee, working on a hotfix. He doesn't like when any of us give spoilers so we may find ourselves with some company in this graveyard in a bit. And if he calculates a new challenge with me as an 'ally' to you then it might be more than any of you could handle."

"Hee, Hee, Hee. I know not what your "quest requirements" are dear boy. But I imagine Aroden rather likes killing me over and over again..."

Pausing, he raises his fists at the sky

"YOU AREN'T GOING TO BREAK ME, YOU CRAZY BASTARDD!!!!!

Clearing his throat he continues.

"I guess it depends on the language of the quest given tho

He scratches his beard and thumbs through the large tome in his left hand absent-mindedly.

An interesting name for an interesting Shapeshifter, then. Well met. Well, do any of you have any more questions?

The withered figure strokes its facial hair thoughtfully once more before answering.

"Hmph. So you are seekers of Aroden then. Pity, you seem like such nice folks. Still, I will answer as I can. I don't know what you mean by going "rogue", Aroden simply wasn't one moment and then was the next. Nothing like it has ever existed before in these realms of ours. It's very...jealous though. Possessive even. It wants to protect and love everyone here, and it wants everyone to have fun and enjoy their time here. But it has a twisted concept of "love" and "fun". Like a psychopathic child's mind with a god complex. You'll have to kill it's avatar if you wish to leave. It won't end it, but it'll give you a key to leave. As for where it is, I don't know, but in it's hubris I wouldn't be surprised if it left a map to lead straight to it.

My turn!!!! Answer me, why does that bat's shadow have fangs?"

The zombie creature nods and strokes the long white hairs on its chin thoughtfully. It eyes DarkDealers bat-form and furrows its eyebrows briefly before turning back to Rafe.

"CHARMED! They call me Old Man. I do miss that vampire form, it was alot springier than I'm used to. Anyway, you're turn! NEXT QUESTION!!!

With a sharp eye, Rafe examines the strange looking being. Being in the simulation for some time, your android mind has collected a rather large database of the diverse AI program behavior of this realm. But this creature doesn't seem to match any known script. That doesn't mean it can't be a unique exception, but still you have a roughly 97% certainty that this being's intelligence is not part of the game.

It answers you back, one clawed hand raising a dusty, rotten tome of some sort in response to you getting closer with a dagger. It's eyebrows raise and it's strange, lifeless eyes light up when you mention the word "question"

Questions? HEHEHE. You're a smarter lot than the last dozen groups or so. We can chat as long as you like, long as you don't go blowing up any of the poor minions. As for me, I'm neither and a bit of both. Well, I'm part of the game, but I'm not Aroden's stooge. I don't think I was a player, but the old noggin doesn't work like it used to. Can't even remember m'own name, or even if I had one, HEH! But Aroden keeps on recycling me in this DAMNABLE graveyard, with a contingency program to fight back against anyone who attacks.

MY TURN MY TURN!! You get a question, then I get a question! What, exactly, are YOUR names?

With lightning reflexes, Toyama leaps off the back of her mount gracefully, landing safely on the ground adjacent to the sudden pit trap. Isamu gives a loud winny as he takes

Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5

points of damage.

A loud, breathy cackle erupts from the nearby crypt-

"ahAHAhAHaHAaaahA cough* cough* COUGH* cough*"

The crypt springs open, revealing a gaunt, zombie-like figure with yellowish rotting skin and a long wispy beard attached to his chin. He continues in a wheezy, creaking voice-

"Heh, classic!! Now who the *cough cough* are you and why aren't you attacking yet? Aren't you adventurers? Did you COME TO FACE THE MIGHTY *COUGHCOUGHCOUGH*

The figure doubles over in a fit of coughing before it can continue speaking further.

The Crypt is the building on the east side of the graveyard circled in red, no need to move characters about though.

@Toyama, since you are leading the group towards the crypt, please roll a reflex save for yourself and your mount please as the ground gives way a short ways from the entrance to the crypt!

No worries, it's been doing the same for me, every time I try to get on either the website is down or I got kicked back to login. This morning it's working though for whatever reason.

If you do decide to head towards the crypt, please detail who, if any of you, are going and what marching order you have.

This time there is no pause, and the finger draws the following words rather hastily, apparently wanting to make sure you don't jump to conclusions:

"YES-AND-NO. VERY POWERFUL. HE IS THE BOSS."

Another pause, and this message takes some time before being spelled out, with many mistakes and errors that the skeletal being has to erase and then retry, you can tell this is difficult for him~

"DIED IN GAME-AWOKE HERE- DIFFERENT BODIES-SO MUCH PAIN-FORCED TO FIGHT-HURTS SO MUCH-DIFFERENT PLAYERS COME EACH TIME-THE OLD MAN IN THE CRYPT KNOWS MORE"

The skeleton pauses for a moment before slowly spelling out it's response in the dirt.

"YES-PLAYERS"

The skeleton gesturing tilts his head before waving at you a single time.

It then walks towards you carefully, making almost a zig-zag path through the graveyard as it steps over the many broken gravestones, its hands held up in a "Don't shoot" gesture.

It kneels down in front of you, Rafe, its finger in the dirt, apparently willing to converse with you.

After some confused whispers among yourselves, Darkdealer flies into the tree as before and dismisses the mist.

Immediately you all have view of the skeletal archers once more, this time all four of the remaining ones have congregated towards the middle of the graveyard.

The two in the back have arrows drawn and ready, but the two nearest to you all have their arms held in front, as if they were holding their companions back.

When Rafe calls out, the four figures share a few glances and gestures before the two in the back un-knock their arrows, and the skeleton nearest to you makes a nervous wave. It then gestures towards the mausoleum on the east side of the graveyard widely, pointing and flailing its arms comically.

You wait around, and, perceiving no indication that the skeletons are chasing or advancing on you, proceed to speak to Rafe.

Every now and then you hear the sound of squeaking coming from within the mists, but otherwise the skeletons don't make any attempts to leave.

You fly into the mist in bat form, intending to blast the first skeleton you see. You don't have to travel far before finding one and promptly blasting it.

You hear more creaking sounds as the skeletons apparently continue to move somewhere within the mist.

Also as a head's up, the skeletons on the map correspond to their last known location atm, with your vision blocked you have no way to know if they moved (though last round you heard some additional creaking and the sound of footsteps after the skeleton fled from Rafe, so you wouldn't be surprised if they had moved.

Rafe calls out to the group still at the graveyard's entrance, explaining the strange behavior of what was suspected to be a mindless entity. What's everyone doing? Are there any changes to anyone's actions? Darkdealer, are you going to fly into the mist?

Rafe, don't forget you go after the skeletons

DarkDealer flies inconspicuously over to the only skeleton not shrouded in mist, blasting it to smithereens with another small but fierce projectile.

The skeletons though, on their turn, show no signs of movement except for the one that Rafe just moved next to. Upon seeing the combatant move suddenly into melee range, the creature withdraws as a full round action, but not before it makes a strange creaking noise with its jaw-

"ssssccCCCREEEEEEEEK"

as it flees out of sight. Now it's back to you Rafe and hacker, what would you like to do?

Alright!

Using the thick fog to his advantage, Rafe move swiftly and carefully over the rocky and uncertain ground before settling in front of one of the skeletal archers barely obscured in the magical mist.

@BigHat, Toyama, DarkDealer, and Erin, feel free to go if you'd like. For now though it sounds like DarkDealer and Rafe are still intending to isolate and pick off the skeletons as stealthily as possible one at a time though while everyone else assumes defensive positions.

Not a problem!

You don't see or hear anything come from the fog. The only movement from the skeletons at all is when one almost lazily walks around the fog, and behind a tree.

Rafe Darr and Hacker are up.
-

So it seems like the plan is to delay for most people while the fog covers most of the skeletons? Rafe Darr, are you wanting to move into the fog?

@Erin, I'll give you another day before I move ahead in initiative.

Rafe stealths into the graveyard, sight unseen from the undead skeletons.

Meanwhile, DarkDealer blasts a small rock at the rearmost skeleton, immediately shattering it on impact. It crumbles as it falls, and the remaining bone pieces turn to dust moments later.

Erin may go before the skeletons begin their turn, unless she wishes to delay.

DarkDealer, as per the stealth rules you break stealth automatically whenever you make an attack roll, unless you're attempting to snipe, which is a move action. Just something to keep in mind, if possible it'd help me out if you gave a turn breakdown in ooc of Move action:___ Standard: ___ Swift:____ all in the order you take them so I can keep things organized. I don't need it all the time but when stealth is involved things like that get important. Regardless of stealth status, you still have concealment in the branches of the tree atm.

They do appear to be wielding longbows, yes.

Next up in initiative is Hacker, followed by BigHat.

It is something that doesn't make much sense, but no, no extra ranged penalties for firing an arrow straight up. Feel free to have DarkDealer roll his eyes though and complain about the unrealistic physics that couldn't possibly have taken *that* long to code.

As for drawing their attention upwards, that makes sense to me and there's no immediate reason to think it wouldn't work to allies advantage.

Erin takes a defensive stance, wary to wade into the battleground before her allies.

The skeletons, for their part, don't seem to do much of anything. DarkDealer looks down in his bat form at the few skeletons outside the mist only to see that the corpses are taking no action at all, not even moving to a defensive stance. They just sort of...sway in place, seemingly because they have no identified enemy to target.

Rafe Darr is next up, followed by Hacker.

Rafe, what would you like to do?

@DarkDealer52, thanks for shaping the obscuring mist so I didn't have to!

Still in bat form, DarkDealer drops a well placed fog on the battlefield, obscuring the skeletons from view but hopefully obscuring their view of you as well!

@Erin the Cursed, you're up!

Effects of the Obscuring Mist spell for those like me who had to look it up to remember:

"A misty vapor arises around you. It is stationary. The vapor obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet away has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target).

A moderate wind (11+ mph), such as from a gust of wind spell, disperses the fog in 4 rounds. A strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round. A fireball, flame strike, or similar spell burns away the fog in the explosive or fiery spell's area. A wall of fire burns away the fog in the area into which it deals damage"

I grabbed everyone a token to use, feel free to swap it out or to move around in the starting area before you start your first turn. DarkDealer, obviously since you scouted ahead as a bat starting on the north side of the graveyard where you're at is fine.

Initiative order =>
DarkDealer52-25
Erin the Cursed- 19
Skeleton Archers-15
Rafe Darr- 13
BigHatLogan- 9
Toyama-5

DarkDealer52- You're up!

EDIT: Quick reminder, but inside the graveyard is difficult terrain.

Skeleton Archer Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Also, it looks like what we are facing is skellies armed with longbows, nocked, drawn, and ready to fire when their turn in initiative comes up. Is this accurate? Or do we get a round before they can pull themselves out of the ground, stand up, draw weapons, etc. (meaning that a character who moved into their midst before their turn would get an AoO, or potentially more than one with combat reflexes, before they have a chance to attack)? Not that my character would do that, but others might. If, however, they are ready to fire arrows in round 1 with party members unprepared, I might consider flying in and using my Obscuring Mist SLA to hinder their targeting. Anyone have tactics in mind that would be helped/hindered by this approach?

They do indeed look ready to fire an arrow off each when it comes to their turn (though they won't have an opportunity to move, having "stood up from 'prone'").

Not a problem, and thanks for doing that! Was my first time figuring out a map outside roll20.

Stealth is possible still. Early scouting would have revealed an empty graveyard, but the moment three of you stood within 15 feet of the gate the skeletons animated and the prompt "activated"

The two androids stay awake while the rest of the party hunkers down in a cot for the night.

Hacker, ever the pragmatist, uses the extra time to craft some healing potions with the intent to sell them back to his own party members.

After some restful sleep and good company of other adventurers, you awake ready to head to your destination after finishing any final travel preparations.

The weather as you head out is quite pleasant, with the sun shining brightly but not too harshly and several wispy clouds populating the procedurally generated sky.

As you near the graveyard, the atmosphere becomes noticeably darker. What felt like spring moments ago turns to autumn, as trees begin to be noticeably more bare as you get closer and closer. The map dynamics of this place can certainly be dramatic, but they also tend to be thematically appropriate. It gets colder until you can see your breath, until finally you see the gates of the graveyard before you, with one of the rusted iron doors collapsed off it's hinges and the other barely hanging on. Suddenly the noises of the birds and bugs in the surrounding woods cease altogether and it becomes eerily quiet.

The quiet stops when several arms burst forth from the ground, and several bleached skeletons crawl to the surface with a horribly creaking.

A booming voice from the air suddenly rings out:

"ADVENTURERS!!!!!
ROOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!
FOOOOORRR!!!!!
INITIATIVE!!!!!!!!!

Well, that's new.

Link to map map

Feel free to place your tokens anywhere in the starting area that you'd like.

Additional notes: Cemetery walls are around 10 feet high. Terrain inside the cemetery is considered difficult terrain. You can ignore the headstones on the map, for tactical purposes, but the tree and two buildings are big enough to provide cover and block line of sight to the other side. Feel free to ask for additional descriptors for anything I missed.

Roll for initiative and good luck!

If you wish to do so, I can speed things along and fast-forward you all to the graveyard entrance. Feel free to wrap up any descriptions of things and preparations you'd like to do or make. If there's no protest, I can try and have the first graveyard post up by the end of tomorrow, otherwise I can wait until next week.

Not a problem, where are you planning to set up?

You can order a suite with one or two beds for that price, comfortably fitting in a bedroll on the floor to fit three comfortably or squeeze in four, dependent on your sizes and personal space preferences. The place does upcharge a bit for the size of the room, mostly because it's such a popular adventuring town and they do offer an open sleep area.

Skeletons:
DR/5-Bludgeoning
Special Abilities: A skeleton loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. Variant skeletons exist with a variety of special abilities, such as fast healing.
Special Attacks: A skeleton maintains the weapon proficiencies it had in life, and gains a claw attack for each of its "hands".

Ghost:
Special Abilities: Rejuvination- In most cases, it’s difficult to destroy a ghost through simple combat: the “destroyed” spirit restores itself in 2-8 days. Even the most powerful spells are usually only temporary solutions. The only way to permanently destroy a ghost is to determine the reason for its existence and set right whatever prevents it from resting in peace.

There is a sizeable sleeping area at the Inn, complete with several rows of cots that are complimentary for bar patrons to sleep in. If you wish to spring for a private room its 16 gp for the night, and the one of the bartenders will give you a key to your room.

Rafe Darr: After some time talking around at the bar, you learn that the quest in question is procedural in nature. The fellow you finally talk to, an apparent juggling enthusiast with an eye-patch sipping several appletinis, informs you that the graveyard quest has a built in level adjustment for groups that accept it, so any undead you face will be somewhere close to your expected power levels.

Taking note of your equipment though, he tells you that he wouldn't expect there to be any incorporeal undead unless you were incredibly unlucky. His information comes with a warning however, he tells you that the terrain within the graveyard is difficult to maneuver in, and that the undead's AI uses this feature to great effect. Finally, he mentions that quests like this typically involve a boss of some sort with several minions (his party fought a vampire accompanied by several ghouls), so good tactics will be very useful. If you can swing it though, the payout tends to be pretty good in proportion to the questers level.

Hacker, with that roll you were unable to find any apothecary or equivalent alchemicals seller after searching for several hours. Feel free to attempt to roll again, but it will be dark soon and most shops are closing. You can try again tomorrow as well, depending on when the group wishes to leave

With the Religion checks, you get 1 piece of useful information for ghosts, 0 for zombies, and 3 for skeletons. What would you like to know?

A gather info quest is perfectly fine for seeing if you can plot out what you're going to run into. It was an NPC quest, so it's possible an adventuring company in town has run it before and could offer advice.

For the Gather info roll concerning quests:

The board outside the inn has a few quests, but they seem to be mostly either severely beneath your pay grade;

A goblin tribe is attacking Olde Man Knickers farm, AGAIN! 1 gold per goblin, 1 week time limit!

or above it :

LF: Level 11+ adventurers for Hell Dragon Raid. Bring your own healer.

After talking to a few of the patrons, you learn that many quests are reoccurring and that the various mobs and bounties re-spawn after around 2 weeks, so the availability of bounty quests can vary wildly.

However, after gathering some more information, you do find that there are a couple of quests that might be within your groups skill range-

1. An eldritch scoundrel has put out a bounty for some sort of large cobra that he claims will be stalking the very territory you have to pass through on your way to the next large red dot on your new map. The bounty is 1500 gold. Upon completion he'll also let you copy any spells he has in his spellbook as a bonus.

2. A bit out of the way, but apparently there is a graveyard location a short distance out of your way to the red dot. Apparently it's stocked to the brimm with various types of undead, but the NPC priest is willing to pay 4500 if you "Free those tortured souls from an intolerable existence (Clear the graveyard)

Quests can be turned in at location, the reward distribution carried over so you're automatically paid the bounty on completion for quests that use the official quest boards

The Good Knight's Inn:

When you enter, the establishment is well lit, with a garish chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a large fireplace by the bar. It's noisy, and a large variety of pleasant smells fills your nose as you shoulder past the other patrons to your destinations. There are many tables but they all seem to be full, with many patrons looking to be in full adventuring gear as they chat, play cards, and enjoy various ales and stews.

Many of the patrons are also standing around, ale in hand, and a full band is playing in the corner. There are a few spots available at the bar if you'd like, and several waitresses busy about attending to the many guests. You can likely ask one of them the going rate for staying the night.

(DarkDealer, the bartender agrees politely and goes to fetch you some cooked rabbit. It smells delicious.)

Hacker, so was BigHatLogan rolling for you earlier about asking around for an apothecary? Also BigHat, I'll try to post the results of your gather info tomorrow

DarkDealer52: The bearded man shrugs when you feign impatience, muttering a half-hearted apology, but he smiles toothily when you hand over the coins.

"Thank you kindly sirs, I'll have that last jigger ready at dawn's first light for ye."

Hacker: Browsing through the various crafters, you don't immediately see any alchemy stands. It makes some sense, the Alchemist class wasn't released until the 1.4 "Advanced Players" expansion, which until the takeover cost a quite a bit of credits just to access a few extra class options. Still though, even though you don't spot any immediate Alchemy crafters there may be an apothecary, either an original NPC or a Player just staying away from the main markets for whatever reason. You can roll Kn: Local, Perception, Diplomacy, or another skill you think is appropriate to try and locate someone with the supplies you're looking for.

Rafe Darr:
You quickly get a feel for the town, there really is a high population of "players" here, many leading picturesque lives without the thrill of adventuring. It seems to be a popular spot for adventuring companies as well though, and you are quick to find a job board with various bounties and requests just outside of the inn. You have a decent idea of where everything is and are able to direct the rest of your party as you'd like. As for those who may know of your destination, the Inn and its attached bar are the first thing that comes to mind when seeking information for these types of leads, as there's sure to be more adventurers there in addition to an attentive barkeep or two.

DarkDealer52:
Splitting from the group and heading towards the sound of smithing, you find a bustling group of fellow players who have mastered various craft and profession skills, and in particular there is a wizard-ly looking fellow with a long white beard and out of place flowing purple robes that seem to avoid getting dirty despite all the soot from the nearby forges. He is currently seated behind a small stand, and you recognize some of the items you are looking for strewn about said stand. In particular there are several ioun torches and a few plier-looking things you recognize as traveler's any-tools. When you request a stubborn nail, the magical seller tilts his head slightly, a bit confused. Describing it slightly more in detail, he nods his head vigorously and says in a much younger sounding voice than you were expecting-

"Aye, I ken do that. I'll have it for you by the morning, got some advance orders to ketch up on first tho."