GM Caster of Diobel's page

It's an interesting idea. I would think six continuous hours are pretty useful but there is still the issue of not necessarily being in one's ideal workspace. The rules do emphasize the continuous time, though, rather than the location. So I would say you have 6 hours of continuous time + 4 hours of sporadic time/2 = the normal 8 hours a day of crafting thanks to the ring of sustenance.

Here's a botted action for Ghorza if Tocash is ok with that. I PMed her a few days ago but no response yet.

Well, in Aygavan’s case it takes one to know one!

Bahahahaha!

I'm not much of the social type but I'm really enjoying Ghorza's and Aygavan's approaches to dealing with rowdy nobles. XD

With the loss of Maeve, there are five PCs (four at a time):

Maxy, Zaborjca, Tocash, Aygavan, and Ghorza.

You can check the rules I posted way back but I'm pretty sure the loot gets split among the active players (so the four of you who finished last quest) and the active GM's character gets standard loot progression.

Zaborjca: Here is the spellbook you found. Oddly, these mooks all had the same, standard issue spellbook.

"This is a simple, unadorned spellbook. Notes on improving the efficiency of each spell crowd the margins, most of them hopelessly misguided.

Value 275 gp

Spells
2nd—fox’s cunning, scorching ray

1st—alarm, feather fall, obscuring mist, mount, shield, shocking grasp, silent image, sleep

0—standard plus jolt"

Yes to selling items that don't work with ABP.

Tocash: That was the only question. I'm happy to play scribe while you run your chapter. Feel free to start taking over and narrating things like the next day, the next time the Kortos Consortium calls us together, etc. whenever you're ready.

Aygavan: Like Ghorza said above, automatic bonus progression means you guys can't use +X to a stat enhancement bonus items. So they are just things to sell, as Ghorza is helpfully pointing out.

Zaborjca: Can you make sure all the loot and XP are listed in the spreadsheet linked in the party description? Let me know if I've left anything unclear about how to use that spreadsheet.

Yes splitting up loot is good. Selling non-abp loot is also good.

Tocash, did you see my question? Are you still up for GMing chapter 2?

Tocash tries but you only net one more living hostage and two corpses. Still, that may be better than three corpses and just the summoner. You continue traveling back to Kortos Consortium headquarters.

1200 xp each. You can heal up now if you wish.

Now you arrive without further interruptions. You hurry to find Madge Barrow and report. "The Golden Cartel was behind the attacks? This was better than we could have hoped! AND they confirmed it when their agents tried to break the little rat free! I'll see their barristers squirming in court and in the public's opinion!" She positively rubs her hands with glee. "This all means you get paid twice. Good work. First, you can 'salvage' from your captives anything that isn't needed as evidence. Second, the Kortos Consortium keeps its contracts." She hands you a hefty purse of platinum.

Moving from WBL 2 to WBL 3 means gaining 2000 gp. So quest completion gets you half of that: 1000 gp each. I'll add the same to my character as well.

Happily, you loot your unconscious prisoners and the corpses alike.

4x potion of CMW, 3x scroll of bless, 3x scroll of burning hands, 3x scroll of CLW, 3 scroll of magic missile, 6x alchemist's fire, 3x holy water, 3x thunderstone, 3x +1 studded leather, 3x light crossbow, 3x mwk rapier, 3x disguise kit, 3x everburning torch, 3x healer's kit, 3x thieve's tools, 3x wizard's spellbook, 3x wooden holy symbol, belt of dex+2, cloak of resistance +1, headband of cha+2, potion of lesser restoration, potion of touch of the sea, potion of CSW. 500 gp.

Tocash is correct. Does anyone besides Tocash and Ghorza want to make a heal check on the other downed agent at your feet? Or the one some 120 feet away?

Ghorza slaps a fleeing foe quite hard with her gauntlet then sends a stone projectile sailing through the air and brings the woman down!

chronicle updated. :)

Great, thank you! The retroactive clarification of the purple sparks manifestation was especially great.

Ghorza seriously wounds one combatant and Aygavan finishes her off! Then Zaborjca and Tocash combine to take down another! The other two agents swear vehemently and one of them shouts "Someone has to report this!" They both take off running!

Those two take the run action and zip 120 ft to the east, provoking from Ghorza only. Everyone can go, either to head the opposite direction, try to stop them from fleeing somehow, set another building on fire, etc.

Sounds good!

Ghorza's stone axe takes out one of the Crimson Cartel agents!

I've now color-coded them individually for ease of referring to whom you want to bonk.

The remaining agents look intimidated by the blast of power unleashed by Ghorza! So they move in on her and try to take her out quickly! Three move into position while the fourth rushes up and stabs her hard in the shoulder!

28 to hit for 11 damage and 22 to confirm for 3 extra damage. Ghorza gets an aoo on purple if she threatens in melee. Same for Aygavan and Tocash if they can take aoos before they've acted in combat. If the aoos take out purple, then the stab just done by blue will be less accurate and damaging and I'll retcon accordingly. Everyone, GO!

Zaborjca and Maeve can still go. I'll give it about 11 hours more.

The agents act surprised by Tocash's challenge but suddenly you see they are loosing their blades from their sheathes!

Sorry for my slowness to push things forward there. Whole family was sick again, covid this time.

That's definitely high enough! All you PCs understand that as you are intended to but the Golden Cartel agents won't be able to sense motive out the meaning of that even with nat 20s. Anyone want to respond to that?

JoyDriver, you are taking the first turn to party scribe, right? Please add 1,500 xp for mission completion and 1,600 xp for defeating the CR 5 summoner. Loot will come later.

Everyone: Level up to 3!

I like to follow "Rule of two" and have someone second a motion but it's been a few days and Tocash's proposal isn't particularly crazy so I'll assume you proceed with that. Are you taking the captive to the guards or to your overlings in the Kortos Consortium? Either way:

When you start leaving the scene, the agents of the Golden Cartel walk in the same direction as you, acting casual. But you suspect they are following you.

You organize the citizenry to help put out the fire. Thankfully, it didn't have a few more seconds to spread out of control. You put it out without damage spreading beyond this one abandoned building. The agents of the Golden Cartel stick around, presumably to help put out the fire... What now?

Zaborjca, yes you're quite certain you can get him taken into custody by the guard. You guys work for the Kortos Consortium, which basically runs Diobel. So that helps a lot.

I think there's actually a great deal of rule ambiguity on whether or not the manifestations are visible while the caster is invisible. There was a huge discussion on that in my "Pf 1.5" working server. But yes, he cast acid splash which broke his invisibility. He also cast create pit but I'm pretty sure that was before invis. And then he summoned while invisible but that was SLA of course.

Edit now that I see gameplay and understand the thrust of your question: Yes his eyes turned purple when visible and casting acid splash. That manifestation is unique to him.

I won't call for a bluff from Ghorza because I think she was around the corner of the building enough to not see that it was actually Zaborjca who started the fire...

The crowd cheers and starts to get buckets of water. One of the agents of the Gold Cartel steps forward. "But how can you know this person summoned the monsters? Perhaps you have just grabbed a small and innocent man!"

Opposed diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

But the crowd isn't swayed! They want a culprit and the fire keeps them busy.

What do you want to try next?

The halfling is knocked unconscious! And Ghorza destroys the last elemental. Now there is just the unconscious summoner, the unconscious Maeve, a burning building, and a curious crowd outside to deal with! The fire spreads further...

You can act freely but don't take more than one or two rounds worth of action at a time since there is a time-sensitive, fire component.

Haha. Lol.

Thanks for patience, guys. Sickness with two tiny kiddos in the house is exhausting.

Due to my slowness, Tocash and Maeve have had a lot of time to post so I'll just skip Maeve (likely unconscious) and bot Tocash.

Zaborjca lands a strong SMACK on the summoner while Tocash rushes forward and tries to grapple the sneaky halfling.

Grapple: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 50

He can't seem to get a hold in just the smoke!

The fire, meanwhile, starts spreading.

I'm starting to make fire squares on the map. This could get interesting...

Ghorza lands a strong blow and finishes off the elemental near her! The other one rushes up behind Tocash and smashes an earthy fist into his back! 11 dam

The summoner steps back, his back to the wall, and launches another glob of acid at Tocash but misses. And he has now revealed himself by casting this spell!

I should have remembered that last turn but if I had, he never would have done that very stupid thing. So there you go! Invisibility gone. Everyone, GO!

Ok do you feel you can be back now, vegecannibal?

And to everyone else, sorry for my slowness this week. Lots of ill people in my house for me to take care of...

Most damage has missed, yes. I just wanted to know since your status line said 26/26 and I knew that wasn't right.

Tocash, what hp are you at?

Ghorza, you still don't have a flank with anyone. Maeve is presumed unconscious but known to be stable. I'll rotate her token sideways to reflect this.

Aygavan's miss chance, needs 51+: 1d100 ⇒ 18

Aygavan's readied grapple doesn't quite grab the summoner in the smoke!

I'll bot that he tries again with his standard action.

Aygavan grapple: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 1 = 13Unfortunately, I don't know whether to bot inspiration for Aygavan on that or not. I'll just leave it.
Miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 23

Aygavan tries again but can't quite grab the sneaky, slippery, summoner!

The halfling sees the path blocked by three opponents and, apparently, decides that pushing past them is now longer the right plan. He moves back and seems to try to help his elementals wear down the foes! A glob of acid burns Tocash's face.

24 to hit Tocash's touch AC for 3 acid damage.

One of the elemental strikes a blow that is barely blocked by Zaborjca while Ghorza receives a heavy strike.

Missed Zaborjca by 1. 11 damage to Ghorza. Everyone, GO! The summoner moved and you can see where he is but did not provoke because you can't aoo on someone invisible.

Sorry for the quiet weekend. Will update tomorrow morning!

Tocash leaves himself open to an attack from the elemental.

AoO: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Dam: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Then he tries to grab the summoner but fails to see his target properly, given there are only shifting patterns of smoke to grab at.

Ghorza still to go. Aygavan can roll his miss chance on a d100 still or I'll do it for him when I update the round. I know players like to roll dice for themselves, even when just virtual dice.

Aygavan, for regularity, I do 1d100 miss chance. You need to roll high (51+ in this case).

Ghorza can't quite land a blow on the elemental!

Pretty sure Maeve is unconscious and not threatening anyway and so doesn't provide a flank.

Zaborjca sets the scene of the crime on fire! That will help, right?

Next round there will be enough smoke to potentially help reveal the halfling.

Tocash lands one solid blow and knocks the earth elemental back to where it came from! Aygavan gets ready for trouble! The local priestess casts a spell to help you out "Defend Diobel!"

Bless for all the PCs.

Aygavan feels something invisible trying to move through his square! It barely fails! The elementals try to smash Zaborjca and Ghorza but are thwarted this time.

Aygavan gets his readied grappled with miss chance.

The smoke now reveals where the invisible halfling is hiding!

Still 50% miss chance but you at least know his square now so it will be marked on map with his token. Everyone, GO!

Haha. Yes JoyDriver is usually not a murderhobo. But hopefully this will work out for the heroes. We'll see.

Yes but he can't stealth at full speed and stealthing at more than half speed imposes a -5 penalty. Zaborjca, sure you can start a fire in this abandoned building. It might indicate where the summoner is but you guys would still suffer miss chance for not seeing him properly.

Not sure why Aygavan is trusting to that fact.

Aygavan's whip no longer finds the halfling anywhere to Aygavan's northwest within 15 ft.

Maeve keels over, bleeding out. Tocash and Zaborjca finish off the elemental between them. Ghorza stands at the door and tries to fend off the blows (total defense). Who knows what the invisible summoner is doing? Map position shows last known location.

The priestess shouts "I don't but I can keep your friend from dying!" She casts stabilize on Maeve.

The elementals try to subdue the heroes but Tocash, Zaborjca, and Maeve all fend off the blows aimed at them!

PCs, go!

Aygavan's whip finds the summoner!

Ok so now the current position marked on the map is the current position of the summoner. I'll leave his token there until he's known to be somewhere else. Note that once he takes a turn, he may or may not still be there.

Ghorza and Maeve can still go. I'll try to update tonight, whether or not they've gone.

We've got some engagement issues with various PCs, due to Christmas break, etc. At the end of this brief chapter, the plan is to switch to Tocash GMing for a brief chapter. Let's re-evaluate then who's committed to the game and who isn't up for it.

What's the plan, PCs? Focus on the summons first, find the invisible summoner first, etc?

Aygavan tumbles successfully away from the elemental and finds the halfling is not present!

Skipping Maeve.

The local priestess who healed some of you finally makes it over to the fighting. "What on the Material Plane is going on?" she calls out.

The elementals keep trying to thump the enemies of the master who summoned them!

Zaborjca and Ghorza each deflect a blow by the tiniest possible margin! Tocash dodges his attacker more easily but Maeve is struck hard!

9 dam to Maeve. Everyone, GO!

Bump again for Maeve and Aygavan! I've PMed and will update tonight, botting or skipping as necessary.

Yes only the one entrance. Maeve and Aygavan left to go.

Yes the pit is over and I have botted you to be standing up now!

I would recommend a little more strategic coordination among party members.

Maeve throws a card at one of the elementals.

Throw card: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 Very helpful of Maeve to have a little bot summary.
Dam: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

The card slices into one of the elementals (red), chipping off a bit of its pebbly flesh. The elementals then keep trying to attack the heroes! Two of them assault Tocash but this time he fends them off while the other two go after Maeve. One of them misses but the other smacks her despite her magical protections!

10 dam to Maeve.

Some civilians are gathering outside the entrance to this building, trying to see what is going on. Members of the Golden Cartel try to warn them away. "Citizen! This area isn't safe!"

Ghorza tries to blast one of the elementals with a stone knife

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Dam: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

but it goes flying wide.

Everyone, GO!

Ghorza let me know that she is very busy/stressed IRL right now and will be taking a break from PBP for a while. I'll bot her whenever it's just her left to go.

As he stands up, one of the earth elementals smacks Tocash (8 dam).

Maeve and Ghorza still to go.

Aygavan determines that the summoner is no longer where Aygavan's whip found him!

He's stealthed again.