Also, the contents of the rest of this level, if you're interested:
Spoiler:
Going up from the western shore:
A weak froghemoth lurking in the water. Considering the goliath spider was level 11 and caused a lot of trouble, I think a level 12 creature is overkill. I was going to replace it with a different, more level-appropriate aquatic monster, but no need.
A small lair with a dread wraith (skipping), and a large naga in a 15 by 15 foot room. That combat would've been nonsense.
Four small caves higher up in the wall containing 3 bodaks. So you start on a raft (or swimming), you'll have to climb up to the cave, and then more bodaks start pouring out of the other caves.
You then reach solid ground again, with a roper penned off behind a barricade and literal warning signs to not open the barricade.
Several cages containing a krooth, a chuul, and two skeletal hulks. They don't fight unless you open the cages.
There's also a whole faction of bog mummies (16 in total) and multiple will-'o-wisps I've skipped entirely. That's 6 fights with mostly the same enemies that's just filler. And a random monster here and there that wasn't too interesting.
The treasure you haven't found yet but I'll just give to you:
- A boardgame inlaid with semiprecious stones, worth 80 gp.
- The skull of an enemy trying to become a demilich. His teeth are semiprecious stones, 24 of them worth 8 gp each. His eye sockets each have a clear topaz, worth 50 gp each. His crude crown is inlaid with 9 bits of quartz, 3 gp each.
- A bag containing 80 gp, 2 pp, eyes of the eagle, a greater staff of healing, and a +1 striking shortsword.
- A fancy porcelain teapot worth 40 gp, 130 gp, 310 sp, greater bracers of missile deflection, a wand of fireball (rank 3, I presume), three murderer’s knots, a potion of quickness, a javelin of lightning, and 10 saltwater pearls worth 9 gp each.
Is everyone fine with calling this level explored and leveling up? There's not much more left to do here, and going back the next day for 1 or 2 more combats feels like a bit of a waste.
If it's a yes, feel free to level up. You haven't found much treasure this level, because I think the adventure assumes you'll kill and loot every living thing, including the NPCs you've left alone. I don't want to penalise you for good roleplay, so I'll just give you a sum of gold. Looks like starting wealth for a level 9 character is 1600 gold, compared to 1100 from level 8. So tabulate this level's loot and add whatever you need so everyone reaches roughly 500 gold.
Related, now that Kka is gone, who will take care of the loot list? Please don't sell the fulcrum lens. >_>
I'll also summarise what you find up north (including some loot), so you know what else is on this level.
Technically, it's 2d4 hours, and I haven't rolled yet. Let's do so.
Lough paralysis:2d4 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4 hours.
You also don't know how long the paralysis lasts, since you all failed the Recall Knowledge. Could be minutes, could be days. But I'm fine with you going back upstairs and calling this level explored. There isn't too much interesting here left anyways, and I'd like to keep the pace up. Everyone agree?
Iribo scowls. "Nyzuros's instructions were clear: 'get me that spider.' If you're too stupid to remember your orders, you should've said so. Anyway," she stows her weapons, rolls up her sleeves, and walks into a patch of giant mushrooms. After a minute, she returns, holding several spider eggs.
"You're right, that big lunk is way too dangerous. Training them when they're young and their venom isn't as potent is a much better idea. Also much lower risk of them biting your arm off."
After looking through other poisons and poisonous/venomous creatures, I'm pretty sure the poison damage should still run its course, there's just this weird omission that should've been caught. Not gonna re-revert the damage, it's fine. Cherry Berry made sure you got healed before you got hauled up, so unless they leave you up there, it's gonna be fine.
"Hey, you're under my employment, not the other way around. I'm not doing anything until I have my spider. Though those eggs sound like a good idea. Much easier to mold them when they're young..."
Aesephna strikes the giant spider as it walks scurries of her reach. Then, with the magic of retrospect, that means Iribo gets the finishing blow!
Iribo shoots the spider while it clings to the ceiling, and it finally loses its strength and passes out. It lets go of its grip on the ceiling and comes crashing down with an earth-shaking thud.
Iribo does a celebratory fist-pump, then yells, "Quick, stabilize it! We want to train it as an attack beast!"
"Also, uh, well done!"
Everyone gets a Hero Point for a difficult battle!
And Aesephna didn't spend that Hero Point last post.
Ah, good catch, thanks for that! Stage 3 has no interval, it just says "paralyzed for 2d4 hours" (whereas the other stages say "... slowed 1/2 (1 round)". Seems strange that the poison will stop damaging you, but apparently that's how it works. Will revert the last damage done to you.
Ergh, just missed edit window. I realised I should've specified at the bottom the spider's now at 60 feet height. You'd need at least 40 foot reach with spells to reach it.
Also, Aesephna gets another reactive strike.
Cherry Berry heals Lough up before he gets hauled out of reach.
Kvit blasts water at the spider, but misses.
Aesephna manages to slap the spider twice. Spider is looking very hurt right now. To Dorianna's surprise, her ancestor's now sticking to the wall.
Spider ascends all the way up the wall and now hangs upside down from the ceiling. It holds Lough in place, spits a wad of webbing on him, and sticks him to the ceiling.
Fort save Lough:1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32 Poison damage for Lough:3d8 ⇒ (3, 2, 4) = 9
Iribo shoots at the spider, then her repeating hand crossbow is empty. She curses, and spends the rest of her round reloading.
Iribo attack:1d20 + 20 ⇒ (17) + 20 = 37 Damage:1d6 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Spider, 219 damage, Dazzled
Dorianna 81/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 25-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 64/96, Hasted, 30 feet in the air. DC 30 Fortitude vs poison, stage 2 (2/6)
Everyone is up!
Spider literally has 1 HP left! Go kill it!
I'm afraid not. The earlier stages have a duration of how long the debuff lasts. The earlier stages are all a single round, while the paralysis lasts for several hours. If you save against stage 3, you'd go down in stages, but the paralysis is still in effect. You'd just take less damage from the stage 1 and 2 poison, rather than repeated stage 3 poison.
Technically, you'd be slowed on top of the paralysis, but the paralysis basically overrides the slowed condition.
I think the poison still courses through your blood. The paralysis is for the next 2d4 hours, but the damage keeps ticking, I think. I'll go look that up, but if other people have any insight on this, please say so!
Sorry for not updating. Got a small bug on Friday, didn't have the energy to post.
Lough fails his saves against the poison and his muscles seize up, rendering him completely immobile!
Kvit conjures up a stone ally that tries to smack the spider twice, but misses both times.
Aesephna tries to hit the spider as well while Dorianna boosts her, but misses as well.
Cherry Berry conjures a poltergeist into being that assaults the spider, but the spider ignores the invisible assailant completely.
Fort save spider:1d20 + 25 ⇒ (15) + 25 = 40
The spider is pretty injured by now, and one piece has stopped moving altogether right in front of it, so it decides to grab it and retrat back into its hidey-hole.
DC 5 flat check to target:1d20 ⇒ 11
The spider picks up Lough in its mandibles, scurries to the wall, and starts climbing it. It's currently 30 feet off the ground.
Provokes from Aesephna.
Iribo curses and, takes careful aim, and shoots her hand crossbow at the spider twice.
Hand crossbow:1d20 + 20 ⇒ (11) + 20 = 31 Damage:1d6 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Hand crossbow:1d20 + 20 - 5 ⇒ (11) + 20 - 5 = 26
Spider, 174 damage, Dazzled, carrying Lough
Dorianna 81/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 25-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 21/96, Hasted, 30 feet in the air. DC 30 Fortitude vs poison (1/6)
Everyone is up! Lough's last round of Life Boost goes off and needs to make a new save versus poison.
Aboslutely no worries, Cherry Berry! Like I said, I expected people to post less the past few days, so no harm done on my part.
Cherry Berry heals everyone, leaving everyone much better looking. The spider, meanwhile, looks pretty exhausted.
The spider decides to snack on Lough some more. He isn't hitting a lot, but he is getting annoying.
Fangs vs Lough:1d20 + 24 ⇒ (11) + 24 = 35 Flat DC 5:1d20 ⇒ 3
I'll assume you shield block, so 55 damage taken, and 24 for the shield.
Lough, please make two DC 30 Fortitude saves versus poison, and if you fail one, also once more at the end of your turn.
The spider seems like it hits, but misses due to its blindness. Unfortunately, its next two chomps do find its target, taking big chunks of flesh out of Lough's torso.
She then takes cover behind a big mushroom trunk, to raise her AC, but still providing flanks for who needs it.
Spider, 161 damage, Dazzled
Dorianna 81/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 25-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 41/96, Hasted, Life Boost 3/4
Lough heals a little more from Life Boost, and needs to make two DC 30 Fort saves versus poison, and if he fails, one more at the end of his turn.
Kvit has a free Sustain this round.
Question that I hate asking but I think is necessary, do you have botting rules? And if not should we make those?
Should we bot Cherry?
Never replied to this: Cherry Berry usually takes a little longer before they reply, but never extraordinarily long. I'll give it one more day due to Easter nonsense, and then I'll probably cast a Heal on Dorianna.
Also: I'm fine with letting Dorianna keep sneak attack. But that's the only "external" damage buff I'm gonna allow.
Lough snaps awake, raises his shield, and makes sure his next attack hits extra hard. Sadly, his balance is just slightly off, and he misses.
Aesephna manages to avoid the poison once, but sadly not both times. Dorianna takes 3d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 6) = 15 poison damage and is slowed 1.
Please choose one action to lose, again. Nevermind, I misread my own post. Spidey's still debuffed, so the 29 makes it.
Aesephna manages to avoid being poisoned twice.
On the bright side, Aesephna strikes back and lands a good blow on spidey.
Spider, 161 damage, Dazzled
Dorianna 55/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 25-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 62/96, Hasted, Life Boost 2/4
Kvit has a free Sustain next round.
Cherry Berry may still act.
Yeah, I decided to do the current (frightened) DC just because it's easier. I had a quick chat with friends and they mostly agreed that current DC is easier for tracking reasons. So yeah, it's a bit of a placebo effect, but that's okay.
How do the others feel about Aesephna inheriting Dorianna's sneak attack? By RAW it doesn't work and it's "only" a d6, but that's still quite a boost. By that logic, she could potentially inherit a lot more bonuses. Is this a fair buff to give to Farol's character?
Cherry Berry throws electricity at the spider and then extends their bless range.
Spidey's Reflex save, Frightened 1:1d20 + 21 - 1 ⇒ (14) + 21 - 1 = 34
The spider dodges the worst of it, but still gets zapped a little.
Lough steps forward and sluggishly tries to hit the spider, but misses. He muscles are about to seize up, but thanks to Dorianna's help, he manages to fight the poison. Lough gets a whiff of Cherry Berry's soothing blossoms's scent, which calms his body even further, ridding him of the poison entirely!
The spider, in pain and confused from being hit from different directions, switches targets back to Aesephna.
Aesephna, please make two Fortitude saves versus poison! DC 29 at the moment. If you fail, also make a DC 30 Fortitude save at the end of your turn.
Iribo continues stabbing the spider, making use of the flank Aesephna is providing her.
Rapier:1d20 + 18 ⇒ (2) + 18 = 20
The drow then casts a spell, causing an explosion of multicoloured light, potentially overstimulating the spider's eyes.
Spider Reflex:1d20 + 21 ⇒ (1) + 21 = 22 That's a crit fail. Spidey's Dazzled for 10 minutes!
Spider, 141 damage, Dazzled
Dorianna 55/120
Aesephna, 2 DC 29 Fort saves vs poison
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 25-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 62/96, Hasted, Life Boost 2/4
Everyone is up! Lough heals some from Life Boost, Aesephna needs to make two Fort saves versus poison, and potentially one more at the end of their turn.
Good news! Lough forgot to add Dorianna's help, and that, combined with the Frightened, means he makes it! And with Cherry Berry's Blossoms, he immediately reduces it by 2 stages, making him poison-free!
I'm not sure if the lowered DC from Frightened is supposed to carry over from pre-Frightened poison, but the way I read it, Frightened just lowers DCs, regardless of when the Frightened was applied. Which doesn't really make sense for poison, but on the other hand, if the Frightened was applied first, it also doesn't make sense that the poison grows stronger (or remains static) as the frighten wears off.
Need to think about the sneak attack transferring. I think officially no, but it would make sense (if you share MAP, why not other things? On the other hand, you're the one trained in Rogue, not your eidolon). I'm just wondering if that would make the Summoner overpowered or not. I'll allow it for now.
Kvit lobs fire at the spider while sustaining his protective runes. It connects!
Dorianna manages to counteract some of the poison, giving Lough a +2 to his recovery. Meanwhile, her ancestor goes to town on the spider, connecting once.
Spider, 134 damage, Frightened 1
Dorianna 120/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 20-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 54/96, Hasted, Slowed 2, poisoned stage 2 (2/6) DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison, Life Boost 1/4
Dorianna glowers at the spider, causing it to shrink back in fear, despite the enormous size difference. She then boosts her companion, who lashes out twice, but unfortunately misses. She does shake off the poison, which is good.
Kvit traces runes in the air, protecting Lough from the spider, and boosts him as well.
Lough fails to resist the poison and gradually slows down as the venom paralyzes his nervous system. He raises his shield, boosts his own vitality, and hurls his chakram, but misses.
Cherry Berry pours life energy into Dorianna, completely healing her, then boosts Lough even more. Sadly, the Guidance doesn't stack with the bonus Forbidding Ward gives against the poison, nor with the Bless.
The spider is annoyed at the commotion around it, but since only Iribo damaged it, it turns around and goes to snack on her.
Fangs vs Iribo, Frightened 2:1d20 + 24 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 24 - 2 = 36 Not a crit due to frightened, so good job. Piercing damage:2d12 + 12 ⇒ (6, 7) + 12 = 25
Iribo is slowed, but grits her teeth and returns the favour, trying to injure the spider back.
Rapier vs spider:1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36 Piercing:1d6 + 9 + 2d6 ⇒ (1) + 9 + (4, 3) = 17 So close to a crit, but alas. Was looking if I could redirect Cherry Berry's Guidance, but she's out of reach.
Fort Iribo:1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30
She stabs a second time but misses, but does shake off the poison.
Spider, 103 damage, Frightened 1
Dorianna 120/120
Aesephna
Iribo, 40 damage
Cherry Berry 88/88, 20-ft bless
Kvit 54/54, Forbidding Ward on Lough and Spider
Lough 54/96, Hasted, Slowed 2, poisoned stage 2 (2/6) DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison, Life Boost 1/4
Everyone is up! Lough heals a bit from his Life Boost, but is still poisoned. The spider is pretty injured, but not quite halfway just yet.
Poison progression HERE.
The spider hits twice, despite its overstimulated eyes, and injects venom into Lough.
Lough, please make 2 DC 30 Fortitude saves.
That's 43 damage, total. I assume you Shield Block, so 34 damage for Lough, 13 to the shield.
Iribo stows her crossbow and grabs her rapier, then goes for the flank with Aesephna.
Rapier:1d20 + 18 ⇒ (19) + 18 = 37 Piercing:1d6 + 9 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 9 + (5, 2) = 18
Spider, 86 damage
Dorianna 81/120
Aesephna, poisoned (1/6) DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison, Slowed 1
Iribo
Cherry Berry 88/88, 20-ft bless
Kvit 54/54
Lough 62/96, Hasted, two DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison
Everyone is up! Lough and Aesephna need to make poison saves.
Poison progression HERE.
Aesephna had +1 to AC due to Protect Companion => the web would miss her. Due to summoner having only one reaciton, I would probably use it for Reactive strike and not for block, so all dmg comes through.
Thanks for the correction! Must've misread your eidolon's AC. 10 more damage added, reactive strike used.
Correction: Spider did not grab hold of Aesephna. She's free to move around.
As the spider descends, Aesephna lashes out. It just about hits the spider, thanks to it still being Clumsy due to the Befuddle.
The spider sinks its fangs in Aesephna and venom flows through Aesephna's body. She takes 3d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 1) = 8 poison damage and is slowed 1.
I should've listed the effects of the poison, because you've already taken your turn and this complicates things. The Summoner says "you share your actions," so effectively the summoner itself counts as slowed? So I'd say choose one action you'd rather not take this turn.
Kvit throws a cascade of colours into the spider's many eyes. It fails its save, but due to the Incapacitation tag, it's only dazzled for a round.
Aesephna lashes out with both hands, connecting twice, while Dorianna bolsters both her offense and defenses.
Lough raises his shield and once more tries to trick the spider, which fails. He lashes out once, which does connect!
Spider, 68 damage
Dorianna 81/120
Aesephna, poisoned (1/6) DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison, Slowed 1
Iribo
Cherry Berry 88/88, 15-ft bless
Kvit 54/54
Lough 96/96, Hasted
Cherry Berry is up, and Dorianna must choose an action to retroactively "lose." Sorry! :(
@Dorianna Took a minute to understand how that reads at first, but I love it. Interesting way to show their link/tandem communication.
Heh, thought that was a copy/paste error, but this makes more sense. Cool!
Kvit, Dizzying Colours is Incapacitation. Unless it's heightened, it'll take one degree better. You can do a different thing if you want. I'll trust you to decide before seeing the results of the save.
I said three months ago that you'd need about 60 foot reach to reach the spider with spells, but I'll let that slide for now since that was unclear.
Dorianna lets out a big yell as she saps the life force out of the spider. The spider is startled, but recovers quickly.
Sorry, didn't know you had Battle Cry. It's worn off now, anyway.
Spider Fort:1d20 + 25 ⇒ (12) + 25 = 37
Unfortunately, the spider is so massive that it shrugs off the attack with ease.
She bolsters her companion as Aesephna moves away.
Kvit tries to befuddle the spider's mind.
Will save:1d20 + 17 ⇒ (16) + 17 = 33
The spider is big, but its mind is apparently much easier to influence. It still resists most of the effect, but it's still somewhat clumsy.
Kvit then chucks his dagger at the spider, which misses.
Cherry Berry blesses the party with Erastil's holy energy, then boosts the eidolon some more.
Lough tries to divert the spider's attention away from him, then chucks his chakram twice at the spider. The distraction fails, but the chakram clatters against the ceiling both times.
The spider, uninjured but annoyed at all the attention it's getting, spits some more webbing down at 1d6 ⇒ 1 Aesephna.
Aesephna, you're now Restrained and tethered to the spider. You can't move away from the spider. You can sever the tether (AC 20, hardness 5, 20 HP), but that won't free you from the restrains. Breaking the restrains is a DC 30 Athletics, Acrobatics, or Unarmed Strike.
The spider then descends from its web Provoking if Aesephna has Reactive Strike, and reeling in its tether at the same time, then chomps down on the eidolon.
Fangs, MAP:1d20 + 24 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 24 - 5 = 29
Piercing damage:2d12 + 12 ⇒ (7, 12) + 12 = 31
Aesephna, please make me a DC 30 Fortitude save versus poison!
Dorianna redirects a chunk of damage to herself, but a lot of damage still goes through.
First time I see Protect Companion in action, so let me see if I get this right: Heightened to 3rd rank, so absorb 20, dealing 10 to Dorianna. Since it's the same health pool, effectively reduce damage by 10, right?
Iribo moves closer to the group again to make use of Cherry Berry's Bless, shoots once, then moves away again.
The dart is coated with poison, and the spider needs to make a save...
Fort:1d30 + 25 ⇒ (2) + 25 = 27
The spider is completely fine.
Spider, 14 damage
Dorianna 99/120
Aesephna, Restrained and tethered (AC 20, hardness 5, 20 HP, DC 30), DC 30 Fortitude save vs poison
Iribo
Cherry Berry 88/88, 15-ft bless
Kvit 54/54
Lough 96/96, Hasted
Everyone is up!
Cherry Berry has a Bless active, and Aesephna is restrained and tethered by the web, and needs to make a DC 30 Fort save versus poison.
I posted the information about the spider in this post, which is *checks* whelp, three months ago. I still had that information in my brain, but I don't blame you if you didn't. Stupid me making assumptions again. Will mark in the future.
EDIT: Also, Lough, thanks for the explanation. The Exemplar is still a black box to me, I need to look into it some more to fully grok it.
By the way, I intended the drow to be a somewhat friendly group, especially since you're friends with Falxi. I sorta kinda roped you into being their prisoners to avoid direct conflict, but I didn't mean to cause problems with you not wanting to serve them (mainly Cherry Berry helping them conquer your own community), so I'm open to retconning and/or creative solutions to this conundrum.
The bar is floor 6. So now the floors that are connected are floors 2, 6, and 8.
As you go down, Kvit connects two more portals to the system, allowing you easier access to the lower levels. It's well midday when you're ready to go back to adventuring proper.
You arrive back at the level with the drow and caligni. Iribo, the drow with the spider companion awaits you. "Welcome back captives," she greets cheerfully. "You had to leave one upstairs, I see? That venom can be nasty. Luckily you found another prisoner for us, so all should be good. Now, do you have any plans on how to tame that giant spider?"
Dorianna: To give you some context: the drow here are working for Belcorra, but have taken the group "prisoner" and let the party do the dirty work for them. Their current task is to capture the ginormous spider that's clinging on the ceiling 60 feet above them.
Anyone can cast some prebuffs now, if they want. Also, place yourselves where you want to be.
Dorianna, could you make a token for yourself and for Aesephna?
Technically, uppermost portal needs some money to re-install the silver ring (all the silver has been pried out by looters over the years), you mentioned so earlier. I'm fine with spending some money on that, or you use that check for level 2.
No need for a secondary check, crit success means it's open. You could flavour helping, though.
Kvit concentrates for an hour on the circle and it hums back to life. The air in the teleport circle tastes a little different, but you can't put your finger on how, exactly. It feels... heavier?
Do you want to re-activate all the portals, or just some? Or now jump straight back to level 8?
There's no full rest, just a quick trip to town to drop off Kka and pick up a new team member.
I'm guessing you put the hood back on Murmur to disguise her somewhat. She would cause quite a stir if it became known there's a medusa in town. The priests of Erastil will babysit her until you're back.
I can't find it, but I believe the intention was that if you don't have a secondary caster, you automatically crit fail on that check. So a secondary caster isn't there to make the primary check easier, but to not make it worse.
Yes, it's absolutely okay to request an "X card" for anything, don't feel afraid to do so. I wasn't planning on putting Dorianna in any specific harm, or at least not something I wouldn't put any other PC in. But if anyone is uncomfortable with child endangerment, I'll keep that in mind.
---
For Dorianna's age, nothing is specified, but it is described she's on the cusp of puberty. A quick search tells me that's typically between 8 and 13 for girls. In my mind she was in the 10-12 range, definitely on the more mature side, but still very much a child. But feel free to give your own twist to the character. :)
(Do you have healer's tools? Can't do Medicine without them. :P)
I've seen Summoners in action, and I know their action economy gets tangled up sometimes. I'd like to propose the following house rule, if everyone agrees: Act Together lets you split up your actions so you effectively have four actions to spend between the two of you. So you could cast a spell, and your eidolon can use a two-action activity (such as a breath weapon, or a spell of their own, or whatever).
Normally, if the master uses two actions, the eidolon can use two separate one-action activities, but not combine them into one two-action thing. I've seen people get annoyed by that, and it makes sense to me that as long as you're only spending four actions in total, you can split them up however you want. This might be too strong, I don't know, so I reserve the right to revoke this house rule later on, but this seems like an easy fix. Do people agree to this houserule?
---
Also, looking through your statblock, I see your eidolon is large. I'd just like to warn you that there are a lot of small corridors and rooms in this dungeon, so that might pose a bit of an issue. Feel free to train out of it if it becomes a problem.
Also, could you maybe organise your statblock a little bit more in your profile? You probably did a quick and dirty writeup, but a character progression would be good to have, so I can see what you picked up when.
As you stand close to the spider's territory, the spider clicks and hisses as it senses your ill intent. It spits a glob of venom at you as a warning, which catches Kka straight in the face. She shrieks as the venom burns her eyes, and you quickly retreat. Cherry Berry does a quick round of first aid, but after half an hour, Kka's eyes are still swollen shut. Between Kka and Cherry Berry's combined expertise, you come to the conclusion that Kka needs long-term medical care, or she could lose her vision permanently. So you go back to Otari and see if the church of Erastil can take care of her.
As you're in town, rumour quickly spreads that one of Otari's heroes is gravely injured, and a throng of people gathers around Kka's sickbed, asking when she'll be better and what happens to vanquishing Belcorra now that Kka's incapacitated. The head priest of the church shoos everyone away, saying Kka needs rest and is forbidden from adventuring for the near future. The crowd slowly dissipates, leaving behind a familiar figure...
Cherry Berry: do you agree with adding Farol to the group? You're the only one I haven't seen a definitive "yes" from.
---
As for the pause, I was ready to skip the last bit, but we could do a quick trip back up to pick up Farol. How do the others feel about that? Also depends on what Farol wants to do with their character. Farol, could you PM me with what you intend to do? So I can inject you into the narrative a little easier.
Free archetype rule, and I made a small addition to it: You can have different "tracks" for your archetypes, allowing you two archetypes at the same time. I hope this makes sense:
- Free archetype feats have to be archetype feats. No double-dipping on class feats.
- Your regular class feats can become archetype feats, including free archetype ones, or start a new archetype.
For instance, if your Free Archetype is Acrobat, you can choose Celebrity Dedication as your normal class feat. Free Archetype feats can be spent on Celebrity or Acrobat feats, but not on main class feats. You still must choose three archetype feats before grabbing a new archetype.
Needlessly complicated? Yes. But it allows for a little more variation, if people need it.
I'm fine with most uncommon options, just let me know beforehand. I doubt I'll veto them, I just want a heads up. Definitely let me know if you're looking ar Rare options.
Normal gold for level 8.
Preferably choose a background from the AP, if it makes sense. Ties you a little bit more to the story.
Ah, my apologies. I hadn't realised how burnt out you were. I had thought (or maybe hoped) a new party member would revive your enthusiasm, but I completely understand being burnt out. Regardless, I would like to thank you so incredibly much for being such an enthusiastic player and keeping the loot sheet up to date and stuff. I will miss you, and I hope we'll see each other in PbP again.
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I understand the wolf guy not being a great fit. Dorianna as a playable character would be cool, with either Aesephna or Kka as an eidolon (just for reference, Kka is female. :)).
You could also take over Kka's character, if you feel like it (and her owner allows). Might feel a bit weird to play a "second-hand" character, but I'd like to offer it as an option anyway.
Which reminds me, there are also several other older party members you could pick up, if you wanted. There's Sam, a human monk fighting with bow and arrow (dropped relatively early on because the player didn't really have a connection to the character, and thus the adventure), Gyozara, a gnome sorcerer (dropped because they started GMing this adventure and didn't feel like playing it again), and Fuìn, a kayal reach fighter (life got too busy, had to drop the game). If you like the sound of any of them, take a look through the old party members in the Characters tab.
If Farol were to join with a brand new character, I don't expect them to fill the exact niche Kka occupied. I will allow players to freely retrain some skills and skill feats if necessary. For Farol's sake: Kka was the medic of the party: she had Battle Medicine and the important Medicine skill feats for out of combat healing. She also was the default trap disabler (I handwaved out of combat healing away to speed things up, but having Ward Medic and Continual Recovery would be nice to have for the fiction of the game). She also demoralised a lot, but that was her personal playstyle, I don't expect you to fall exactly into those footsteps. Not sure you have room for that on a Summoner chassis.
One thing I can do is try to post if I'm waiting on someone else, for more clarification, have nothing to add, planned update time, etc. (instead of not posting)
Yeah, this is a good suggestion. I hope this also incentivises people to post more, even an "busy right now, hope to post tomorrow/the day after" would be helpful. And indeed, an "I have nothing/don't want to add anything" also helps to know people are at least keeping an eye on things, and is hopefully low effort enough that it doesn't feel like a burden to people.
Indeed, I would like unanimous agreement on adding a new player. But in case Cherry Berry agrees, I'd like to provide a little more information on the NPCs I mentioned earlier so maybe Farol can start brewing. Or they can make their own character, I just think it's cool if it's a character you've already met.
- The party "freed" a couple of mitflits on the first level, and they've been running around the Fogfen, and they became a recurring background thing in the first book, after which I faded them out. I think I had one turn into a Druid/Ranger type with a pet bear. The other two I don't remember as much. A morlock tinkerer joined that party after level 2, and I had him pegged as an Inventor.
- You're already familiar with Dorianna Menhemes. She's a latent Psychic, but a Summoner would be cool too.
- The party found a loophole and managed to keep Carman Rajani alive. He's been rebuilding the Danwflower Library after he set part of it on fire, and he has a bit of a redemption arc. He's a Rogue type, but I could see any martial working for him. In the adventure he fights with a longsword and can throw light hammers.
- You seemed to have an interest in the wolf guy. The party failed their knowledge checks, so they don't know this, but he's a werewolf (beastkin would also work as a PC) and a murderer who fled into Gauntlight a long time ago. He has a pet wolf (but if you don't want a wolf, you can leave him at home) and fights with katars. He's officially a Druid, but I can see Ranger working for him as well. He's escaped Gauntlight and is now harassing a Druid group nearby, eating their sheep. They've requested that Cherry Berry deal with him, but we never got to that part. Could maybe also give Cherry Berry a reason to interact more and be less passive, if they're okay with that.
- The level the party is currently on is full of drow, caligni, and an urdefhan. There's no playable ancestry for them, so we'll have to homebrew something, but they could definitely tag along.
- The party just picked up a Feebleminded medusa. They could break the curse and have her join. Typically medusas fight with a bow, but any weapon would work, really.
- Mister Beak, from all the way back at level 1 is a goblin named Borbo that's been put in a soul gem. Lough has kept it around and used it as a power source for his mechanical arm. Lough could maybe construct a full body for him if you're interested.
- There's a bar a few levels back that has plenty of people you could pick up. There's a drider, several morlocks, a few of those augmented morlocks, and the band Shadow Malice, consisting of a xulgath, duergar, caligni, and a ratfolk. They could be great Warrior Bards. Most of them have some band-related custom moves I'd be happy to share with you.
Any of these pique your interest? Again, you can also make your own character, but these could be introduced a little more naturally. You could also be a prisoner on the next level, but that would mean waiting for a bit until the party reaches you, which might not be ideal.
Oh yeah, Murmur definitely assumes you're breaking the Feeblemind, of course. And yeah, I thought adding a character you have some history with already gives you a closer bond with than "Wrin found someone, good luck."
A "progress bar" could be a good idea, gives you a sense of progress. Maybe with some goodies at certain intervals. Seems maybe a little too (meta)game-y, but could be a good idea. Also helps with preserving spells and such. The details of how much to show (increases of 10%? More? Less? Or X out of Y battles fought?), could be hashed out if we decide to use it.
I'm okay with this Farol character from that but if info. They sound like a good fit, especially since they're familiar with what's happened so far. (Though I also feel the party should talk about potential recruits before. If only especially since we're working through communication issues here, so it's probably better to over communicate)
Yeah, definitely this. If Farol gets added (that's still an "if"), they would need to fit the party. Is there a specific build or class you'd like to see added (or don't want added), or can Farol just drop in with whatever?
EDIT: I've been keeping things in the back of my head just for funsies. Potentially interesting characters to add could be:
- One of the mitflit gang (and one morlock) from the first level that are still wandering around.
- Dorianna Menhemes could join as a fully-grown Psychic (we'll just handwave how she just jumped to level 8).
- Carman Rajani could join as a second Rogue (or Rogue-type).
- The wolf guy from a few levels back hasn't been dealt with. You could "recruit" him.
- Maybe one of the drow, caligni, or the mad urdefhan on this level could become a party member through shenanigans (I'll need to homebrew some ancestry feats, but could be cool).
- Murmur?
- Borbo in his own new body.
- Some person from the bar a few levels back, maybe even a band member.
