You planning to do any other bounty? Shayla hasn't played B18 or the new B20...
Probably not right now, but maybe in the future I'll run some more.
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As the King flees through his wall, Zac cuts the legs out from under him. The King collapses to the ground, its life fading into the ground. Combat Over! While annoying to deal with, the poison coursing through Mirtha and Serj's veins eventually runs its course leaving them wounded, but alive. Return to the Village You return to Zekrotska and collect your promised rewards. The villagers are grateful for your aid. However, they’re of a stoic, cautious temperament and not inclined to emotional outbursts; only Aletzska offers truly warm thanks. The rest of the villagers are certain another calamity will hit them soon enough and believe there’s little to be gained from celebrating. Aletzska offers you a hot meal and a bed for the night, and Vanya offers to treat any injuries with herbal medicines. The next morning, Aletzska bids you be on their way since “Irrisen is no place for noble people to stay for too long.” You catch up with the other Pathfinder team for the return teleportation, noticing that all of their members are alive as well. One of them breaks a token and light surrounds your groups before you find yourself back at the Grand Lodge.
Shayla wakes Mirtha up who then heals themself and Serj from the ground. Kaclenna runs back around the Wall of Thorns.
Serj overdrives and swings their flickmace and commands Bull Market to roll forward and crush the King under its treads.
Serj and Bull Market deal significant damage to the King and it looks severely wounded, but still able to move! With the only target that seems effective at hurting it being Serj, the King turns its attention to the inventor.
With its last action, the King darts through the Wall of Thorns, it opens and lets the King through before closing back up again.
Critical Hits from monsters tends to be pretty deadly, especially when you're fighting a solo boss enemy; and yeah, no real worries about dying!
Yeah, unfortunately dying with poison or persistent on you is brutal. The King is almost dead though, just a few more good hits and we can finish the bounty!
Shyla and Kaclenna both make it close to the fight, around the wall of Thorns. Mirtha orders Zac to attack and he follows through, but the King ducks and weaves out of the fighter's attacks.
The toxins inside Mirtha overtake their body's defenses!
The only action you took was Explosive Leap, I'm not that experienced with Inventor, but I don't see anything I need to do adjudicate; you jump 30 feet. If you have a question please ask it in . Additionally, I didn't delay you, I had you command your robot to move around the wall and to Raise a Shield, which I then Shield Blocked with based on your previous actions.
Kaclenna and Shayla jog through the woods around the wall of thorns while Professor Serj rockets over it. Zac attempts to hack through the wall, but with little to show for it (hardness 10). The King steps towards Mirtha and lashes out with a claw.
It then lashes out at Serj.
Mirtha Steps away and unleashes divine punishment in the form of wilting.
The Wall of Thorns doesn't dissolve and the King seems less affected than previously.
The king is observed; he just has cover against most of you because of the Wall of Thorns
Neither Mirtha nor Bull Market spot the King.
Serj doesn't manage to spot the creature either.
The King dashes from the forest towards Mirtha and casts a spell that causes a wall of thorns to appear, separating Mirtha and Zec from the rest of the group. "You killed my plants. Now, I will kill you." he says to Mirtha.
Fighting a stealthy enemy in PbP adds an extra step to everything, doesn't it?
Kaclenna doesn't spot anything and Zac fires arrows at the creature's last known location, but they just hit trees. Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Added a question mark for last known location. You don't know which direction it went.
If Shayla seeks one time:
You find nothing but trees. If Shayla seeks a second time:
You find nothing but trees. If Shayla seeks a third time: You find nothing but trees.
Professor Serj sends his robotic friend forward to attack, but, while it plots the perfect route, it fails to plot the perfect attack and misses. Shayla tosses two knives at the King. The first one embeds itself in a tree, but the second one hits it square in the chest. Zac pulls a bow and fires at the King, but both arrows fail to find their mark. Kaclenna moves forward and stabs out with a rapier only to find that the King has an extremely tough hide (miss). The King lashes out at Kaclenna with a sap covered claw.
Failing to harm anyone, the King tries to fade away into the forest.
The King seems to suddenly vanish from your view. Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Mirtha fails to recall anything about this creature or even what it is. However, the sudden blight destroys the entangling roots, though not the larger trees.
Mirtha also causes the King to howl in pain as its body begins to decay rapidly. Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Initiative rolls:
+11 for Initiative (Avoid Notice) "You're wish..." the voice calls. You see the light of magic being cast and suddenly the plants all around you are attempting to grab you!
The creature tries to return to hiding in the foliage, but the light from casting a spell gives it away. Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Reflex save DC: 22 On a failure Spoiler:
you take a –10-foot circumstance penalty to your Speeds until you leave the area On a critical failure Spoiler:
You are immobilized for 1 round Creatures can attempt to Escape at entangle's DC to remove these effects.
The creature responds, "Do you not know those that would slay those that enter their home uninvited? You must leave or you'll be next to die."
Both Kaclenna and Shayla make it with ease. They climb back down and lead the party to the marked tree. A rustling whisper springs up from the nearby trees. While it sounds gentle, it’s the first sign of hidden movement within the forest trees. A single dead tree marked with a carved X stands in a small clearing to the south. Several dozen human heads dangle from its dried branches. From somewhere in the trees you hear, "Who enters...my domain?" Mirtha, Zac, and Bull Market try to pinpoint where the sound is coming from, but with no success.
Some time passes and between bandages and magic, you recover from your wounds. You know that tree was sawn that particular way intentionally, but not by whom or why. Eventually, you continue to press forward and reach a rocky outcropping. The trees give way to an opening of rock that snakes around the woods. The wind howls ominously around the rocks.
The the south (left in this case) you can see one of the marked trees that you were told about before.
Kaclenna is revived and everyone is healed a bit. You wait a few minutes to patch each other up and nothing else seems to happen.
As you press slightly froward, a partially sawn tree collapses onto the path, possibly crushing you! (that no one noticed)
The tree catches Shayla and Bull Market as they try to dive away while Serj manages to avoid the worst of it. Unfortunately for Kaclenna, the tree lands directly on them, dealing a potentially lethal blow. HP Values
I'll resume posting tomorrow. Dad is fine and stable. Just need to recover from the emergency. :) That's great news!
The blizzard eventually dies down and you head out to hunt this "King of the Wood." As you move into the woods, you look for carved Xs on trees and see one in a clearing not to far away from where you are now. This part of the path winds and curves before leading out near a jut of rocky hills. A single, downed tree lies flat on the ground
Aletzka retrieves a chest and opens it up for you to see the coin, "Here's the coin. Kill the creature and its yours."
Oleg looks at the spear then back at Mirtha, "Aye, but I'd better see you alive to return it to me when you're done."
Oleg looks at you a bit funny, "Its a spear, so wood." he says before pointing at the top, "The head is some kind of special iron though." A lot of you recognize the head as being low-grade cold-iron.
Nikita responds, "Damn thing was weird as the ice witches. I didn't see it that well on account of the snow, but its kind of human looking but taller with stretched out limbs. Tends to attack in clearing so far and can control trees and plants plus it lops off heads and gives us back the bodies; strange beast." Nikita adds, "I marked places its attacked with Xs on the trees." Oleg drinks heavily as Zac approaches, "Uh...I guess. You look pretty strong there yourself." after a minute of conversing, he provides more information, "Wife thought it was an angry dryad and thought her lucky charm would keep her safe." he then pauses for a minute, "It didn't but the creature left me alone for some reason when I...retrieved her." GM Dice:
Shayla:
You think the creature left Oleg alone because of the worked wood that makes up his spear. Shayla speaks with Vanya, "Aye, I saw the beast. Calls itself 'King of the Wood'. The thing is smart and can talk, but it certainly ain't no dryad."
The woman tends to the fire, "A beast that can survive the storm is exactly the kind of beast we are dealing with...and those heads? Innocent people the beast has slain." she says remorsefully. "We're just foresters, not warriors. We don't stand a chance against a monster like this." As you continue to converse with her, she provides additional information, "Its been weeks of something preying on us in the woods; now no one will go out to gather wood or hunt for food." she then adds, "Can't buy food either, no wood means no coin." The woman then introduces herself and some others in the inn, "I'm Aletzka, the innkeeper. Over there is Nikita, one of our foresters." she whispers, "I think he may have seen the beast; won't go out there anymore.", she continues, "That's Oleg, one of our hunters...his wife was killed by the beast, she adds quietly, [b]"And that is Vanya, our herbalist. She tried to speak with the beast, but she hasn't said much about it." Nikita (male) is a stout, shaggy-bearded, man with gray-streaked hair. Oleg (male) is a massively built, red-faced young widower whose iron-headed spear never strays far from his hand Vanya (nonbinary) is a heavyset ulfen in their mid-30s.
You come across Zekrotska, a scattering of cabins in a small forest clearing. Directly in front of you, you see a woman ringing a bell and calling out into the storm, "Quickly, get out of this blizzard!" she says as she gestures towards the tavern behind her. A signpost reads The Blooming Branch. Oil lamps light the taproom, and a feeble fire of broken wooden furniture heats a soup pot in the hearth. Humans in heavy furs and leathers wait patiently for soup and sip weak ale. Aletzka seats you by the fire and provides some complimentary beverages before immediately asking if you have come to town to accept the bounty, "You’re here to help? To hunt the beast of the woods? I suppose Zon-Kuthon’s eyes are elsewhere today! I thought no one was coming, I thought all was lost…"
Zac leads the group along what everyone is pretty sure is the road, however after half an hour you realize that you got off-track somewhere and need to cut back towards the real path. Anyone not wearing cold weather gear takes cold damage (DC 16 basic Fort). After a bit more trekking through the snow, you hear the clear, pure note of a bell as it rings out just a short distance ahead. Hazy, dim lights accompany it. Could you have found civilization in this blizzardy wasteland? "If you're...storm...follow...bell!" you faintly hear from the direction of the lights.
You follow Janira to a teleportation circle where other agents are gathering, "This will take you pretty close to your destination, but the other agents have a different task further north." Janira explains. You step on the platform and it begins to glow and then, in a flash of light, you're suddenly standing in snow. You travel down a snow-covered path for a time in an opposite direction from the other team of pathfinders.
The trees grasp at the road with gnarled fingers, runes of good luck and fortune carved on their trunks, and offerings of twisted twigs lie amongst their branches. Barren trees and the bitter cold have been constant companions on the dirt road for several hours now. The severed heads are new. Withered and frozen, the horror-struck human heads hang by their blood-matted hair from the trees’ lower branches. Their crow-eaten, empty eye sockets stare out as though pleading for release. The blizzard reduces visibility and buries the road within minutes, threatening to make you lost in the storm. You can nominate one character as a guide. That character must attempt a DC ?? Survival check to Sense Direction to keep the group from getting lost. If anyone is not wearing cold weather gear for whatever reason, they take cold damage (DC 16 basic Fort).
Recruitment closed!
Agents (that's you), gather around the bounty poster. One agent flies in on jets of fire causing most of the people of Absalom to look up and watch his crash landing. Some, remembering the recent invasion, panic at first before realizing the destination is the Grand Lodge and are able to convince themselves that is simply another eccentric pathfinder. Most of the more experienced agents barely give the sight a passing glance as they continue their work. Seeing you standing around the poster, one female halfling approaches you, "Oh great! A whole crew is already together for that job, huh? Thought I was going to have round up a team or two of fresh recruits, but I've heard all of you are a bit more experienced than most of our greener agents." she says as she tears the poster down, "Names Janira Gavix, pleased to meet you...or re-meet you, as the case may be! Anywho, follow me if you want that free teleport; there's a team heading to Irrisen in the next hour." she then looks at your gear, "You uhh, might want to dress a bit warmer though."
Thank you for the detailed insight into the matter
Thanks; I haven't run a bounty before, but I felt like I could come up with something other than you're just at the right location suddenly. Thanks to running it as a PFS scenario, it helps give some possible context.
We are up to 5 players signed up, so I went ahead and posted a small start in Gameplay.
You see the bounty poster hug at the Grand Lodge in Absalom. Either its new or other agents are either preoccupied or uninterested. The Society has recently granted you some off days to do with what you will, but there are always some loose ends or odd jobs that need doing by skilled adventurers, even if the Society doesn't sponsor a team directly. This is one such job. What little you know off-hand about this job is that the location states "Irrisen" which is far to the north. This won't be a one day job, but sometimes the Society offers a free ride on teleportation if a sponsored team is headed somewhere close by. As you consider the job and the time investment, you notice that the bounty poster has an additional note at the bottom "Free teleportation for up to 6 agents if claimed in the next 3 days!
I like that PbP offers a bit deeper roleplay for your character, though sometimes the walls of text can get a bit overwhelming. Of course, the scheduling is always a nice benefit too.
Done. Where've you been? Haven't seen you for awhile. Mostly working on Pathfinder Infinite stuff and taking a break from PbP for a while. Sometimes, PbP just feels like work instead of like playing a game, you know? Working on the Infinite stuff has been pretty rewarding, but I'm especially excited about the Thaumaturge and it has quickly become my favorite class of all time.
slides not accessible Right, forgot about that. It's been a while since I did a PbP GM game. Editable Link.
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