The team is unable to find any clues at any of the locations.
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Helgar, with his scorpion's help, figures out that the creature is the 'brains' of the symbiotic thing you are fighting. It's a human worm that walks with wizard levels. It has strong damage reduction, is immune to critical hits, disease, flanking, paralysis, poison, and sleep. Helgar is still up.
Unfortunately, there are no knowledge checks possible for the beetle, because it has no actual stat block. The creature standing in the beetle's mouth could have bits known from knowledge:arcana or knowledge:dungoeneering. You may try both, if desired.
The blueprints stolen from here are the only possible ones left. The gnome suggests that the paintings themselves might be the key to finding what you need. (how you would ever guess that without hints I have no idea...)
Helgar
Helgar is up first. The beetle is up in the air, so you can't just climb into its mouth. The beetle's mouth is open, and a creature is standing at the edge of that mouth. The six circles on the map are the beetle's legs. You think that it's possible damaging the legs could cause the beetle to fall over. (this won't be quite a normal encounter due to the size of the beetle.)
An enormous beetle the size of a war galley rears its insectile head in this canyon. Massive, chitinous plates cover every inch of its mighty frame, save for its gaping, toothy maw, which opens into the fleshy and tunnellike stomach of the beast.
Queck answers Neri's question about what buildings the Ismacco family were involved in the construction of. "“The construction of the entire Swift Prison was headed by Ismacco engineers and I’ve been asking the city to destroy that Groetus-festooned statue in front of the prison for years. They also built the Imperial Hall of Records, the Admiralty Citadel, and the Harbor Watch; laid the stone that makes up the square around Pharasma’s Pulpit; and built retaining walls to shore up some of the ruins at Quickfall Abbey.”
“They ransacked our guild and stole ancient city plans—not to mention
To keep things moving, I will assume that one of you asks what the Crypt of Fools is, and where it can be found. "The Crypt of Fools is a secret graveyard, long fallen from use, where traitorous families were buried, or in some cases re-buried, to scrub their stain from Taldan history. The entrance lies under an ancient fountain hidden somewhere below Old Cassomir, though the knowledge of its exact location was lost some time ago and finding it presents a bit of a problem. A legend among engineers tells of a series of hidden clues within three Cassomir monuments. These clues yield three locations which, when triangulated, give the location of the surface entrance to the Crypt of Fools; they also show the combination required to unlock the entrance. Look for old buildings built by the Ismacco family, whom we’ve long suspected used the Crypt of Fools as the base of their heinous operations after it fell from use.”
Ela, Anya, and Specter all damage the leader, who falls over, dead. The gnome engineer introduces herself as Queck Majet. She thanks you for rescuing her and the other engineers who remain in the building. She explains that about an hour ago, more cultists left with six captive engineers— the six engineers who are most knowledgeable on the subject of ancient Cassomir construction. What questions do you have for her?
The enemy is unable to resist Ela's spell. The enemy is dazed, so takes no actions. The party is up again. status: enemy -6 HP, shield of faith
After 1 hour of travel, the trail leads into a deep canyon. Along the way, you see various ways that Deskari’s death has brought ruin to his kingdom. In the distance, demonic servitors of Deskari tear each other to pieces in a battle for supremacy, paying no mind to you as you pass by. The once-mighty fortresses of the Rasping Rifts have already begun to crumble to ruin. A thick layer of insect husks blankets the floor of the canyon, crunching underfoot as you walk on the ground and leaving clear footprints like snow. Swarms of insects fill the air up above the ravine. Just in front of you is a sharp bend in the ravine. Anything particular you want to do before going around the corner? Also, please place yourself on the map we will be using after you go around the corner. It's the first map after the rolling macros; your icons need to go into the blue box that is revealed.
Ela knows the spell is Shield of Faith on herself, and can indeed shoot the remaining enemy. As noted earlier, the blue heart is the gnome who the attackers were tormenting. (on the map so you know where you could have safely used AoOs on the enemies who were nearby) The enemy does not immediately fall from the grease. Anya's acid does a little more damage. status: enemy -5 HP, Shield of Faith Ela, Neri, and Dass still to act.
Dass makes sure orange won't torment any more gnome engineers ever again. Anya, I misread something so your splash of acid does hit the enemy on the catwalk.
The only remaining enemy, who is up on the catwalk, casts a spell of some sort. The party is up again. status: red -3 HP
Anya and Bagurm miss. Dass is up.
Specter has been moved to where she would need to stop on the second map.
Ela finishes off green.
before we resume, can everyone please verify that the penalties you took are reflected both in your character header and in the rolling macros in the maps? We can't move forward until I'm sure everyone has done so.
Ela's shot eliminates yellow completely.
orange -8 HP
Orange tries to club Dass.
Green tries to get revenge on Specter.
The enemy on the catwalk mutters some magical words and points at Dass.
results of save:
If you passed DC 14, you are fine. If not, you are blinded. The party is up again.
I'm sorry, everyone, I really can't do this. This scenario is one that I would never have chosen to run in PbP. I thought I could make myself push through that, since you had already put up with enough, and you needed a new GM. I've realized I'm not going to be able to make this a good game for anyone. Not only am I not posting nearly often enough here, my problems with this game are making me post less to other games, too. Would you like me to post in Flaxseed to see if I can find a new GM for you, or would you like to just declare this game never happened?
Anything else before we follow the trail other than the trap trail?
Everyone, The next few weeks are a time when posting tends to be slow. I will continue posting, but definitely less frequently. I'll be expecting that most of you will do the same. Please post when you can. I'll allow plenty of time for you to post, botting the last person who has not posted if it's been a while. In early January I'll resume normal posting expectations. I hope all of you enjoy any special holidays you have in the next few weeks.
Everyone, The next few weeks are a time when posting tends to be slow. I will continue posting, but definitely less frequently. I'll be expecting that most of you will do the same. Please post when you can. I'll allow plenty of time for you to post, botting the last person who has not posted if it's been a while. In early January I'll resume normal posting expectations. I hope all of you enjoy any special holidays you have in the next few weeks.
The fog finally clears. You notice someone threatening up on a catwalk (see the other revealed map). You also see three cultists (green, yellow, and orange circles) tormenting a female gnome who appears to be some sort of engineer or technician. init:
The entire party is up before the bad guys.
'To determine the order in which the armies act, each army rolls 1d10 and adds its Speed and commander’s Charisma bonus to the roll.' So what I need from each of you is the speed of your army plus the charisma bonus for your character. I'll need to go through and change all the dice in that rolling macro to D10, unless someone else gets to it first.
You're in the mist, so you have no way of knowing what is around you.
Helgar, there's nothing in the rules to allow taking the average for healing, so you're going to need to roll for that.
No, it's not. You need to send a private message. To help you, we will need to go into a lot more detail than is appropriate to get into in public like this.
IHiYC, please reach out to one of us (the PbP VO team) for help. Chronicle repair like this is best done with such help. By the strictest interpretation of the rules, that chronicle sheet would simply become invalid, as would any other chronicle sheets that couldn't apply because the character was under leveled. It would quickly become quite a mess. In cases like this where a mistake was made, we can help find the best way to fix the problem.
Anya discovers that the magic cloud was obscuring mist, and that it will only last for one more round. One more round of actions, please, everyone.
OK, everyone please fill in your army's initiative in the dice macro on the second map slide. (one of the errors in the last attempt at this scenario is that initiative wasn't rerolled as often as it should be)
The team, realizing they fell into a carefully set trap, is able to back track to relative safety, and then pauses for healing and conversation.
Everyone, please make sure you've updated your headers. Not only should your current HP reflect any damage, you need to include the penalties from the bites. I would suggest temp followed by the new number for all the relevant stats.
Anya finds that the cloud is indeed magic. (spellcraft to ID) next round of actions, please, everyone.
The insects’ bites infuse you with the raw essence of the Abyss. Kahwen takes 38 damage, a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks, as well as a –2 penalty to his AC and to spell DCs, for the duration of the scenario. Everyone else takes 19 damage and -1 penalties as listed above. The team is quickly able to deal with the insects, but not fast enough to avoid the bites listed above. pausing briefly for any reaction or action taken in response.
I apologize for my slow posting right now. I'm suffering from a temporary burnout because another game is going really badly. It should improve in the next week or two, so please be patient and things will get better.
OK, missing token is fixed. I had added two of somone else insted. Can everyone please make sure that the current map accurately reflects how you moved? I want to make sure I didn't create another problem with my fix.
Just a quick rules note: you can play a scenario once in core and once in standard without using a replay
I'll be resuming here tomorrow. This game takes a bit too much thought to resume right after a very busy holiday weekend.
Following the trail you found, you find yourselves in an area crawling with various biting and stinging insects. Before the team can react, you find them crawling all over you. I need a fortitude save from everyone. You have a hunch this might be a very important fortitude save.
The team spends three rounds prepping and entering. The mist is starting to fade, although visibility has not yet improved. What next, everyone? We are in rounds, but not initiative.
This game is on pause for Thanksgiving weekend. I'll see you all again early next week.
This game is on pause for Thanksgiving weekend. I'll see you all again early next week.
This game is on pause for Thanksgiving weekend. I'll see you all again early next week. |