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'WACK' The ax slices the puppeteer in half coming within a hair's breath of Squirm's hand. His ax head by his side, blood dripping from it, he turns to the caravan guards. "You can study it dead. Now who are you, why are you here, and what day is it?
Looking around him in bewilderment, the Duergar looks at the guards addressing him, then at the puppeteer. He rises to his feet holding his axe haft in his hand, but with the blade swinging low in a casual manner. "Name's Bender. Been guarding a caravan headed through the Hirauu Forest to Arbil. Filgum was my companion, and Fat-Hiruk was the caravan master. "You say you pulled that off my neck? Best drop it before you lose a hand dromite!" the Duergar spits as he raises up his axe and moves toward the puppeteer. GM Rolls:
Waking the Duergar , the caravan guards see him sit up, shake his head, and look at them without recognition. "Who in the nine hells are you? Where are Filgum and Fat-Hiruk?" The Duergar reaches for his fallen battle axe.
Squirm easily removes the Puppeteer from the base of the duergar's neck. Both life forms slump on the ground unconscious.
Before I make my GM post, hopefully before my lunch is over, just want to again, check in with everyone. So you are quite a powerful bunch of adventurers, so much so that every encounter (Going back to the Opened Mind) except this one, I have modified to make harder. As I read through the rest of the AP, I know for a fact that you will breeze through the combats without batting an eye. In RL, I have X many free hour(s) to devote to games. In those hour(s), I like to post IC on the games I play, or develop well thought out GM posts in the games I run. Lately, my X time has been greatly reduced, and what time I do have to devotee to this game has been spent on modifying the villains. For simplicity sake, I am going to 'handwave' some of the combats, all of the optional combats, in order to be more story focused. There is a story as we move to Part 1, Chapter 2, the Hirauu Forest. So without further ado ::waves hand::
The combined efforts of Squirm's mean spirited talk, Neils' trademark takedown maneuver, Aidan's psionically charged strike, and Kazushi's colorful magiks, the duergar and puppeteer fall down unconscious. All that can be heard is the soft rustling of the verdant foliage as the caravan guards look upon the trade route that turns into the Hirauu Forest.
Was Kaz's colour spray unsuccessful or does she need to wait until her initiative now? Initiative
After a brief conversation starter and then noticing the purple Puppeteer on the base of the duergar 's neck, the caravan guards decide to engage the hapless dwarf. Initiative Rolls:
Squirm begins to berate the duergar who becomes shaken.
DM is thinking either obviously" I am thinking that not knowing what to do is what makes a Role Playing game so much fun, deciding what you want to do and the consequences of that action are the crux of why most players play. You should embrace your decision making process and player ignorance as fun, or this might become a tedious experience for you.
From the GM desk ... I have noticed a considerable drop in posting rate. Thought it would be a good time to check in. Everyone still here? Anything I can do to help?
The duergar follows close behind Aidan. "I see you human. I see you." he rambles.
The guards continue their discourse with the duegar. He continues to largely ignore them muttering under his breath. A few glance at the woods they have been skirting since leaving Arbil, but other than trees, underbrush, and birds, they don't see anything out of place. Squirm:
You feel the duergar is feeling Anger - similar to Determination. Perception Rolls:
More than a few of the caravan guards notice a purplish slug at the base of the duergar's neck.
As the caravan guards try to interact with the duergar, he largely ignores them and just meanders back and forth on the path, staring intermittently at the woods. "Gotta save them ... fight harder ... can win ... gotta be a way." He continues his pacing.
It is possible he is on the autistic spectrum. High functioning autistics can be very intelligent and technically minded, but don't get social rules. Just a quick note on this, remember this is a public forum, one with a very useful search function. In my years on Paizo, there have been two instances when someone has searched themselves that I know of. The first instance, one of my friends had made some negative comments about someone else, that person searched themselves out, read what was written about him/her, and called my friend out. Luckily everything was handled in a mature fashion and we actually gamed together a bit before drifting off. The second instance a quiet popular PbP player searched themselves out and found I had named dropped him/her, sent me a nice PM about a game we had played together. Please take it for what it is, just a suggestion to keep conversations like this private.
Though none of the caravan guards would consider themselves an outdoorsman, their makeshift camp is well constructed and comfortable. The draft animals, grateful from the break of hauling the wagon, silently chew on the abundant grasses. After a meager dinner, and some stories of deeds great and small, the first group takes their watch positions as the rest retire for the night. GM:
Though those that remain awake while their friends slumber are ever vigilant, tracking every squirrel and rattling leaf, the first watch passes uneventfully and they shake awake the second watch. At the end of second watch, the third watch take their place, rubbing sleep from their eyes. The hours pass slowly as the bright morning sun slowly pushes it way up from the horizon, bathing the shadowy forest with warm, yellow light. Quickly breaking camp, the caravan guards resume their trek to Vensnak. Less than an hour into their journey, they come across A squat, armored form trudges along here, barely lifting its feet as it marches. Despite the initial slow movements, the duergar’s head snaps from side to side, keeping a close watch on the area surrounding the forest.
The caravan guards back away from the sinkhole and wolverine at the bottom. Slowly turning the wagon and draft animals around, the backtrack to the fork in the road. Once there, they turn to the road less traveled. In the waning sunlight, they spy a likely campsite and set up for the night. The draft animals fed, watered, and tethered, the companions set up their makeshift camp.
With his friends' help, Squirm scurries up the side of the sinkhole wall to the relative safety above ground. Everyone backs away a bit to give the crumbling edge some distance. Heartbeats returning to normal, the caravan guards remember a alternate path about an hour back. They know that the other path was not as direct a route as this one, and would prolong their journey a bit. They also don't want their wagon to wind up next to that wolverine either.
Traveling today. Will update tomorrow.
As squirm and his friends fasten the rope he begins to descend into the sinkhole. After a short distance down he notices A half buried feral creature. The creature looks up at him he looks at it before
The creature comes charging at him. Bared fangs and claws squirm can easily tell that this is a wolverine. A ferocious animal. As it goes to bite him squirms aura kicks in and nightmares flood the creatures animalistic brain.
The creature rolls back in terror.
The going has been smooth and easy for the novice wagon drivers up until this point. The gaping hole has left only a very narrow path with which to drive the wagon through without running a wheel into the pit or lodging it in a wayward root.
As Christaph approaches the hole, he continuously pokes the ground before him. As he nears the hole, quite close, the ground suddenly falls in front of him. Luckily his preparations with poking the ground and rope keep him topside in the earthen slide.
As the caravan guards continue their trek to Vensnak, they see In front of you is a perfectly circular hole, in the middle of the otherwise normal ground. It seems to open into some sort of underground space. The cave is 10 ft, deep, and a circle 20 ft. across, with the center 10 ft. circle occupied by a large mound of dirt that has fallen in from above.
As Squirm's post was an Aid - I took it as more of an flavor post than anything else. Regardless, you see footprints that you cannot track. Nothing more really.
Waiting to hear what you all want to do next ....
Honestly, I thought one of you had Survival as a skill, maybe it was Kenax
So you are on Firm Ground DC 15, and it is -1 per three characters, so the DC to follow them is 14. If you are not trained in this skill, you can make untrained checks to find tracks, but you can follow them only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower.
Nothing detects as magic.
Very punny.
Deciding that their next course of action should be to explore the farmhouse, the caravan guards side-step the female orc who lies dead next to her companions. As they approach, the see a typical one-story farmhouse. There is still a live pig in a wooden pen squealing loudly. As always, the guards are hyper-aware of their surroundings, checking for traps and possible clues as to what transpired here. Near the pen the find numerous tracks, all consistent with the farmer and his orc killers. No other clues are found. Inside the house are items consistent with a pif farmer living on the edge of a forest. There is no sign of a struggle in here.
We are out of combat, and honestly the visualization of you coup de grace with a nightmare is kinds cool. Run with it.
"Farm house is over there." She points southeast through the woods. Bout a minute walk. Dunno where we went. Away probably."[/b] It becomes clear that the orc is not the brightest torch in the dungeon. Turning the caravan guards can spy part of a porch through the dense tree copse.
The orc, clearly afraid of the dromite, answers in a quivering voice, "No set camp. We move from place to place. With the earthquake, found this farmer as easy pcikin's. Was gonna have us some good dinner tonight in his farmhouse over there, but not no more with you all. "Gonna give me my hammer back? Make it quick?" she answers a bit more steadily.
Each orc possessed
Nothing detects as Psionic, and there are no clues as to what was occurring here other than the slain pigs and farmer.
Tactically, you were at a disadvantage with the line of orc warriors. The fungal stun vial was a great move or it would have occurred sooner. Let me know when you are ready to move on.
The caravan guards advance towards the Ophiduan farmer only to discover that he is as dead as the pair of swine next to him. The orange orc must have delivered a killing blow before fleeing.
As Neils unleashes a torrent of electrical energy, he fries the red orc to a crisp. It falls dead to the ground below still smoldering. Aidain tries in vain to slow the retreating orc, but it is too far gone. Kazushi unleashes the full force of her mental prowess and scrambles the green orc's mind. It falls lifeless to the ground, mouth open in a stupefied glare. All that is left is a blind, stunned female orc.
I don't like to often weigh in on character choices, but I feel it might be beneficial to point out a few choices you all have made. Again, it is your game and you are free to do what you want within the rules. The current situation is you are battling a band of orcs. The blue orc is dead, but not before it was left with a clear shot at Christaph,
So who did you attack? - The stunned and blinded red orc and the fleeing orange orc which I have removed from the map. Why not the only current threat - the green orc? Kazushi you are not arguing, at least not yet. Always feel free to ask questions especially combat related. I will have a look over rounds again to see if it was still stunned. However, you posted combat actions twice when it wasn't your turn, now that it is your turn, please post your questions and your actions. PbP takes too long with a back and forth. You all have the encounter firmly in hand so don't sweat it.
Yes for traits but no for Psionic and Magic. One or the other.
Aidan's attack are too much for the downed orc to handle. The blue orc collapses dead to the green grass below him. The green orc, able to withstand the dazzling display of colors, tries to make one valiant, yet evil, last stand and swings at the color shooting female.
His hammer slams into the woman's shoulder, nearly knocking her out. The orange orc, as of yet untouched, looks at all his companions in various states of bad and decides that this is not a fight he wishes to partake in. Turning tale, he withdraws from combat.
Combat Table:
Stunned:
A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent. Blinded: The creature cannot see. It takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength– and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) against the blinded character. Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone.
Hahahaha! I've been working on trying to get my character sheet complete again because I never did after Myth-weavers lost it. Always have a backup! drawback Let me begin by saying I don't remember allowing Drawbacks, precisely because I feel like a drawback needs to really be a drawback. I have never seen you Aid Another so taking a drawback prohibiting you from doing that doesn't seem to be a deterrent. I have seen you take more than 10% of the loot though, though so props for finding a mechanical way to explain your role play. So no Drawbacks. Correct AC! You can do it now. Psionic Restraints Lesser Dorje of Entangling Ectoplasm In Pathfinder, it is always the creator that sets the DC, and that is always assumed to be the lowest caster level of the creator. Psion/wilder 1, tactician 1 So the DC would be 11+1 = 12, since they would need a minimum to manifest that power. Psionic traits Since we are using Transparency Rules, Psionic Traits would be considered Magical Traits. One per category. Although I did not see any Psionic Traits in UP - what source are you using?
Not that I am encouraging any of you to die, and I really do like your characters and concepts, but should one of you kick the bucket, you might want to consider a Mesmerist. With the amount of Will saves you all require, a debuff would just be a slap in the face.
Kazushi again unleashes her torrent of vibrant colors. The orcs are helpless to resist.
rounds.
Combat Table:
Stunned:
A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent. Blinded: The creature cannot see. It takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength– and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) against the blinded character. Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone.
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