Owlbear

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Looking closely at the southern rack of shelves, someone notices a small cut-out piece of wood on the back wall. Pushing it, you hear a click, and the entire southern wall rotates backwards on some hinges. Behind it you see another room, in which are stored eight fine vintages of wine from the famed Vigardeis vineyard in distant Cheliax. Each bottle is worth 100 GP.

Since there's only one more door in the main room...

You open it to find a hallway headed east. Making a left turn, you immediately see a heavy iron door on stout hinges. Trying the handle, it's locked. Map updated.

Crastor, make a Thievery-4 check.


It's pretty much wall-to-wall cars, only pedestrians could make it between the cars.

Revan - AFAICT, there's no rules for carrying people with Flight in the SUPERS manual. So this time, I'm going to say that every 150 pounds (or so) you're carrying slows you down by one speed "level". That may change in the future.

Revan - the ambulance personnel gladly give you their patient, and point in the direction of the hospital (assuming you're flying over the building, the hospital will be obvious). Even at 30 MPH, you can get to the hospital in a few minutes. You drop off the patient at the Emergency entrance, then ask to be taken to the generator, which they do.

Chiro - you fly over the nearest intersection, but all four streets into it are so backed up, no one can move. Everyone's honking their horns, too, which probably doesn't feel too good to your sensitive ears.

Noetic - I count a "look around" Notice as a Free Action.

Noetic - you can't spot anything obvious that could be causing the blackout, like a downed power line or something.

VeeSix - the looters, mostly young men, are hyped on adrenaline :
Spirit+2: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
and they totally ignore you.

Fortune - Revan got to the ambulance first, and took off with the patient before you could catch up. There are plenty of people in the street who've been banged by a car trying to move ahead, or who fell in the crowds of pedestrians walking on the sidewalks.

What do you each do now?


You're looking for a "MacGuffin" (Google it! :)...

The door is locked. There's an electronic keypad beside it.

Wren says "Give me a few minutes with that..."

She pulls out a small device from a pocket that has wires dangling from it, and connects them to the keypad. She taps the screen of the device repeatedly...

Electronics & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 6
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 2 = 8, Raise

She tries the door handle, and the door opens up. She steps aside, and waves the two of you to enter, while bowing.


Sorry, life got busy, should have something in a day or two (hopefully)...


You backtrack thru the main corridor until you see a door with the universal sign for medical treatment.

The med bay is built almost entirely around automation, with several diagnostic beds set into the walls with transparent displays that would show vital signs, internal scans, blood chemistry, and treatment recommendations in real time. A robot arm at each bed can take blood or administer medications. Most examinations require little or no human contact. A row of cabinets line one wall. A small quarantine and intensive-care section can isolate infectious patients or place the critically injured into medical suspension until more advanced treatment became available. There is a shut door at the far end of the room.


Two wine racks line the walls, their shelves empty and dusty. Mounds of broken glass bottles clutter the floor, which is covered in wine stains.

Everyone make a Notice roll...

Ceri Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 4 = Success

Thorfinn Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 4 = Success


Someone pick another door (one on the south-facing wall, one in the south-east corner of the main room)...
24 hour rule-of-two in effect!


Arabella - you can contact Bryce over your comms and ask him specific questions if you want to.

Daisy sees that the ship's power generating systems are active, and that the medbay is drawing a significant amount of power.


Jzero - I believe with the Martial Artist and Smite ability, you would do Str+d6 damage. But since it's a swarm, Stunning Fist has no effect (because you're still only hitting a small part of the entire swarm). Also, glad the eye operation went well!

Crastor - AFAICT, if you cast Stun with an Area of Effect modifier the size of the swarm, the Power would act as normal.

If there's no more questions, and you all want to do this, someone make a post in Gameplay about opening the door!


Ummm...you're in Engineering...but you haven't had time to look around at all.


The PCs would know this from their real-life experiences, but probably most of you players, like me, have never done combat with a Swarm.

They cover a blast template (a Large swarm takes 3 Wounds before dying, a Medium one takes 2 Wounds, and a Small one takes 1 Wound). In this case, the size is given in the AP setting.

They get a +2 to recover from Shaken, and +2 to Parry. Cutting and piercing weapons do no real damage. You can stomp to automatically inflict your damage in Strength each round (so, much lower than with a weapon).

Swarms hit automatically, doing 2d4 damage to everyone in the template, to your least armored location.

You'd know that rats and similar vermin inflict a potentially fatal disease if they Wound or even Shaken you (Vigor roll to not be initially infected).

In short, your PCs would know that swarms are hard to kill, always do damage to you every round, and rats and such could infect you with a fatal disease.

Just FYI...


ALL - please see Discussion...


Lot to sort out, each PC doing a different thing. Will hopefully post tomorrow...


Arabella - you're sure you don't see any signs of tampering with the turrets. So far, from what you've seen, this appears to be some kind of specialized ship (it's not passenger, not military, not cargo hauler, etc.)

What do you all want to do?


Jzero - FWIW, I don't think I need any more help with the maps, so there's no reason for you to look at the PF AP at all anymore. So feel free to join in with the voting!

Crastor:
When you listen at the door, you hear faint sounds of scratching and squeaking. What do you do?


B26 it is!

The door to this room is actually open, and within it you see two simple wooden beds, relatively free of dust and mold. A chair lies on its
side between them.

The sounds of your footsteps approaching the door apparently alerted a small pack of rather large rats, who run out the door, dodging everyone, and disappear into the large cracks in the wall in the kitchen.

It's obvious there's nothing in here worth looking at.

Next room?


Since there's only a few doors, I'll let the players pick which one. There's one on a south-ish wall, one on a west wall, and a north-east door and a south-east door.
24 hour rule-of 2 in effect!


Noetic - ah, I assumed it would need a Modifier, and didn't even see the note about "Carrying Others" in the main text (my personal Notice is terrible, like maybe d4). And the way Teleport Other is worded, it wasn't clear to me that the teleporter wasn't also included (which the Carrying Others would have clarified).
Fortune - glad you're back! Hope the surgery went well.... AFAICT, a flying skateboard would just be the Flight Power with the Device penalty (-2 SPP). While I have given y'all some Advancements, I haven't handed out any extra SPP yet. Maybe after this scene is done.

I forgot to mention in the previous post, it's nighttime.

As you arrive, you see that the coordinates took you to the downtown district. You find it plunged into darkness, with traffic lights dead and several major intersections already at a standstill as confused drivers block one another - the gridlock probably stretches for blocks. Minor car collisions are multiplying as frustrated drivers jockey to try and move forward. Other cars appear to have been abandoned by their owners, making it impossible for those behind them to move forward at all.

Store alarms are sounding on backup batteries, as a few small businesses have already had their windows smashed as looters take advantage of the darkness and the delayed police response. You can see at least two stores being looted on the block you're on.

An ambulance is trapped behind a wall of cars, its lights and sirens going full blast. This might indicate it is carrying a person in need of medical care.

There is a flickering glow around the corner from where you're at, which is bright enough to possibly be the start of a building fire.

With the streetlights out, pedestrians are spilling into the streets, and a few have been knocked down from cars trying to move forward in the gridlock, and you hear people near you speaking of rumors that the nearby hospital's backup generator was already on its last legs before this.

What do you do?


Currently, the only "real" PCs are Daisy and Arabella. I'll give Arabella a couple more days to post (hopefully she's recovered enough from her eye surgery by now).


Since details are so easily forgotten in PbP games, I'll just remind everyone that when Ceri, Jzero, and Velrek met Aldern Foxglove, he took them to a small villa, not this place. And you've heard plenty of rumors about this place (see THIS POST), including that Aldern has moved back in, which may or may not be true.
I'll give Jzero another day to post (hopefully he's recovered enough from his eye surgery that he's back on-line)...


Noetic - you have Teleport with Traverse. You need the Teleport Other mod to take people with you.
Also, your character sheet says your Focus is d12+2, why'd you roll a d12+3?


I've created a new map, it is HERE. You may need to refresh this screen before clicking on the link at the very top. Someone please try to access it ASAP and let me know your results, thanks!

You go down the stairs, and enter a large rooms with many doors.

A large oaken table, covered with moldy stains and rat droppings, sits in an alcove of this large kitchen. Shelves line the walls, and a large cooking fireplace fills the northeast portion of the room. The shelves in the southwest wall are in a much greater state of disarray. Two one-foot-wide cracks in the wall near the floor lead into the ground beyond the basement walls.

What do you all do? Don't pick another door yet, just tell me what (if anything) you're doing in this area.


An uneventful week passes, during which Revan is granted probationary membership to the team...

One evening, as you're all hanging out watching the tri-vid, you suddenly hear Meros' voice in your ear. It has a sense of strain in it that you've rarely (if ever) heard before :

"This is urgent! There have been selective blackouts all across Star City. I'm directing each group of Supers to the one closest to them. Go to the intersection of (he gives you two street names) and handle damage control. Hospitals are without power, and most of their backup generators aren't working. With traffic lights out, there will be gridlocks. Emergency vehicles will need help getting to their destinations. Fighting and looting may break out. Use lethal force only when necessary, and never against ordinary civilians. Apparently, a few buildings in the blackout areas still have power - try to find out why. Now is the time to use the headbands."

Major ret-con : when you joined his service, Meros gave you each a headband. It is made from Atlantean metal, which glows in the dark and sparkles when light is shined on it, making it uniquely identifiable. There's also a symbol carved deep into the extremely hard metal (diamonds don't scratch it). Meros has told you that he has the only supply of it, which everyone knows. These properties identify anyone wearing such a headband as being a super working for Meros. Circuitry on its inner surface produces a blurring effect over your faces that does not impact your vision, hiding your identity. The purpose is that this grants you an authority that ordinary people and police immediately recognize. Revan has received a headband.

What do you do?


Harold tries to recover from Shaken :
Spirit & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 61d6 ⇒ 3
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 2 = 8, Success

Harold fires again at turret #3 :

Shooting & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 81d6 ⇒ 5
ACE!: 1d8 ⇒ 1 = 9

And hits, doing
Damage+Raise: 2d8 + 1d6 ⇒ (7, 5) + (2) = 14

The bullet penetrates deep into the device - a few sparks fly out of it, then its turret slowly lowers and moves no more.

Combat is over!

What do you all do?


Round 4!

Arabella:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Daisy:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Harold:
3 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Wren:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Statuses
Harold is Shaken.

Engagements
Turret #3 and Harold are shooting at each other.

Modifiers
Arabella, Daisy, Wren, and Harold have RATN 6

Initiative
Harold – 10D
Turret – 9D
Arabella – 5S
Wren – 4S
Daisy – 2D

I'll handle Harold and the turret tomorrow.


Round Summary

Daisy's shot hits turret #3, but it bounces off of its protective shell.
Arabella's shotgun blast tears turret #1 into shreds.
Harlds's shot bounces off of turret #3.
Wren has to reload.
Turret #3 hits Harold, making him Shaken.


Harold pulls out his Desert Eagle and fires at turret #3 :

Shooting & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 71d6 ⇒ 4

And hits, doing
Damage+Raise: 2d8 ⇒ (2, 5) = 7

But the bullet bounces off the turret's shell.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wren reloads her derringer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Turret #3 fires back at Harold :

Shooting,-2Cover: 1d10 - 2 ⇒ (7) - 2 = 5

and hits, doing

Damage: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11

The bullet creases his arm, distracting him (Shaken).


Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6

The fiery tails strikes Velrek, but does not penetrate his armor. The statue immediately returns to normal.

In the hallway, there's a doorway to your immediate left that opens to some stairs going up (sorry, it was accidentally covered by a black square so I forgot to mention it the first time you were there). There are two more doors in the middle of the hallway on the north and south walls. The north door opens to a set of stairs going down, and the south door opens to a set of stairs going up. Map updated.

Since this is a stairs choice, I'll leave it up to the 24-hour rule-of-2.


Hope everything goes well!


You go thru the only other door in this room, on the west wall, which takes you into a drawing room that is excessively damp [B8]. Thick sheets of mold cling to the curtains closed over the southern window. (Map updated)

The northern door in this room takes you back to the entry hallway. As you all walk into it, the large stuffed scorpion/lion-with wings creature's fur erupts in flame, its face starts to change to that of a woman, and it starts to move. Its huge scorpion tail flies toward Velrek.

Velrek, you get an "Evade" roll : Agility-2


Meros says to Revan "Thank you. I'll be in touch."

Anyone want to role-play giving Chiro combat advice? I'll wait a day or two, and if no one post, we'll move on...

VeeSix locates a member of Big Dog's old gang, and says he hasn't heard from him or anything about him on the streets for a while.


Crastor approaches the scarf, and nothing happens. He touches it, and nothing happens. He picks it up and notices that it is of very fine quality, worth maybe 100 GP.


VeeSix, make a Persuasion(Networking) roll...


You all see that a spot of dried blood stains the back of the northernmost chair, and that there's more blood on the bookend, as well as clots of hair, and bits of skull and flesh; in addition, part of one wing has been broken off.

What do you all decide to do about the scarf?


Ceri :
Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 5 = Success

Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 2 = Success

Thorfinn :
Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 6
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 1 = 7, Success

Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 4 = Success


Does anyone want to do anything particular in the lair for the next few days?


Jzero felt a chill run down his spine as he approached the scarf.


Meros says to Revan (only to his comms) "Please give me your birth name, and superhero name, if you have one. If you've ever been active as a superhero in public, tell me in what cities. Describe what your powers are, and whether they have any limitations to them. I'll assign you to this group temporarily, and get back to you in a day or two."


Round 3!

Arabella:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Daisy:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Harold:
3 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Wren:
4 Bennies, 0 PP, Status : Normal, SitMods : None, Spell Effects : None

Statuses
Turret #1 is Shaken.

Engagements (sort of)
Turret #1 and Arabella are shooting at each other.
Turret #2 is destroyed.
Turret #3 and Harold are shooting at each other.
Turret #4 is destroyed.

Modifiers
Arabella, Daisy, Wren, and Harold have RATN 6

Initiative
Wren – JOKER! +2 to all actions, everyone gets a Benny!
Arabella – AC
Daisy – JS
Harold – 7C
Turrets – 6H

Everyone can act!


Rolling to see if Harold can Soak the Wound :
Vigor & Wild: 1d8 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 5 = Success

Round Summary
Harold fires the EMP gun at turret #1, but misses.
Wren’s tiny derringer takes out turret #4.
Turret #3 shoots at Harold, but the bullet glances off his armor.
Daisy shoots at a turret #3, but misses.
Arabella shoots at a turret #1, and rattles its electronics (Shaken)


Can you quote me text from the rulebook supporting that? My impression of Pathfinder in general is that its magic classes don't have much crossover with each other.


Ummm...ok, so technically...you could have microphones on the outside of your suit that creates radio waves that you could pick up. But so could anyone else with a receiver set at the right frequency.

But you could just have circuitry built into the suit that has microphones on the outside directly connected to amplifiers on the inside that are connected to speakers on the inside. Much simpler.


I just double-checked, and the PCs do get a Notice check on most Haunts. Sorry about that. But the Notice check only happens when you get close enough to *possibly* trigger the haunt.

How about this : the AP is set up so that each haunt is attracted to a particular member of the party. I'll assume that everyone moves everywhere around each room looking around, so for each room I'll ask the targeted PC to make a Notice roll. If you succeed, you get a creepy feeling as you're walking around, and feel a sudden urge to back away from the direction you were just heading.


The only other door in B5 leads into the living room. Heading south to the door right in front of you, you enter a library (B9, map updated). You see two chairs, one of which lies on its side, before a stone fireplace. A dark red scarf with gold edges is draped over the side of the fallen chair. A book sits facedown on the floor between the chairs. A stone bookend, carved to look like a praying angel with butterfly wings,
lies on its side in the fireplace.

Jzero, make a Notice roll.

And, everyone make *two* Notice rolls. I'm trying out a new method for handling multiple Notice rolls for the same thing (in this case, there's two things to notice).


After some more thought, I have decided that this isn't a world-breaking power, so you can take any transmissions you receive and broadcast them to a nearby receiver that can make sound (radio, cell phone, etc.). You can also convert your thoughts to radio waves so that a nearby receiver can pick up the radio waves and convert them back to sound.

Sound good?


Technically, one company owns the Flock cameras, and other companies exist that provides access to the AI image processing. The police pay the image processing company for access to the images and for the processing. I've heard that when one processing company makes a mistake that gets the city sued, they just fire that company and hire a new one. But I haven't completely confirmed this yet.

But it's the unrestricted access that the companies provide to the police about the images that's the main problem. A search warrant should be required to access anything that contains our personal information.


The SWPF rule book discusses haunts, and also lumps them together with traps.

I just now noticed that RAW allows the PCs to make a Notice roll to not only detect the haunt, but figure out what would trigger it. To speed the game up, I'm going to just have the haunts always happen as we've discussed recently above.

It also says that Cure Wounds is the only thing that can banish a haunt, and even then only temporarily. No mention of other skill checks that can banish them.

However, Google AI says that PF2E allows PCs to use their Religion (for prayers and exorcisms), Occultism, or specialized Lore and Performance skills. Google AI's examples about how to use the Performance skills are very situation dependent, but SWPF also has the Occult skill. Perhaps one roll is required to identify the kind of haunt, and another roll would banish the haunt by successfully doing a cleansing or creating a ward?


Ceri assures Velrek that he did her no harm whatsoever.

Thorfinn says "As far as I know, splashing holy water on someone inhabited by a haunt would have no effect. Neither would my Destroy Undead ability - only a Cure Wound spell can affect them, and even then, only for 24 hours. Most haunts can only affect living creatures, but I have heard of powerful haunts that can affect material items, but probably not pick up a sword and use it. Velrek, what did you experience?"


Revan - Da Rules say "As an action, the hero can see and hear any radio, television, or internet signal as long as he’s within ten miles of a connection (such as another radio, cell tower, etc.)." That clearly says "receive only".

But the next sentence says "He can also connect to the network with any electronic playback device without a physical connection." I'm assuming that means you could access the Internet thru your cell phone, but it doesn't say whether or not you're limited to "receive only".

The Manipulation Modifier says "the character can broadcast previously recorded audio or video as long as the recording can be accessed somewhere", so it does not allow you to broadcast your live voice.

My conclusion : you can't broadcast your live voice to a receiver. If you disagree with any of my interpretations, feel free to let me know.


Revan - please see Discussion...


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I really appreciate the response.

I actually raised the concern about WotR and being a new player but the other players are more experienced so I guess I just have to get I'll just have to adapt! I'm fairly experienced with other types of ttrpgs so hopefully so long as I keep the Mythic rules in mind it'll be fine.

Out of curiosity is there a specifically good Arcane Class? I'm more used to D&D where I typically play wizards, which would probably cover the gap in intelligence skills and Arcane Power. But I suppose, equally, a Sorcerer could cover the Charisma side of things.

- Blue