Grenwold Houtvester's page

Gren shrugs off the attack and strikes back as best as he can.

He concentrates briefly, and his reflexes sharpen, as he seems to take on the aspect of a tiger, hopefully providing him defense. Switch shadow focus to tiger focus on self, increasing AC by +2 to 32. Current combo should be Tiger/Turtle. Might be larger with bodyguard (see below).

Priority is to target Thorek’s foes and switch if any go down

+1 Merciful Scimitar, outflank (always up because of Ringo), orange, not power attacking (8+2 str+1 size+1 enchantment): 1d20 + 12 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 12 + 4 = 29
damage, nonlethal extra, sneak attack (due to outflank), pack flanking: 1d4 + 3 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 3 + (1) + (4) = 9
+1 Merciful Scimitar, outflank (always up because of Ringo), orange, not power attacking (8+2 str+1 size+1 enchantment), iterative: 1d20 + 7 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 7 + 4 = 27
damage, nonlethal extra, sneak attack (due to outflank), pack flanking: 1d4 + 3 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 3 + (3) + (2) = 10

Edit: accidentally added too much damage, fixed. All of Gren’s is nonlethal.

A reminder for Bodyguard, it works on successive attacks, but only a maximum of 5. He only fails on a natural 1.

So Gren should benefit from a 35 Ac against the next 5 attacks. Ringo next.

Statblock updated with the aforementioned changes, ready for no-more botting!

So sorry for the delay, it's all my fault. I've gotten busy and forgot to post in most of my threads. The paizo plugin died on chrome and I have to switch to firefox to keep track of things better. I didn't even realize there was a post until Monday.

Will get something up tonight. My apologies.

Yes, I have been handling all of his actions, since I take the actions simultaneously with my PC’s.

It appears we hadn’t decided on what buffs to use at the moment. It had been some time since we last had an encounter (in the valley above) and I asked if I should refresh and cast but we didn’t yet. It appears the buffs from that time ran out before we descended.

My PC has a poultice from Daria of iron skin but it hasn’t been used.

My animal companion has constantly running animal focus ability and at the moment, I’ve used a few minutes of animal focus on Grenwold as well. The current configuration is both the shadow and owl focuses for both, in order to scout. I believe at the moment that those are the only buffs that are active, based on the recent post history .

Hey guys,

Just some bookkeeping before I get us started again.
Gren, where is Ringo? I can't remember if he disappears or just goes small.

He’s my mount, and he usually has an extended reduce animal on him that makes him medium-sized. Because he can fly, he can go where anyone else can go as well.

If there are no objections, I’d like to make minor h ch anger to make my PC slightly less powerful in favor of flavor. I think the optimization thus far has been sufficiently tuned such that we have a good chance of winning any individual encounter, even with slight power reductions.

For example, I likely would change my character’s primary weapon enchantment from keen to merciful. I may also change his primary weapon from a scimitar to something silly such as a gnomish weapon.

I would also contemplate moving him into being a bleachling gnome in lieu of a regular one. The change would have slightly fewer mechanical benefits but it would make sense from an RP perspective.

I'm here, if anyone needs me.

Hello all! And thanks for having me! I appreciate it.

Real quick, @Grenwold: My guy is a Ranger who is going to take the Trapper archetype that can deal with traps exactly like the Rogue.

That way, you don't have to worry about traps.

What do you think?

(Unless, you just want to that is. Which is fine too. Just thought I'd throw that out there for you. Unsure if you're doing it because you want to or you feel you need to, so that's why I threw that out there).

Well, I have some modularly boosted bonuses to stealth and perception, and other tricks like increased movement speed and flight, that make my PC and his companion pretty good at scouting, but if you want to do it instead I could avoid those changes.

My PC has that much or so, since I joined relatively recently. I’m not sure if the others.

Note: I still have to adjust things to take that trapfinder roll completely. Unfortunately I got bedridden in the middle of last week and lost access to my desktop until my injury heals. I can manually update it without HL but it’ll take a bit of extra work, so please bear with me regarding traps until then.

A dwarf might make sense from a roleplaying perspective as well.

I checked it out, no objections. Thanks for working on this.

I'm going to assume pre-emptively that I'll rebuild around solo-scouting and trapfinding.

I think a little less than half. I'll be happy to keep playing if we can find another GM, and as I said, I can reconfigure my PC to fully serve the scout role easily so we don't have to find anyone else.

I’m happy to make minor adjustments in order to facilitate all the trapfinding/scouting but if you want to look for an arcane support it might be good. Iirc troops are really only vulnerable to aoes (I don’t know how much they'll come up again, though). I have a few myself but considering they’re sort of tertiary to my “build” there isn’t much.

That’s fine with me. If you have no objections, I’ll make some changes to my PC to be able to do the trapfinding role alone.

So far you’ve been a good GM, and I was having fun, so I’d hate to lose you.

Hi, I’ve been a bit busy, but I agree with Thorek for my part. I’d be happy to keep playing. I certainly have tried enough times - so many I almost think this module is cursed for me!

If we can find another GM it would be great.

Sorry to hear that Aaron.

@Vayelan, I’m happy to reconfigure my PC to take over trapfinding/disabling if you’d like. It’s only minor changes. Please let me know!

Gren will drink the potion before engaging since it saves some animal focus. He'll creep up to verify carefully that they're actually enemies. If they are, then he'll signal for everyone to attack. Enemies are likely morlocks, I think?

Thinking of doing my suite of 10 min/level buffs now, possibly extending one or two. Ringo's reduce animal and shield companion have a few hours left (I think). Thinking of extended shared training on Thorek + anyone else who wants to scrap (3 hours), regular freedom of movement on self (1.5 hours), drinking the ironskin infusion (9 minutes ish hours), and giving feather step to Thorek. Gren already cast shared training once today. If we can do it quietly, that is.

Gren notes what Daria has said, confirming as much with his own knowledge of tracking.

"Let us just ambush them. We can ask for quarter and knock them out if they are willing." He gestures for the others to only stay back a short distance.

Not sure of the distances/mapping, but if we're preparing for an encounter, I don't think the less-stealthy PCs have any reason to hang back too far.

Gren grabs his awareness wand and flicks it, and then puts it back.

Forgot to use HA, but won't use it for these two rolls. Gren doesn't have dungeoneering, but Aaron does, so he'll point out the recency with a whisper (without rolling b/c +23) of the painting.

Grenwold makes note of how recent the painting is. It looks like there's only one exit, so I think we keep scouting.

Gren and Ringo float above the ground towards the south and east, towards the masonry part. Before turning the corner, Grenwold himself is wreathed in shadow. Accessing the similar shadowy magic, Gren adds his +11 to his stealth.

If possible, Gren and Ringo will take 10 for 10+14+11=35 and 10+20=30, respectively.

If you'd like a rolled stealth, please use the following numbers. I will have used my second minute of Animal Focus for Grenwold.

stealth Gren: 1d20 + 14 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 14 + 10 = 27
stealth Ringo: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (20) + 20 = 40

Let's scout the old dwarven Masonry first? The morlocks likely took up in the ruins of the dwarven building, and the unworked stone likely heads away from the ruins.

Grenwold shrugs at Aaron, and watches as the bard slips and falls, reaching out reflexively to try and grab him, but missing the mark. When the older man starts floating down, he shrugs again and stays on Ringo and the pair floats down. Ringo isn't big enough at the moment to carry anyone else, sorry. Please let me know if you'd like me to have him roll fly skill checks.

Yep, Aaron's actually better, I just forgot about the darkvision that Aaron had. We talked about strat off-line before, too, but I forgot about it.

Grenwold sniffs, "fine. Just... go slowly."

Toggling on Shadow Focus (untyped) and Owl Focus (competence) onto Ringo, theoretically giving him +11 to stealth and bringing up his walking around bonus up to +20 for him. Gren can as well, but in shorter bursts, so walks around at +14 normally (unless if he also gets a heroism or something). One benefit, though it would require that they go quite slowly, would be that he and Ringo don't walk, they fly around, and theoretically they can avoid pressure plates on traps. He retrieves his own wand, and nods appreciatively, "you have good taste," and with a *snick*, his own vision sharpens.

As he does so, a strange change seems to come over Ringo, whos movement stills. There is a ripple of energy on the small deer's hide, and his fur seems to naturally create a mottled camouflage - making it hard to be seen, but then the camouflaged fur darkens significantly, turning almost sooty. Ringo pats the now coal-black deer, whos eyes seem to have darkened as well. The metallic sheen indicative of a celestial being seems to have dulled somewhat, his hooves are matte black instead of silvered, and his antlers have lost some of their sharp luster.

Aaron should go first since he has the better walking-around stealth, maybe? I could back him up if he gets in trouble. I'm thinking 10'-20' behind. If he gives the signal, I'll toggle on my own owl focus as a swift action, and snap up to +20 stealth as well, so we'll be on parity, but until then, he'll hang back a bit and let range penalties for perception do their thing. He'll also try to use his own decent perception (+24) to try and see if he can spot any traps Aaron might miss (accounting for the -1 per 10' range penalties) from behind.

Not sure how far behind the party wants to be behind Gren, but probably is best not too be too far. Otherwise, I think we're ready to descend.

Grenwold nods, ”you may not see us much, but if we do not return with an update periodically - something will have happened to me. I’m probably dead, though Ringo is built of sterner stuff.” He looks into the hole, and pats the deer on the neck.

This seems like a good place to do ‘prebuffs’ soon. Since Gren can’t do traps, he’ll just have to try and spot them slowly and come back to Aaron. If Aaron or anyone else wants to tag along, they’re welcome, but they should be sneaky and have *some* darkvision or a red flame torch. Unfortunately I don’t think we thought to grab any of those, oops. Alternatively, we can just go stomping around and let the chips fall where they may, :D.

Grenwold shakes his head, "we need no lights."

Grenwold nods at Thorek’s words, ”Shelyn loves the beauty that comes from the Dwarves. Your people are masters, and these statues are no exception.” While they break to briefly converse with the statues and each other, he takes a drink of water, and then retrieves a small slate with a spring-powered clip that he attaches to the harness. Retrieving the maps they found earlier, with a delicate script and careful hand, the gnome continues his own map of the valley and environs on durable vellum. Some of the dark ink stains his fingers briefly, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He makes a small amount of progress, but it remains unfinished as he lets the ink and paint dry briefly for a moment.

Gren frowns, ”careful, careful - those tracks, it looks as if the statues moved. They may be guardians.” He gestures to Thorek, ”perhaps you can convince them to stand down? I would hate to have to fight guardians of your people.”

Gren, for his part, does know a fair amount about religion, as his own background and divine bond require such.

religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Unfortunately, whatever insight may be gleaned from the statue is inaccessible to his mind.

He looks on the ground for any signs of the legion's (or other creatures) passage.

survival, track: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (10) + 26 = 36

OoC I think we should check out both sites, IC I’m not sure Gren would care about the drakes, though he knows enough to know they’re something of a threat. He’d want to at least check out the mine, since I think it’s on the way.

Grenwold doesn’t add much, except to say ”I think the mine is on the way, based on the map. We could see if anything interesting was left behind.”

Grenwold remains tense for a moment before relaxing. He looks over the ogres that are on the ground, and closes his eyes, muttering something quietly to himself. He opens his eyes and pats Ringo on the neck, and then looks up.

When Thorek explains what happened, he comments, "Phaendar remains under legion control," quietly and grits his teeth, and then speaks in gnomish to Ringo, before hopping back onto the elk's back. "Zanathura's servants stand between us and legion, let us not waste time."

With the maps available now, are there any places in the Valley we should deal with before moving on to the Morlocks?

Gren's AOO

attack, AOO, outflank (always up when riding Ringo), strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d20 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 ⇒ (2) + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 = 22
damage, strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack, sneak attack (if vulnerable to such): 1d4 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + (1) + (4) = 22

Probably a miss.

Grenwold and Ringo step over towards both of the ogres, and gestures for Thorek to take the western one. Will roll bodyguard in Ringo's post.

With barely a gesture, Ringo's antlers and hooves ignite, singing the grass below, but Gren just focuses on his one foe. Targeting the left one.

attack, outflank (always up when riding Ringo), strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d20 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 = 32
damage, strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack, sneak attack (if vulnerable to such): 1d4 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + (6) + (5) = 28
attack, iterative, outflank (always up when riding Ringo), strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d20 + 12 - 5 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 12 - 5 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 = 27
damage, strength focus, Aaron's buffs, power attack, sneak attack (if vulnerable to such): 1d4 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 2 + 5 + 6 + (6) + (1) = 24

If one hits, activate broken wing gambit on Gren, which should provoke AOOs from Thorek and Ringo (maybe??) if Gren gets attacked.

No crits, Ringo next!

After all of that I forgot I can have another animal focus up on Gren with the same swift action. I’m out of practice. I’ll make it Bull focus plus turtle focus because it wouldn’t have affected the turn much (+4 damage with the crit).

Grenwold's mouth is a thin line as he spies the bevy of enemies. He focuses for the briefest moment before manifesting a glimmer of defensive magic on himself, then, frowning, spurs Ringo to strike at the closest enemy. When he gets close enough, he strikes out with as powerful a blow as he can, slicing down with his scimitar. This provokes, but his AC should be 32-35 if Ringo successfully uses bodyguard. Will roll bodyguard in Ringo's post.

attack, outflank (always up when riding Ringo), charge, Aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d20 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 ⇒ (20) + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 = 40
damage, aaron's buffs, power attack, sneak attack (if applicable): 1d4 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 5 + 6 + (3) + (5) = 23
attack (confirm), outflank (always up when riding Ringo), charge, Aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d20 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 ⇒ (20) + 12 + 4 + 2 + 5 - 3 = 40
damage, aaron's buffs, power attack: 1d4 + 3 + 5 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 5 + 6 = 16

Outflank provokes a critical hit from Ringo (and probably Thorek)

Sorry for the delay, and the typo in my post - Ashen Path is now up, so we can see 60’ in fog for 10 minutes (including Ringo) - Ringo, Gren, and Lily can see for 20 minutes instead of 10 (not extending it this time).

Grenwold concentrates and whispers a few words in Sylvan, and everyone’s eyes sharpen.

A careful reading of Ashen Path leads me to the conclusion that it might not work for non-magical fog. If Gren has seen this fog being sort of Omni-present (and nonmagical) I’m thinking there’s no point and we might as well just head in.

Sorry for the delay, and the typo in my post - Ashen Path is now up, so we can see 60’ in fog for 10 minutes (including Ringo) - Ringo, Gren, and Lily can see for 20 minutes instead of 10 (not extending it this time).

Grenwold concentrates and whispers a few words in Sylvan, and everyone’s eyes sharpen.

I'll do [url=https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/ashen-path/]ashen path for everyone, if they step near me (I have to be in touch range to distribute it). I'll 5' step south to be closer to Aaron and Lily.[/ooc]

Grenwold Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Moved Grenwold next to Thorek. Ringo has bodyguard, so will defend anyone as appropriate with aid another to add +3 to AC due to the helpful trait (from additional traits). So, pre-rolling bodyguard rolls as aid another, only 1 fails.

No 1s, so Ringo can aid up to 6 times, aiding any adjacent target's AC (including Gren's) by 3. According to the map, this is only Gren and Thorek. Of course, it only works within the context of aid another, so Gren has to be in range with both the enemy and ally (probably not likely with ogres!).

I just wanted to let you know thanks much for your efforts, we appreciate it.

Grenwold’s small face is expressionless, ”no. We need to get access to the camp.” He retrieves a bit of parchment from his back and looks around, before sketching out a map. Without looking up, he says ”I’ve killed giants before.”

Ten ogres - I doubt we can negotiate. Might be easier if we just went straight at them with as much surprise as we can muster. The only other reason to scout more would be if we thought there was another enemy hidden, and we wanted to prepare. Otherwise, I don’t even know if it’s worth the resources of an invisibility. @Everyone Want to just move into the town and go after them? We should have some element of surprise, depending on how perceptive they are. I definitely would give myself heightened awareness, Thorek feather step, and hand out broken wing gambit and outflank, but if they’re ogres it might not take much more in terms of resources. If everyone wants me to scout, I will, but it might make Valeyan’s life easier if we just went after them. Just a thought!

Note, Valeyan, that Gren also is pretty careful about tracking too - he’ll take 10 for 36 as they go until it gets unfeasible. Looking for signs of non-ogres. If there’s nothing, don’t worry about it - I’m happy to move on and get to fighting.

Happy to scout, my bonuses aren't phenomenal but I can boost them temporarily when I get close. @Vayelan, please let me know if scouting is possible and I'll toggle stealth mode (as long as I can avoid using too many rounds) before sneaking up to take a look.

On second thought, @Aaron noted we have no idea how big the valley is, so it might be best to hold off until we have a little more information before we start expending all of our resources. If the camp ends up empty, we don’t know how long it will take to get to the next section, and I don’t want to be out of resources when we need them, and it doesn’t look like anyone else is doing any short term preparation, so please ignore the last paragraph of my above post (where I was “thinking” about some buffs). Instead of that, when we are a moment away, I’ll toggle wand heightened awareness.

Before they move too close, Gren looks around at the center of the valley, in the entrance, hops off of Ringo, and touches the ground. He hops back on, and taps his head. "Mental alarm. The passphrase is ceirw; sylvan for deer."

Otherwise, when the others comment, he nods without saying anything, and breaks off from the others. He seems to flitting through the undergrowth quickly, and stays hidden.

Not much point rolling a perception given Thorek's impressive result, so please assume Gren/Ringo move half speed (60/2 = 30) while taking 10 on stealth and perception, and when building a map, if possible, assume he starts in a bush or something equivalent. If not possible, then assume he's not bunched up - if the party can be spread out.

Ringo is starting defensive - turtle and stag focuses up, which I think is his general default.

Thinking of doing my suite of 10 min/level buffs now, possibly extending one or two. Ringo's reduce animal has about 16.5 more hours, and shield companion has 6.5 more hours. Thinking of extended shared training on Thorek + anyone else who wants to scrap (3 hours), regular freedom of movement on self (1.5 hours), drinking the barkskin infusion (1.8ish hours), and giving feather step to anyone who can't fly or who otherwise would like to ignore difficult terrain (Ringo already ignores most of it). Gren can also do resist energy with a 1st level slot, but would prefer to use those castings when/if we get some idea of an elemental damage to be concerned about.

Grenwold doesn't have anything to add. He pulls out a short yew wand from a pack, and waggles it, then slips it away. Heightened Awareness.

He looks down and whispers something to Ringo, who sniffs the ground.

Survival Gren (Tracking): 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (16) + 21 = 37
Survival Ringo (Tracking with Scent): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Trying to get a sense of the numbers of legion that came through (bunches of troops, etc), and how long ago.

He looks up, and inhales quietly through his nose, and looks towards the ruins, drawing his scimitar. Are we thinking substantial buffs before we go to the new ruins, or when we get further in the valley? I've got a few 10 mins per level that I'd like to have for most of the valley - like Freedom of Movement.

Grenwold remains suspicious, and seems reluctant to respond, but does ”Nobody of consequence. You can call me Gren. This is Ringo. He doesn’t understand Taldan.”

Grenwold frowns, ”not the Legion, Molthune. No humans left in the legion.” He squints at Aaron, taking him in, the stern look on his face communicating how little he cares for extemporaneous speech, ”I’ll be watching you.”

Quietly, Grenwold slips out of the brush, and dusts himself off. He looks up at the new big person, suspiciously, before moving over to the deer and tightening some straps on the saddle and stirrups, and checking some of the packs, patting them. Seemingly satisfied, like lightning, he leaps aboard the deer, and settles himself into a well-worn groove. He pats Ringo on the neck. ”Ringo implies you don’t smell like hobgoblin, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t of Molthune. Are you?” He gestures vaguely, ”we aren’t far from the border.”

Grenwold seems to have disappeared. He’s just hiding because he’s extremely paranoid.

stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31

Grenwold watches him for a moment, then turns to the others, explaining, "he'll be back." He checks his own things, and puts his small pack onto his back.