Jesse Heinig's page

Fadilah says to her team, "If this genie's master is a learned scholar, and so benevolent that this genie has undertaken to serve him of his own accord, then surely he must be a man of virtue who is deserving of our aid."

"Hey, everyone, I found the assassin's plans to kill the Calipha and her family! We should definitely turn these over."

Yeah, but that also means that Gorman is too enfeebled to remember how to load and fire a gun. Maybe if it were a magazine-loaded single-action... but this is the kind you have to mix your powder and reload by hand, too many steps.

Her eyes start with amusement, then turn as cold as the endless dark. "Naomi Ravasz, I know not if this is another game or the truth. I will not gamble on the lives of my people so I must treat your warning as truth. But be assured..." the small woman's voice holds an edge that could peel the skin from the other woman, without mercy or hesitation "... if it is not..." she does not finish the statement, since it is unnecessary.

She whips her attention to the massive druid only steps away "Take her to Soph, have her warn her about all she knows about the attack." she looks to the others "Ideas how to get the rest of us to this Abbey." it is a quiet order but still an order.

"We need the location. Either one of Irovetti's agents, or else a member of the clergy who was familiar with it before its fall and capture by him," says Donovan. "That or some kind of scrying spell that can tell us where it is. Then some method of rapid transit. Teleport would be ideal, but barring that, given a day I can try to wind walk us; we should be able to cover about 600 miles in a day."

Oh yes, you did not go in depth into the bag of holding(you looked inside so you could tell that it is one. Anyone else want to speak to the clerk?

The clerk says, "I will send a patrol to the address to verify your story. The Sultana of Hiyal, Hiyal is a bit of a trek. This sorcerer was definitely eating the wrong dates."

Heh, bad dates.

Fadilah looks at the titles of the books while the group is talking to the clerk.

Marten does his best to keep everyone collected in a group and entertained or distracted. It's not too hard to distract someone with the intelligence of a toddler, but the downside is... they have the intelligence of a toddler. By the end of twelve hours, the exhausted paladin's tabard is covered in mud, his hair is tousled, and his eyes are starting to show dark circles.

"This must be what it's like to be a parent," he says to Zelera, exhausted.

"Thank you for your timely intervention, Zelera. So far the only things they others have accidentally eaten have been bugs. I think we're all right for now. Who's next on the list to remediate? And how do we get home?"

Celebeth advances cautiously on the fallen troll shaman.

"Wonder if they had a lair to which we can track them."

"Great work, everyone. Sorry we cut things so close, Tove."

She searches the body for any clues. Weapons? Armor? Tools? Were they scavengers, or an equipped scouting party?

Sorry this took so long, I'm out of town and doing this via phone is excruciating. The phone gets every letter and every word wrong so I have to retype everything multiple times, and the text is barely readable on the small screen.

Will save: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Cassiopeia is not amused.

Roger that, if something comes up I will PM you.

Building a kingdom without that package is really hard mode. You have to claw your way up with no BP and just hope and pray that you don't get a major bad event that destroys the kingdom on a random roll.

"ARgh! What the - !!!" Forest grunts as he's upended by the evil doggo. He tries to stand in the bulky plate armor and swing at the demon pup.

I expect Forest is gonna get re-tripped on the AoO when he stands. :P But I'll roll and attack anyways.

The good news is that order of operations works in your favor. The AoO triggers due to you starting the "stand from prone" action. That means you are still prone when the AoO hits, so it cannot trip you, because you are already prone. After the AoO resolves you complete your action and become not-prone.

Ah, it's like that scene at the beginning of Excalibur (1981) where Uther is bangin' Ygraine while still wearing his plate mail.

Also the touch of good only has a duration of 1 round, so make it count right now. :)

Kemat remains composed as she watches the eternal war between fiends and celestials play out.

After playing several KMs and running it a couple times, I suggest:

If your players care about kingdom management and you intend to actually do the military mass combat in the late game, then you should have a break of six months or a year in between each AP. While the APs are built to kinda transition seamlessly and to let players stroll around handling stuff in whatever order they want, giving them solid breakpoints to work on the kingdom without time pressure for a while is a useful way to let the kingdom spread and grow so that they're able to actually raise a meaningful army to fight Pitax.

Source: When running my PCs kept speedrunning adventure challenges and never developed the kingdom enough, so when they wound up in the War of the River Kingdoms, they were unable to field any sort of army. Had to do some tap-dancing to give them breathing room for a meaningful build-up.

I don't see why he can't. I just can't move Tove's token.

Since Wulfric is rocking back on his heels after taking hits from the troll chief, Celebeth sprints around the tent to his side and quickly makes him invisible after he stabs again, so that the troll can't target him. The troll chief might go after her instead, but that's a risk worth taking, as she thinks she can survive it... briefly.

Krezzik steps back and continues drumming.

Expecting that Forest is probably going to charge into combat, Isabella silently gifts him with a touch of good.

"Agreed! And we stopped this fiend from exploding the palace! That should count for a little credit."

Celebeth finishes off the troll that she stabbed, using an acid splash cantrip.

Since I'm adjacent to the troll, I should be able to automatically hit him and do sneak attack damage while he's incapacitated.

Acid splash damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2
Acid splash sneak attack damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Krezzik continues drumming.

Thank goodness that Tove channeled to heal, or Wulfric would be out!

Celebeth takes a huge risk and steps in on the troll near her, striking from behind as Wulfric brings his lance to bear.

5' step and full attack.

I presume Wulfric's attacking with a lance, his post doesn't specify what weapon he's using but the map shows him at 10' so he must be using a reach weapon. Since I'm opposite him, that means flanking.

Mithral elven thornblade attack, flanking, inspire competence, prayer: 1d20 + 7 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 7 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 21
Mithral elven thornblade damage, inspire competence, prayer: 1d6 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 2 + 1 = 11
Sneak attack: 1d6 ⇒ 4

I don't know if Celebeth was in the radius of the haste spell. If so, she gets a +1 on the attack rolls and another attack, following.

Mithral elven thornblade haste attack, flanking, inspire competence, prayer: 1d20 + 7 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 29
Mithral elven thornblade damage, inspire competence, prayer: 1d6 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 2 + 1 = 9
Sneak attack: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Krezzik continues his drumbeat.

Fetch spell: Passwall (<= 40%): 1d100 ⇒ 11
Fetch spell time: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 rounds

Fadilah casts a spell that simply creates a temporary hole in the wall.

"This should last about two hours, hopefully enough time."

"I thought we had made our intentions plain, captain," monologues Cass. "We have deprived your ship of power, and when we swing around, we mean to deprive you of your life."

Fadilah says, "Move the unfortunate somewhere out of sight so that I can stop concentrating on the illusion and try to find a spell to help!"

"I can try to get a spell to locate an object, though I've never seen this specific carpet before so I might not be able to use magic to find it. I could also try to get a spell to detect magic and just look for magic carpets in the warehouse."

I'm a simple man. If I see a door cleverly designed to blend in with wall around it, thereby hiding what's likely a portal to a secret passage or room, then I want us to open it.

Just a simple man

Having a bad feeling about this, Celebeth casts a shield spell in addition to her mage armor.

AC now up to 21 (10 + 3 Dex + 4 mage armor + 4 shield).

My defense is to become invisible. :)

Fadilah continues concentrating on the spectral force to keep the illusion intact! Not only does it provide great ambush cover, it helps keep the fight isolated from the main thoroughfare!

If we invade the Longthews holding, we'll probably want to shuffle some goods off and then skedaddle in a hurry. Hopefully we get some answers if we find the sword (if, indeed, Longthews has it).

With his helm on, Donovan's amusement at Irovetti's malapropisms is not visible. The knight keeps his stance a little behind and to one side of Chrysa, attending like a good retainer.

"Cap'n, shall we take command of the merchantman and have it join our flotilla? I can handle the ship even though it has a limited number of sailors left."

Cassiopeia's Poleiheira Adherent archetype features allow her to count as a number of sailors equal to her level (11) and use her Spellcraft (+19) in place of Profession: Sailor.

Also, Cass could use one of those cloaks, a flat upgrade to her current one.

Celebeth climbs out of her bedroll, tosses her tousled hair out of the way, and glances over to Krezzik, who is also getting up. The lizard man grumbles in Draconic as he adjusts his leather lamellar (light enough to sleep in it, thankfully) and grabs his drum.

Celebeth then vanishes into the bushes.

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15

She appears to be crouching behind a hedge while holding a stick in front of her face.

Krezzik moves into a support position from which he can begin his drumbeat once the foes arrive.

Since the team plans to ambush the merchant instead of slipping into his warehouse, Fadilah decides to set the stage for the team.

"How do you want this area to look? Where do you want to hide?"

She gets various bits of feedback from the team about ideal subtle ways to manipulate the area for concealment.

Fetch spell: Spectral force (<= 60%): 1d100 ⇒ 3
Fetch spell time: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 rounds

Then, when everyone signals that they are in the positions they want, she moves to a place where she can slip into a corner or up against a wall and casts a powerful illusion to mask the space so that everyone is hidden—behind a fake receptacle, a convenient pile of discarded and mildewy carpets, a deep shadow, whatever looks natural and unsuspicious but gives the person total concealment.

With an Enlarge spell this would be a joke for Marten as his strength would go up by 2, then his Carrying capacity would double on top of that as a Large creature.

Str 17>19 234–350lbs
Doubled for size Large 468-700lbs

A character can lift as much as double his maximum load off the ground, but he or she can only stagger around with it.

A character can generally push or drag along the ground as much as five times his maximum load. Favorable conditions can double these numbers, and bad circumstances can reduce them by half or more.

I know we aren't dealing with actual weight per see, but increases like that should affect the Str check. Assuming one of our casters has enlarge...I don't

Note as well that Marten's wearing a +4 Strength belt so he's actually at 21 right now.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

As Wulfric calls out, Celebeth suddenly sits bolt upright in her bedroll, crying out, "Dang it!"

The enemy captain should be fatigued from the boneshatter spell.

VIP! VIP! Cass doesn't even bother with the really impressive spells, she just unloads a set of magic missiles into one of the pirates (white).

Magic missile damage: 5d4 + 5 ⇒ (1, 2, 4, 3, 4) + 5 = 19

Sorry for blocking the partial charge lane, Zahur. This doorway sucks.

Greetings, folks! Thank you very much for the invitation. I'll do my best to fit in here and help to provide a good group dynamic.

As noted during recruitment, Veronica is a full cleric of Erastil. She is feat-starved (doing archery with a cleric is feat intensive) and provides both some support archery and the full panoply of clerical buffs and healing spells. I enjoy playing support characters, so I am happy to spend my time healing and making the rest of the party better at what they do!

Veronica has a tiny trickle of skills in diplomacy and survival, but 2 ranks/level is not a lot, so she's not very good at them. Her strong skills are Heal and Knowledge (religion).

@DM, as you mentioned that the skinwalker race gives you pause, please let me know of any reservations that you have. If necessary I can rebuild the character as a human. I don't want to step on any toes.

Back among the living, so to speak. Update coming this evening.

Good to hear that you're on the mend!

I gots an ol' skinwalker (witchwolf) cleric of Erastil that I could rework for this game, if'n you still need a divine caster. Leans into the archery stuff and a little wilderness survival.

If you are interested, I'm happy to roll the sheet back and use your stat array to rebuild the character.

Also also, hello, Saoirse! I know you!

Reminder that Gorman's presence means everyone—Dusk included!—gets an extra +2 to hit on flanking attacks.

Imma set the stage.

Celebeth spends the remainder of the day taking care of things at home like dealing with correspondence, checking on her network of informants, and getting a bath and a hot beverage of the sort that she can't get while out on the road. Then she lays out her tools and packs for another trip into the wild.

She makes a few advance plans. It's possible that the team might run into other trouble, but that can't be helped. (Random encounters might happen during overland travel.)

The plan at the destination seems straightforward. Trolls are fearless and aggressive; they'll attack a campsite with food, even if it looks defended, since the party is small. That means the team can take advantage of this. A fire ipt in the middle of the camp serves as a cooking spot, where the group roasts a deer or other large game animal, with hope that the smell carries for some distance and the trolls come to investigate. Of course, there are other hungry animals, but if a hodag or tatzlwyrm comes crawling, might as well get them out of the way, too.

In the fashion of an old Taldan camp, people's tents and bedrolls go in neat rows around the central firepit. The lanes between them are wide: trolls are big and there needs to be room to fight without crashing into tents.

The perimeter of the camp should have wooden stakes facing outward. The kind of palisade that the team can make in the wild, on the move, is not really going to slow down a troll, but it might keep other smaller predators at bay, and the trolls will naturally try to enter through the un-staked entry points on either side of the camp. A troll could still smash its way through at a different point, but at least it's not completely open.

With luck, the forest itself can offer some anchor points, with a few large trees to break up the spot so that there's cover and the trolls can't form a coherent defensive wall. A rope ladder might even be able to get an archer up into one of those trees for an elevated firing platform.

Something like this, time and resources permitting.

Marten advances to take up a guard position and waits for the command to engage.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

Aiko finally reappears, having found no signs of a tail. At some point she took the opportunity to change back out of her adventuring garb and into her entertaining garb, meaning that she has switched to a form-fitting Minkaian-themed acrobat's outfit with a colorful trailing sash and exuberant makeup. Eat your heart out, weebs.

She enters the store in complete silence and takes up a position behind the (taller) party members with a brief and wordless bow.

Here's the gray paladin. Might get a piece of custom art if the game goes for a while.

Get well soon!

So the three I currently have in mind are:

1.) Faithe: Fetchling Oracle of Bones loosely modeled after Lady Death

2.) Lidyan: human arcanist with the fanciful idea of creating "magi-tech" via magical engineering.

3.) Fauniel: practicing dhampir mesmerist

I was leaning strongly towards Lidyan but I don't really want to step on anyone's thing since we already have an wizard, eventual oracle in the game. She would be a straight class as opposed to multi class so that would make a difference.

Well, the other oracle isn't going to go too deep. With a Charisma of 13 that character won't be able to use oracle spells above 3rd level. A single-classed oracle with a different niche should have no trouble.

"Well, if we have a big barbecue, we should have a fire pit providing plenty of light," suggests Celebeth.

"... who's gonna hunt us a deer or something?"

That's what she said EYYYYY

Having a little performance anxiety, cap'n?

I'm just talented that way.