Matias turns his attention to the beast by the door, trying to clear the way for the others to enter safely.
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"These old bones are slow, ya young pup!" Matias growls at Seamus as he jabs his spear out again. for
Matias moves into the room and lashes out with his longspear. for
Matias reaches out and touches Garren's bow infusing it with a magical glow before he jogs up to the side of the door.
Matias starts for the stairs, but holds near the back of the group waiting for Shane to catch up. Never leave a man alone. When Shane finishes examining the door, Matias trudges up the stairs and looks for any disturbance of the dust on the next floor.
Wondering at the Sergeant's lack of interest in the altars, Matias scoops up the scrolls and symbols. Maybe more could be gleaned from them later. "Ho, Seamus. Ya know much about these rituals an' such dealin' with the undead? I've heard tell about things like this, but ne'er been interested meself. All I e'er learned was ta hurt 'em."
Matias walks to the white alter, glancing at the scroll and kneeling to examine the holy symbol. "This is...worryin', fellows. I've been followin' Nethys fer many years. Thar's a lot o' aspects to 'im--mostly things ya don' 'ave ta worry 'bout, but then thar's a side my order shied away from. Fer good reason. The All-Seeing Eye looks to all sides. The guard an' the bandit, the divine an' the devil. Peace...and Destruction." He points to the colored altars and the scrolls they carry. "Them skeletons dinnit make this room. I think somethun else is waiting fer us, watchin' us."
No CLW here. I think I've got 1 or 2 channels left. Need to double check that I marked down the right number.
"Makes ye wonder if'n the pay's worth it, eh?" Matias says shouldering past Shane. "But then, would ye rather be stuck inna library readin' yer scrolls all day long? Fightin's as good a job as it gets."
Traveling the next couple days so posting may be sporadic.
Matias hurries forward and sends out a pulse of energy to his surrounding compatriots.
PDXCook: Sorry for missing yesterday. Thought I checked and we were still on Garren and Seamus, but I must have missed it completely. Been traveling/having allergies trying to murder me so it's entirely possible.
And yes, he has no ranks in K: Religion yet. Having only 1 skill rank/lvl to put somewhere is quite limiting.
Just a reminder, fellows, Guidance does not apply to initiative rolls just Attacks, Skills, and Saves. I'll try to tie in a url from now on if it's needed. Also, I'd really love to roll an initiative higher than 10 at some point. You hear me RNG!
"No point in weakenin' ourselves in a fight we can avoid fer now," Matias says as he takes up his position. "As long's the fellow's trapped we can take care of 'im when we're sure there's no greater danger."
"Ah, curses. Keep yer guard up!"
Interesting. I've never played with checks used in that manner. I really like that approach, but it isn't very intuitive. This might be an area where we need to approach it from the player/character divide. In "reality" basically every non active check is being rolled constantly. As you're walking down the street in RL and see something, your mind is automatically trying to recall information about it. In the case of the game, we're relying on the players to think for their characters; where I might not thinking of rolling a certain relevant check, you could either roll it secretly and give the information to the player to rp out or ask for that check. I guess the main problem is you risk the wall of skills if we don't know what we're looking for. I'm in a game on Roll20 and the skill monkey has a macro that rolls every Int-based skill with a click--resulting in 14 checks anytime he wants to investigate something. I think that's the main reason why a lot of tables have defaulted to GM's asking players to roll a certain check rather than having roll blind as they try to guess the skill.
Matias gives a quick look over the weapons and shields before positioning himself by the door, spear at the ready.
Before they move through to the next room, Matias casts guidance on Azi and Garren.
Matias gets a big whiff of the room; he's smelled worse in his years under the mountain. He inspects the weapon racks with a critical eye. "Anything worth picking up?" he asks Seamus.
Matias pushes toward the door trying to touch Azi and cast a spell.
Hey, Seamus, I think your attack roll is too low . It should be +4 not +2, shouldn't it? You have 16 strength and bless affecting you. EDIT: Just realised you are using PA. Guessing bless just wasn't included.
Part of this is letting "action" resolve before moving on. Unless you are running everything in rounds, there does need to be time allotted for players to stay up with each other, but that doesn't mean we need every minutiae of a turn posted. A couple of things to consider to push things forward faster without dropping out player abilities:
Utilize Taking 10 for things like Perception and Sense Motive unless the players want to specifically roll a check. (Obviously, if they're in immediate danger you can just ask for rolled checks). Let Player actions play out: Sometimes a character may just charge on heedless of what's going on around him, but most of the time, characters are going to let others see their plan through. For instance, in the current action Matias began detecting magic and stated a specific duration for the action(s). I saw no response to this and have no idea if it was because Azi's next post was to open the door or because there was nothing to detect. Unless another player is specifically cutting off someone's actions, let the pace breathe and allow things to happen. -- Apparently you posted about detect magic as I was writing this. Don't screw over your players: I think this instance was perfectly justifiable as is from a GM side, but there are times where it can come off as sitting gleefully behind the GM screen waiting to kill a PC. Players may get annoyed because they weren't right there, but someone's character has to be the first to do something and trigger an event. It kind of comes down to your goal as a GM. If you are trying to tell the story with the players, then you make it difficult but work with them to fulfill the characters' journey; if you are like one of my RL GMs, then you just take joy from killing PCs and wonder why all the players are ticked at the end of every session.
With Matias' scan of the room cut short, he switches gear and casts Bless on his companions.
As they push deeper into the second floor, Matias centers himself and begins to detect magic fearing that the "someone" seen at the top of the tower may be nearby.
Matias hurries to keep up with Azi, pausing to make sure there is nothing else lurking in the shadows. "Azi, if you are going to continue to be the tip of the spear we need to keep you well on your feet."
Matias jabs forward with his longspear again.
No sweat. My RL group was playing for years before we actually noticed that differentiation. So many combats would have been easier.
Encouraged by Azi's brutal attack, Matias hurries after him and stabs at the other spider.
It looks like you lowered your attack and damage rolls after the strength damage, Azi, so I thought I'd include a note about Ability Damage that gets overlooked a lot because of how Ability Drain works. From CRB pg 555 (Nethys page for quick reference) "For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability." vs "Ability drain actually reduces the relevant ability score."
Matias steps to the side and pokes his spear through the gap between Azi and the doorway.
Matias rushes up to the encased Azi and, reaching his fingers through the webbing, speaks a word of guidance.
PDX, when you say Azi is blocking the door, do you mean we can't get around him at all or that his squares will be difficult terrain to pass through?
Matias taps the butt of his longspear on the ground. "I'll guard yer rears, fellas. I need a bit o' space to swing this round anyway."
Definitely weirded out by this place, but Matias just assumes it's culture shock since Hulka wasn't worried. Nothing to do, but get some shuteye till the next duty calls.
Signs I've been playing too much pathfinder: I was mowing today and a neighbor waved me down to ask why I was wearing a mask . They were very confused when I replied, "This mask provides protection from allergens 5."
As Seamus gazes up and down the street looking for a pub he does not see any. As he ponders the likelihood of a village with no pub Azaersi gently spins him around. Seamus now finds himself standing directly at the entrance to The Crown I laughed quite heartily at this. I had such a vivid image of a forlorn Seamus spinning around and a huge grin spreading across his face.
Matias orders a warm ale from the barkeep and slumps into a seat at Hulka's table. "They got nothin' but wholesome and good folk 'ere, sergeant. Dunno that I've e'er been ta a place like that afore. Seems odd ta me."
Matias scratches his beard thoughtfully. "Sounds like sum kinda cult ta me. Ya got any strange folk 'round 'ere?"
Morning already? Matias sighs and goes through his morning ablutions and prayers before snatching what is left of the breakfast. Returning to horseback is unwelcome, but Matias bears it in stride until they reach Sanford. He knew military life would be more restrictive than his own rangings across the countryside, but he would much rather be hiking through the forests and open land than bumping along on an animal. The villagers' smiling faces put Matias on edge. In Janderhoff the dwarves nodded in greeting, but a smiling dwarf meant one that had a scheme up his sleeve.
Matias shambles out of the tent swinging his spear wildly, tunic not quite covering all that one might wish. "Aye, ya bedda' run." He shifts a bit uncomfortably in the night breeze. "Well then. Good job on tha alarm there, boy." Matias shakes his shaggy head at the others before ducking back into the tent to put on pants.
Hearing Chaos erupt around him, Matias lumbers out of his bedroll and grabs his spear.
Sigh. So glad I grabbed Improved Initiative.
"It's coming!" Matias screams as his eyes shoot open. "What's goin' on?"
Something slithers in the dark, unseen. Matias runs past other dwarves. As they call his name the dark overtakes them. Matias ignores the screams and runs into the halls of Janderhoff. The darkness follows... Matias turns over fitfully in his sleep.
Pulling the final tent ropes tight, Matias answers Shane, "Aye, lad. Quite a bit o' land 'tween Janderhoff and 'ere. Most o' me kind don' like it with no roof o'er their 'eads, but I find it soothin' nonetheless."
Hulka did warn us about his last squad...another one bites the dust.
Matias drops down from his horse and meanders over to Shane. "Looks like you an' me on tent duty, eh? Used to jus' sleepin' under the stars, meself. Let's see...cross poles at their apex and...eh, it'll stay up."
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