"Borbo likes to sit and sweat for a bit." ... "Wait, Borbo doesn't have a body. Why is Borbo sweaty?"
People might have noticed my posts have slowed down lately. I found a job at the start of the year and it's eating away at my free time. I now also recognise how fast my earlier pace was for people who might not be able to check the forums daily, for which I apologise.
Fuìn resists most of the first squeeze's damage, but you definitely hear several ribs breaking at the second squeeze, and more bones at the third and final squeeze. After it lets go, Fuìn looks a bit like a wrung-out dishcloth. All of his blood seeps into the behemoth and its wounds partially close again. Lough boosts Fuìn's life force, since he looks like he needs it. He then moves forward to bash the thing, but misses.
With Kka ganging up on the thing, Fuìn lashes out in revenge, and connects! With one last swing of his hammer, the behemoth collapses, and the necromantic energies holding all of those bodies together collapse. Lumps of bodies fall to the ground and quickly disintegrate into foul-smelling gas, dealing points of negative damage to Fuìn, Kka, and Lough. But since none of you are in immediate threat of dying, you heal back up and continue exploring.
Over the course of a few minutes, even the bones and exoskeleton of the shanrigol behemoth turn brittle and collapse in on itself, leaving barely any evidence of its existence behind. You have a quick look around the arena now that the giant flesh-blob is gone, and you find a few magical pieces of gear that seem interesting: A very unpleasant-looking and foul-smelling hide armour, a dagger with a green blade, and a war horn that suddenly transforms into a pouch filled with dust as soon as you pick it up. DC 24 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion on the armour:
It's a [rl=https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=153]Ghoul Hide armour![/url] DC 20 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion on the dagger:
It's a Serpent Dagger! DC 22 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion on the pouch:
It's a Cloud Pouch! Also, Hero Point to everyone for this nasty fight!
Sadly, Kka is right regarding attacking a grappling creature. I'm not sure how game-breaking it would be to allow you to attack the space around Fuìn. I don't wanna flat-out say no, but I also don't want to okay it out of hand. EDIT: Luckily, the rules have us covered.
Sometimes part of a creature extends beyond its space, such as if a giant octopus is grabbing you with its tentacles. In that case, the GM will usually allow attacking the extended portion, even if you can't reach the main creature.
Oh, you missed how I traumatised Kvit and Sneakers with one of the flybabies a few levels ago. I still grin when I think of that. :)
Kka
So sorry Cherry Berry! :( I was in a rush to post initiative before work and I didn't do a proper head count.
Kka makes a huff at the woman behind the desk and immediately leaves. She can just see the surprised face of the lady before she closes the door behind her. She gets back to the bar and isn't followed. A few minutes later, the woman comes out of her office, says something to the bartender, and he slides a drink of some kind towards Kka. The woman, still with a nonplussed look on her face, glances at Kka and the rest of the party, and retreats back to her office.
Hero Point to Kvit for an awesome idea! Kvit conjures up a backdrop to the performers, and the entire bar is in awe at the scene before them. The band gets extra into the spirit of their music and produces a wall of sound that drowns out any noise. --- Meanwhile, Kka continues to explore on her own. A sudden blast of music starts up, even audible through the thick walls. She opens the door, and it leads to a hallway. One door clearly leads back to the bar, while another leads to a different room. She opens that one. This messy office features a battered wooden desk with paperwork and ink stains scattered over its surface. The only exit is a door to the south. Behind the desk sits a woman with see-through blue skin, her intestines and bones clearly visible. She looks up as Kka opens the door and a blast of music echoes through the office. "You have one chance to explain why you're here uninvited and bringing that racket of music with you before I gut you and serve you as stew," she yells over the din of the music.
Bottlespeaker is conflicted about using Darius as live bait, but Twinsprout threatens to keep whining all the way back to the village if they don't, so he reluctantly agrees. He will be close behind Darius however, so Darius doesn't get hurt too badly.
You decide to seek information and/or reinforcements before tackling the bigger problem of defeating the behemoth. Kka opens the door to the north, which leads to a small stairway, and loud music coming from the other end. When you open the next door, you're blasted by a loud cacophony of music. Polished wooden tables, chairs, and a long wooden bar mark this chamber as a tavern. The smell of spilled beer and fried morsels pervades the room. In the southeast corner, an elevated stage overlooks the seating. Doors lead out of this room along all four walls, including a double door to the west that looks to be the main entrance. On the stage, four people are performing. They're absolutely shredding their instruments, and it looks like they're having the time of their lives. There's a morlock tending the bar and attending to another morlock, two morlocks in a corner playing a card game, and a grotesque creature with the bottom half of a spider lazily flipping through a book. All the patrons shoot you a foul look as you open the door, but otherwise don't react to your presence.
The big monster is a Shanrigol Behemoth. You fought smaller versions of it in the prison area one level earlier. This is a much advanced version of those. It's partially undead, that's why it's vulnerable to positive magic, and it has a lot of immunities that wouldn't bother a dead body, such as disease, poison, and paralysis.
Cherry Berry walks forward and protects Kka with their staff. As soon as they step forward, the morlock claws at his own eyes, and you suddenly remember morlocks have light blindness. You all realise the morlock is now blind for a round. Hoewever, a grin forms on his face and he goes down on all fours, his metallic spider-legs clicking in anticipation. Sparks of electricity jump between the legs as it's charging something, and then hurls a volley of electrified needles at Lough, Kvit, Fuìn, and Cherry Berry (who he doesn't know is in his cone, but happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time). You take a fair amount of piercing and electricity damage (with a basic save), but it doesn't matter, because at the end of its turn, the flames deal and consume him completely. Combat over! Hero Point for everyone for roleplaying the poison well and Cherry Berry having the perfect spell on hand to remedy it.
Meanwhile, the worm-scientist is furiously scribbling notes on their slate, nodding appreciatively, and you catch snatches of internal monologue it's accidentally sending to you. "Their teamwork is great... Knocking down the creature is something the other teams hadn't thought of.... The feathered one is a menace and a half, might need to study her further... The metal-limbed one is acting unpredictably, must be some feinting maneuvre..."
I echo Kvit's wife's comments. I wish everyone a boring and uneventful life. More optimistically, I hope everyone has the company they want, the peace of mind they need, and the happiness they deserve.
The certificate thing seems to be happening every so often. What causes it to happen? Does it need to be updated manually? Can't it be automated in some way? I'm not complaining, far from it, I'm just curious to know how it works behind the scenes. Apologies if these were dumb questions.
Bottlespeaker makes sure his staff and shield are properly secured, and lets Twinsprout out of his head. "Twin, I'm gonna hop this fence. You can slip between the bars without trouble. Don't want you to be knocked all about if I slip and fall, okay?" "Sure thing! I'm made for spying on things!" Twinsprout salutes and stays behind, whispering instructions where to grab onto.
As the group travels to Rosentry, Bottlespeaker shudders at the artificiality of the environment. "How terrible! It's like nature's bound and gagged! Not a trace of poison ivy, monkshood, or foxglove anywhere. These people don't know the beauty of plantlife if it kicked them in the behind! Guess we'll have to do it for them." Twinsprout nods in agreement, cracking her tiny plant knuckles in preparation. --- When it gets darker, Bottlespeaker has an idea. "Hey Fluff Fang, you can cast Light, yeah? Would you mind doing so on this pebble?" After Fluff Fang does so, he puts the pebble inside his hollow head. "Ah, bright! What are you-" Bottlespeaker now looks like a jack-o-lantern with light emanating from inside his head. "If we're gonna need light, might as well look spooky, right?" Bottlespeaker beams, literally.
Fuìn clambers across the giant corpse and finds solid footing, then bashes the hydra's final head in. With no brains to control the body, it crashes to the ground. Hero Point for everyone for dealing with this so well! The hydras don't have any treasure, but you do see the cave continuing to the southeast.
Bottlespeaker chimes in with Reaching Rings. "Yeah, if you help us get our friends back, we'll tell the guards you're not that much of a bad guy, and they might go easy on you. But you're still going to jail!" "I voted for letting you rot in jail forever, but I was outvoted," Twinsprout pipes up by way of a threat.
Do realise that if you Tumble Through, you're sandwiched in between two hydras. :PYes. I mentioned that rather unpleasant prospect in my post, Yeah, I noticed that after I posted, but I couldn't be bothered to edit my post. I should read all messages before I post, I guess. :P Do notice though that a sword crit is off guard UNTIL the start of your next turn, so no flat-footed for you.
I love Larry Wilhelm. His scenarios are some of my favourite. Forbidden Furnace is just wonderful flavour. Immortal Conundrum is a fantastic bit of worldbuilding, Golemworks Incident is an all-time fan favourite. No Plunder, No Pay is a bit light, but has great NPCs, Shadows Fall on Absalom is great and strange, and while the scenario overall is kinda okay, I love the little details in Storming the Diamond Gate. And all his Fiend scenarios are great as well. I really wish he'd come back for PF2, he'd do an awesome job I think.
And we've officially arrived at the sixth level of the dungeon! Just to be sure, I'd like to post everyone's initiatives to see if they're correct (should be just a +1 compared to last level, but you never know): Cherry Berry, Perception +14
Make sure your headers are also correct. I already noticed Kvit's Perception is still at +9, but I won't remember that forever.
You finish your business with Mayor Menhemes, saying that you don't have any immediate remedies, but you'll look into things to help Dorianna. Kka fixes Fuìn a nice bed at the Crook's Nook, where she can keep an eye on him while he keeps the ruby in his possession. You make some final preparations, then head to the lighthouse once more. You descend the spiral staircase until you're about halfway, where the next level of this seemingly endless complex awaits you. The wide spiral staircase continues downward, leveling out long enough to pass by a single door leading east and a hallway leading west to a double door. The space between them has a rounded, cloudy window overlooking a large pool in a natural cavern. A dim orange glow emanates from far below and, with it, a sulfurous stench. The window is cloudy and you can't make out details, but you see an enormous shape lying half in, half out of the water. There are doors to the east and west, and the staircase continues down even more.
Ah, I had not heard a definitive plan or call to action, so I was holding off on posting. I'll update in a few hours once I'm done demo-ing (I'm currently at a boardgame con running Quests).
All the owners are fine with you holding on to the items for now, as long as you take good care of it and not sell them as loot. You're becoming quite popular heroes now, and word of them sponsoring you is good for business. :P
Kka examines Dorianna, but she finds nothing wrong with the girl. Her right hand looks like it's been malformed for ages, but you saw her yesterday and her hand looked fine then. Kka does notice a string of bruises on her right arm, and when she asks Dorianna about it, she says she can't remember how she got them.
When Kka takes a look at the griffon, she notices something lumpy inside. You'd have to pull apart the stitching to take a look at what it is, though. She does not notice any kind of possession though, fiendish or otherwise.
Dorianna looks over to the empty spot in the room she looked at earlier, then shakes her head. "He says he doesn't know a Mother Spindle. Does Mother Spindle appear in your dreams too? He's a man dressed up all in rags so that you can barely see him. We've been going on adventures together in my dreams. It's a fantastic place with great mysterious forests, beautiful palaces, and snowfields as far as the eye can see." Dorianna livens up once she starts telling about her dreams, clearly becoming more animated. "The Motley Man says we're gonna be together forever soon, and he'll take me on more wonderful adventures. He said he needed my right hand as a token of trust, and I gave it to him. I don't mind, really, I'm left-handed anyways, and if he needs it, I'm happy to give it to him." She scratches her withered right hand absentmindedly and looks lovingly at the spot where, presumably, the Motley Man is standing right now. Mayor Menhemes turns pale and interjects, "Honey, he's going to take you away? I won't let that happen, you're my daughter, I won't let a strange man take you away!" But Dorianna seems lost in thought and does not seem to hear her father.
I echo rainzax's comment completely. Your effort into your posts clearly show and I'm happy to GM for you. You're a great player to have and it makes GMing for you all much more fun as a result. I've been in PbPs where players just post "I attack" or "I roll this skill," and that takes the fun out of GMing as well. (I don't mean to throw anyone under the bus here, if you feel attacked, I didn't mean to) Plus, as I've said before, your lootkeeping is amazing and thank you again for doing it. Same goes for rainzax. Your weird mind is amazing and leads to tons of fun situations. I admit I had to get used to it for a bit, but I always greatly enjoy your posts. That's not to say I don't enjoy the rest of the party, I very much do, I just wish to highlight your efforts. :)
"Sitting in the sun is very important indeed," Bottlespeaker nods. "Otherwise you'll get hungry and won't get big and strong. See, Twinsprout? That's why you need to sit in the sun for at least one hour a day." "But sitting still is so boring! And it can't be that healthy, look at that man. He's all dried out and withered!" Bottlespeaker quickly shoves Twinsprout back in his head and excuses himself from the two humans before Twinsprout can say anything else.
By RAW, unarmed strikes are not weapons. It also seems weird to attach a weapon siphon to your arm, considering there's tubing and such involved. That said, Lough has a prosthetic arm. I'd definitely allow Lough to put a weapon siphon on that. The siphon also says "the next three attacks", which I read as attacks in general, not just hits. If you attack and miss three times, the bomb is wasted. Does that sound fair?
"Fluff, come here, let me aid you. I'm sorry I couldn't save you from the deer, they appeared out of nowhere!" Bottlespeaker takes out his healer's tools and sits down to dress Fluff Fang's nibbled arm with healing herbs and a soothing poultice.
--- Once in Petalbrook, Bottlespeaker talks to Twinsprout. "We've practiced this. You know what to do, right?" Twinsprout salutes, raising one stubby arm to her bulb. "Aye aye, sir! Plan Charm Offensive is in action!" Bottlespeaker cautiously approaches the nearest inhabitant and says, "Hello, I'm looking for my friends. I think they got lost and they might've wandered over here. My friend over here is very worried she might never see her playmates again." Twinsprout puts up big puppy eyes and a trembling lip. "Their names are Summer Shade and Willow Shade, and they're leshies, just like me. Have you seen them wandering around, maybe?"
For Kvit: Chafkhem's "spellbook" contains the following spells: Cantrips: Chill Touch, Daze, Detect Magic, Shield, Tanglefoot
Bottlespeaker grows silent and tries to sush Twinsprout. "Sorry I asked, I didn't mean it like that. She's definitely not harmless, I take that back. Twin, stop making kissy noises." He shakes his head left and right, knocking Twinsprout within in all directions.
Bottlespeaker waves goodbye to Glimmer, but sighs when she's out of sight. "Hey Popcorn, why are you so mean to Glimmer? Yeah, she's annoying sometimes, but she's harmless. And look, she gave us these things." "Ooohh, did you two used to date?" Twinsprout pops up out of Bottle's head and leans towards Popcorn with interest. Regardless of the answer, Twinsprout makes smooching noises from inside Bottlespeaker's head the rest of the journey until told to shut up. --- When Petalbrook pops into view, Bottlespeaker hesitates. "This is clearly where the man lives. What if everyone there hates leshies? Should we disguise ourselves?"
Bottle breathes a sigh of relief that there are no bunnies involved. "Yes, I agree. If he's behind all the disappearances, he's got a lot to answer for." He nods to Glimmer. "Thank you for the information. And uh... Please keep the teasing to a minimum, all right? I'm getting tired of leshies knocking at my door in the middle of the night because they hear scary sounds. Most of the times it's just you, but I'd like to have a full night's sleep for once." "Yeah, look at poor Bottle's gourd. It's all pale and withered thanks to you," Twinsprout pipes up.
Kka slips quietly past the basilisks. At one tense moment, the basilisks seem like they've noticed her, but Kka stops moving and the lizards lose interest. She grabs the torches and skedaddles back to the group.
I feel like giving each class only a handful of "themes" to work with will hamper their utility, unless they make sure to cover all the bases in each theme. And at that point, what's the point of picking a theme?
You're basically reinventing the wheel and making up new spell schools based on theme and handing them out to different (sub)classes. Which seems cool at first glance, but pigeon-holes builds even more and potentially cuts them off from options available to them otherwise.
What would be cool I think is if certain classes got bonuses depending on the spells they actually use. Sorcerers kinda get that with their Blood Magic. Though maybe that gets too complicated with too many floating modifiers. But imagine a Cleric of Sarenrae getting a bonus on hit points healed when they cast a Heal spell, a Bard getting a free round of a spell that's normally sustained, and so on. The spells stay the same, but depending on which class casts them, they get unique effects and feel more distinct.
The Veiled Lady heals everyone and you're all feeling much better.
Swix and Wizel dive into the pile of wands and scrolls once more and both come out with what they think is another wand, but turn out to be a very fancy long prawn fork and a paintbrush. Krinolyn looks through the pile of treasure, but can't really find anything useful. Kieran: This is what remains:
Everyone has two tries. Swix has used his on refocusing and searching, Krinolyn and Wizel have both used one.
Good to hear most people are fine with how it is right now, means I'm doing things right. :) I suddenly had this fear of "what if my players are bored," and wanted to know. If I were to increase difficulty, I wouldn't slap the Elite template on things. I'd usually add a mook or a weak version of the main enemy. That would also help with Kvit's crowd control comment, but he's also right that spaces are kinda small here, so I don't want to crowd the dungeon too much.
"No, Bottlespeaker gave me a body. I was a lost little spirit, but he found me and he made this body for me!" Twinsprout does a little twirl and shows herself off. "Bottle is like a big brother to me too, but even bigger, and um... More brotherly!" She looks at Bottlespeaker with pride, and Bottlespeaker blushes. Bottlespeaker yelps as Reaching Rings says the B-word, and rushes to cover Twinsprout's ears ("Hey, I wanna hear-"). "I've seen many a friend slain by the vicious bunny. Bloodthirst in its eyes, and nasty, big, pointy teeth. You have my word that I will do my best to protect you on this journey."
Kka checks the door in the western hallway. It is locked, and none of your keys work. Another smallway leads to another locked door. You bash it open. This room’s shelves are well stocked with jars of preserved organs, crates filled with bones wrapped in rags, and surgical tools. Two armor stands flank a weapon rack to the south, but they bear only a pair of gnarled sticks in leather sheaths. Most of the shelves here contain preserved bits of anatomy, tools to remove them from a body, and preservation liquids, but among them several bottles that might be of more immediate use to you: a moderate bestial mutagen, a moderate juggernaut mutagen, and a moderate quicksilver mutagen, all neatly labeled with spiky handwriting. The sticks in the holsters turn out to be wands: one 2nd-level Summon Animal, and one 2nd-level Heal, also labeled.
Spoiler:
Lough slashes the bounder out of the air as it escapes, and it falls into the pit. It makes a big splash as it hits the water below. You hear a surprised noise from down in the pit, some chomping noises, and you see the water down below (about 55 feet) turn red. Kvit throws three darts of pure energy at Blue and Lough pierces it with a flying bit of his own beard. Kka moves up to the creature in the web, scares it to near-death, and follows it up with a big stab. The creature drops dead, stuck in the web. The acid continues to burn for a few seconds, but without hoppy frogs demanding your attention, you have time to get rid of the saliva. Next to the stone throne to the west are two rusty levers. They're rusted in place. Cherry Berry, Kvit, and Sneakers all notice a secret compartment in the throne. When you open it, you find a climbing bolt, a dragon turtle scale, and 31 gold pieces.
Hero Point to Lough for solving this nonviolently! When you go back into the mimic room, the door and weapon rack are gone, replaced by two signs that say, "Please don't hurt us." Kka opens the remaining door in the mimic room and sees that it leads to a long hallway that connects back to the main room. There's also a door to the north. The floor of this room contains several open square pits: one in each of the three alcoves to the north and two larger pits in the middle of the room. A dais at the room’s west end contains a stone throne with two rusty levers jutting from the floor next to it. Also inside this room are two purple spheres with legs, five eyes, and a big mouth with way too many sharp teeth. They croak excitedly as they see you and make ready to attack.
Red hops forward, clears its throat, then lobs a loogie at Lough. It then hops back to its original place.
Lough snaps his shield in place, preventing it from critically hitting him, but he still takes some damage.
Some acidic droplets splash past Lough onto Fuìn. They both take acid splash damage. The loogie sticks to Lough and continues to eat away at his body. Then Blue does exactly the same as Red.
Some acidic droplets splash past Lough onto Fuìn. They both take acid splash damage.
Red
Everyone is up!
Aah, that also explains why you said it's pronounced "Lu." In my mind it still rhymes with "now." I had a quick look through the playtest, and I'm a bit reluctant. First, it's a Rare class. Rare does not necessarily mean "more powerful," but it does have a lot of powerful abilities. The flat bonuses to to hit or AC can change a lot of things.
If you propose a build that addresses these two things (and has the okay of the rest of the party), I might reconsider, but I wouldn't want to give a blanket "yes" right away. Does that seem fair?
Zazz forms an eye, purely so he can raise an eyebrow. "The normal way? Remove the pitons or bash in the door? There's no trick to it, honest." |
