Yaos's page

I figured you had some real life issue, probably work.

Sent you a PM about candidate players.

My guess is our GM is still up to his eyes in work.

I see. My mistake.

@ Sulli the Repulsive,

A Lady creating an Undead army sounds freakin awesome, but there's a Big 'However,' we have a Lady Master Summoner who already creates an army of Conjured Outsiders.

Nonetheless, Sulli the Repulsive sounds really cool and, at the very least, I'd love to see the Orc Race-Build (under a Spoiler tag).

That is me.

Yaos's player has no problem with a necromancer with her own army in the group. That may not be DM Ray's concern however.

On the character Sulli, I think her con bonus should be +3, so the HPs should be 8d6 + 24 not +32. Or are the characters level 9.

DM Ray- I am looking at leveling up and wanted to take the expanded summon monster feat. It adds options when you cast... summon monster. It is from Pathfinder Player Companion: Monster Summoner’s Handbook. Is that OK or should I select another feat?

The little condo House Arvanxi owns that you are using as a base in Westcrown has no servants. It has been empty for a while and Magnius assured everyone (with DM assurance) that as long as y'all don't spend too much time there -- more than a few days -- and don't make too big a wave of conspicuous action, House Arvanxi will not even realize you're using it.

OK Yaos will do the work to take care of the kids herself. She does not care much, not being a spoiled helpless noble at all.

On the Halfling- let us go murder her to death. If she is there that is.

Yaos leaves the house where there has been conflict and death, two children in tow. She has Pale Wing take up a watch position above her and her two small charges and negotiates the street until arriving at the condominium where she is staying.

She makes sure the children are bathed and fed, doing it herself if need be, and then puts them to bed.

The next morning Yaos heads for the barracks, kids in tow.

I am not sure if we have servants in the condo Yaos is staying. If not she will do the work herself. Yaos will have the children's beds made up in the room she is sleeping, feeling a little distrustful.

This is something from the recruitment thread. I copied it over here as there is an idea there of mine we might want to explore.

The Shackles: While undoing the entirety of The Shackles would be difficult work, the fractured nature of the Free Captains could make it possible to sow mistrust and instability. Some options include converting current Free Captains to privateers for Cheliax, likely an expensive exercise. Alternatively, we could try to establish our own puppet Free Captains to sow distrust. A little discord can go a long way in a group so loosely held together. If we have a Free Captain or plants we could likely regain a foothold in The Shackles. Regaining control here would also reduce piracy targeting our vessels.

Nisroch:

I recall from having played Skull and Shackles that there is at least one colony of Cyclops in the Shackles, which gives me an idea. The Cyclops once ruled a vast empire, long gone.

We could try to contact various groups of Cyclops and offer to foster the return of their empire. It would require a measure of diplomacy and resources but could be fruitful. Cyclops are individually powerful and could make excellent troops.

We should be able to track down groups through means like commune.

We might want to avoid Nisroch for a while. Like an eon or two.

We had a bit of a falling out with a powerful individual from Nisroch and murdered him a little bit. What is worse, we offended his abyssal superiors as well.

On second thought let us not go to Nisroch.

Tis a silly place.

I am one of the existing players, which is why I am commenting. I like your ideas.

The Shackles: While undoing the entirety of The Shackles would be difficult work, the fractured nature of the Free Captains could make it possible to sow mistrust and instability. Some options include converting current Free Captains to privateers for Cheliax, likely an expensive exercise. Alternatively, we could try to establish our own puppet Free Captains to sow distrust. A little discord can go a long way in a group so loosely held together. If we have a Free Captain or plants we could likely regain a foothold in The Shackles. Regaining control here would also reduce piracy targeting our vessels.

Nisroch:

I recall from having played Skull and Shackles that there is at least one colony of Cyclops in the Shackles, which gives me an idea. The Cyclops once ruled a vast empire, long gone.

We could try to contact various groups of Cyclops and offer to foster the return of their empire. It would require a measure of diplomacy and resources but could be fruitful. Cyclops are individually powerful and could make excellent troops.

We should be able to track down groups through means like commune.

We might want to avoid Nisroch for a while. Like an eon or two.

We had a bit of a falling out with a powerful individual from Nisroch and murdered him a little bit. What is worse, we offended his abyssal superiors as well.

On second thought let us not go to Nisroch.

Tis a silly place.

"Thank you Magnius. And it's children."replies Yaos, taking the key and unlocking and removing the devices from the two children's heads and inspecting their heads for damage. Then she continues "I will take the children with me if that is alright with you two and the rest of you. And we should get out of here."

"Magnius, Bogeyman you both have means for gaining information as to how the Oberigo's may react to the return of their young daughter. This is most fortunate and I would be grateful if you would both find out what you can. I, and I suspect the rest of you, thought that House Oberigo would be delighted at the rescue of their child. But Lord Tiam Oberigo seems to have sold her deliberately and advisedly. We have likely killed his ally and disrupted his plans. Countess Tanith Oberigo's views are entirely unknown to us. If she is of one mind with Lord Tiam... we are going to have to proceed very carefully. Does anyone have a way to get these horrid devices off the children's heads? I can re-summon Red Wing later and see if she can remove the things, but that will take time. Finally, I think it is time to leave this place. All this conflict has likely drawn attention." says Yaos, who returns to visibility as she starts to speak. She cleans most of the blood off her hands and then gathers the two children to her once more as she finishes speaking, adding, addressing the children "In any event I will see to it that you are safe and get those things off your heads as soon as I can."

This sounds intriguing. I am most interested. I hope it gets off the ground and I am selected to play.

Does anyone have any questions about the Houserules? Consolidation of the Knowledges (mine predate PF Unchained by a couple years), or the nerfed Threat range of weapons or such?

Not from me.

"Whatever gave you the impression I was knighted? Or gallant?" Azlain chuckled, still not looking up from his paperwork.

"OK, OK, keep your head on." replies Yaos in a friendly tone. Then as Mindy takes the head says "Thank you Mindy."

"I don't have a bag. Besides, it isn't very gallant of the brave Sir Hellknight to be asking the lady of the group to wander around with a severed head. Isn't that more something you, or even better The Bogeyman ,should be doing? As a fashion accessory this is really lacking. Neither feminine nor subtle." replies Yaos, sounding a little outraged and, not very convincingly, distressed.

Yaos moves a little closer and speaks softly, so the kids can't hear "And are those Bills of Sale genuine? And is that even legal? If the answers are yes and yes, we are going to have to proceed carefully. I mean if Lord Tiam Oberigo was acting on the instructions or with the concurrence of Countess Tanith Oberigo then we are not going to receive the thanks and gratitude for her rescue we expected. We are going to have to be careful. And if Lord Tiam did this on his own initiative, how will the Countess react? We could even blackmail him to keep this secret. And what is this about "four samples of intelligence (labeled 1, 2, 3, 4) regarding the city of Nisroch?" Are the details in the document? That could be most useful to anyone from Cheliax operating in Nisroch."

Yaos yells an instruction to her ravenous horde and runs over to the rapidly disappearing body of Winnow. She then has two of the constrictor snakes pull the head away from the rest of the body, which is being pulled on the leopards as they try to detach flesh. Yaos then severs the spinal cord with her dagger and returns to Azlain with a messily severed but intact head which is dripping rather a lot of blood.

The Red Widow, looking very much the part, then holds out the head to Azlain, saying cheerfully "Here you go."

Yaos conjured brute squad proceeds to rip Winnow limb from limb. The snakes and leopards then proceed to feast on his flesh. Soon little remains aside from blood, spread liberally around the room and scattered bones.

Fellow players- do we want Winnow alive or are you happy with a red smear? I don't see a need for him alive.

You can Level your PCs to ninth.

Joy!

What do you want to do with the kids -- more to the point, how much time in Gameplay do you want to spend on Roleplaying what you do with the kids?

Should we try to segue it by you guys telling me what you want to do and then I give a couple posts on how it all pans out?
Or do you want to take the time and post each part of roleplay with this-and-that NPC in House Oberigo? Lucius Difax has an 'in' with Countess Tanith Oberigo. You can use that to get an audience.

I would like to roleplay that out. I have thought of what I will say.

On the same token, do you want to segue the resolution of Yaos' deal with the Bastard, Kylian Phandros, with whom she made the arrangement to gather intelligence on Winnow?

Or do you want to spend time roleplaying it out.?

I have a mild preference for roleplaying it but segue it if you want to speed things along..

And finally, do you want to segue your report to Grand-Count Marcus Phandros -- with whom The Bogeyman (and I think Azlain) talked to about the Bellflower Network Halflings who assassinated his nephew -- and who you tracked down to kill?

Or do you want to roleplay that?

Can do either.

....I would prefer if we completely segue the purchase of magical items as you buy gear with your loot. Normally it's fun to introduce a merchant or two and do some roleplay but I think in the medium of PbP, it'll be better for our group to segue that completely.

Segue imho.

As to Azlain in the badlands- it is more a matter for the player of Azlain than me.

I feel very like I have typed out "À la recherche du temps perdu" by Marcel Proust in full in my last post. My fault for playing a master summoner I guess.

At the first sign of movement from Winnow the menagerie of conjured creatures tear into his flesh from all sides and above like a school of ravenous, flying sharks.

DM Ray-I have made the attacks of my leopards as claw 1=AoO, claw 2=attack from readied action and have made a 3rd attack for the rake, should both claws hit. I think this is legit, in that there is no reason a) I can't get both an AoO and readied action attacks, b)they can't both be claws and c) therefore rake triggers. Just hought I would explain. If you don't agree, well just apply the attacks you agree are legit. In any event, I think Winnow's destiny is as the paint in giving the room he is in a crimson colouration.

Air Elemental, slam: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
Damage slam: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

A semi-irrelevant post. Just reading the ideas to subvert Sargava, evil and effective, shame on both of you. :)

But if the PCs can find a way of making off with the funds intended to pay off the Pirate Kings, particularly if they replace them with fake gold of some kind, that would create chaos. And a sad side effect is the PCs would get their hands on a sh###load of loot.

DM Ray- I think you are perfectly correct that Asmodean Advocate gets more than it trades away.

However, as Dasrak says, it is not going to break anything. And nobody has ever nominated Pathfinder clerics as an over powered class.

My philosophy as a GM is to let players play what they want unless there is a strong reason not to. So I would let a player play one as written.

Hey DM Ray- I have been looking at the recruitment thread.

People are making level 9 characters, which I guess means we will be leveling up soon.

And have you made up your mind where we will be sent first out of Cheliax? Or do we get to choose?

Just curious.

Well, Yaos has thought of something. You can read it. Not brilliant maybe but it is my action.

The snakes and air elemental will try to aid others attack the Ormyr next round and the Leopards will rip up Winnow if it turns out we need to fight him or if he tries to run away.

Yaos has her four surviving leopards move over to Winnow, where they ready an action to attack Winnow if he does anything except surrender. They might get an attack of opportunity as well.

Yaos uses her standard action to conjure a group of Constrictor Snakes with the Aeirial template. They are two squares from the Ormyr. The Air Elemental moves to join them. The snakes and elemental all ready an action to attack the Ormyr if it attacks any party members.

Constrictor Snakes: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

What kind of ally is the group looking for right now? Where are likely places for them to receive such an ally?

Well, the last person the GM had in mind as a possible ally we are currently in combat with.

We have been consorting with a variety of Chelian nobles. Working with them, doing favours, currying favour, gathering suitable material for blackmail and the like. We have had some success.

We are currently in Westcrown, Cheliax, staying at a condo owned by the PC whose player has just left.

That is about all I can say to answer this.

Where is the party likely to go first?

Don't know.

It might be up to us to decide or the powers that be, read the GM, may send us somewhere.

Azlain- I would agree with you, and Monkeygod, if Winnow had showed up and attacked us.

But that is not what happened. Yaos was asked by another NPC to come up with information on Winnow. If we had done that things would have been fine- well so it seems.

But we decided to attack Winnow. I don't see any reason we PCs should presume we can kill people and always succeed.

Maybe the way Winnow was mistreating children made it predictable that the players would decide he was scum that needed to die. Even if we are all evil.

I don't see anything unfair about what happened.

I think that, when it comes to causing strife and conflict inside of a country so that another country can swoop in and take control, the idea is to destabilize everything.

Now I know a player that has exactly that effect on campaigns.

If he effects a country in the same way, all one needs to do is somehow insert him and wait for things to collapse.

An Asmodean Advocate would certainly be a good addition to the party balance. We have a master summoner, me, a vigilante and an exploiter wizard. And we just lost our party face.

Of course I don't want to intrude on the GMs domain, but it fits the party really well.

I am one of the players and have been on board since it started.

I can recommend the campaign as excellent, with well rounded NPCs, good atmosphere and detail. Get in while you can!

DM Ray- Yaos is considering talking to the Ormyr and trying to placate it. This is not exactly the safest or easiest thing to do I know. I would like to make a knowledge (planes/religion) roll to see what I may know about the feasibility of this and how to go about it.

It just so happens I have focus in that skill. I have planned my character to level 17 at least in outline and was planning on taking Greater Eldritch Heritage, Abyssal Bloodline at that level. And one of it's pre-requisites is skill focus KS (planes).

Knowledge (planes/religion): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Yaos has her conjured creatures remain inactive for the moment. Still invisible, she gathers the two children close, making sure they are out of sight of the next room where all the violence is, and speaks to them softly, saying "I would get you out of those metal restraints, but I am short of time. Young lady, you look a lot like an Oberigo, is that right? And can you lead a group to your house?"

Yaos looks more closely at the metal on the children. Can they see and how much will it inhibit their movement?

Yaos favours retreat as she has said. But she is not prepared to abandon her comrades unless to remain looks suicidal. Yaos remains invisible awaiting the response from Winnow to Azlain.

Those present hear a disembodied voice that sounds a lot like Yaos saying "I say retreat. We have our objective and this enemy is formidable. And I don't know what the Ormyr will do."

I will let Azlain act before taking my action as that is the correct order.

Well, glad to hear your personal disruptions and illness are coming to an end DM Ray.

I sent you a PM some time back. No hurry for a reply.

As for recent delays and tension, well delays happen, particularly over Xmas /New Year. And from time to time players and GMs lock horns. This time it got to the point where it was almost inevitable either the player would leave or the campaign die. Well, so it seems to me. I don't have anything else I feel the need to raise.

Things are at a tense and interesting point and I want to get on with things. :)

My sympathies to those with real life problems. Especially Mr Bogeyman who seems up to his eyes in them.

I am doing fine aside from sleep problems. Just for a change. :(

@ DM Ray- You don't need to create a stat block for Magnius. It is already there if you click on Magnius Arvanxi on one of his posts.

Goodbye Magnius. I enjoyed playing with you, take care.

this encounter is coming across as the GM vs the players with the GM trying everything he can to win.

I really don't think so.

I think things are as DM Ray said, Winnow was not expected to be an opponent. He was intended to be a very powerful NPC who maybe would be an ally later. That is the sum total of why Winnow is so tough imho.

OK. This has got rather extreme since I last looked.

I was going to say I have just figured that my leopards can only hit Winnow on a 20 and there is little I can do to improve it. A few stray hits won't take Winnow down. In the circumstances I suggest discretion is the better part of valor, and cowardice is the better part of discretion, and we run away while we still can.

On the encounter, I think if Winnow had come and attacked us then DM Ray could have been accused of a sadistic desire to massacre the party. But he was never intended as a foe, so we should try to get ourselves out of the hole we have dug for ourselves.

Just to add my thoughts on what has arisen, that I haven't said earlier.

In Cheliax/ Out of Cheliax-

I was rather surprised that we have spent so long in the prelude within Cheliax. But the campaign has been excellent so I don't care.

Winnow

I didn't expect him to be as tough as he is. But he wasn't intended as an opponent. I have already begun thinking about how to run away w/o anyone dying.

I didn't think he was a pedophile. But it is interesting how much more the players react to abuse of children than abuse of adults. I will bear this in mind when running games of my own.

Leveling I am playing in another campaign that started after this one in which we have gone from lvl1 to lvl4.

But as GM Ray thinks the campaign will work better if we stay lvl 8 I think that is fine. Even if the child in me disagrees. :)

Cashing out treasure/ making purchases

I suggested making sure we do that next. I still think that is a good idea.

You're a clever fellow, Mr. Azlain.

Indeed he is. :)

1 I *expect* that when the GM is told he's wrong about something, that he actually listens to his players,

This is the issue I wasn't sure what to say about. I am no Pathfinder rules guru, so I can't buy into who is right. I can well understand where Magnius is coming from, been there myself. But generally if you are in a campaign you have to accept GM rulings. Hopefully this isn't an issue that we can't put behind us.

2 It also doesn't help when the GM throws a CR 16 creature at us, even if it was nerfed.

These were not intended as opponents.

DM Ray did too good a job of portraying evil scumbags and we all want to murder Winnow to death. Even when our characters are all evil.

When I started this campaign I didn't know Pathfinder or, especially, the setting. So I made a combat focused character. My skills are pathetic compared to some of the other PCs but I can conjure up a good army. But this isn't so effective in this combat. Yaos does really well against groups of foes, esp if she knows combat is coming. But a smaller no of powerful individuals... she does not do so well. Esp if they can eliminate leopards as a group or they can scarcely do any damage.

I know Magnius was a bit annoyed by the way Yaos was dominating a combat long ago. Just thought I would mention her limitations.

3 Forever ago, we had a plan to sell all our loot when we got to Westcrown. Somehow, that's gotten pushed aside/forgotten about, despite the fact that I bring it up every so often.

This is true enough. I want to divide up our loot and make some purchases. Let's do that next.

4 I also feel like we've lost our way as far as the overall goals of this game goes.

Initially, we were supposed to gain some notoriety, get summoned before the Queen, and then go out and start turning other nations into allies/subservient states to Cheliax.

However, we've been 'stuck' in country for quite some time now, dealing with all sorts of political intrigue within the Empire of Devils.

I was surprised at how long we spent in Cheliax. But I agree with Magnius that it is OK. It is also that PbP just takes a long time.

5 Lastly, it does kinda suck we're still stuck at level 8. I know leveling isn't all there is to gaming, and it's not super important for me to enjoy a game. However, leveling up is a nice reward, and helps mitigate other 'issues'. It doesn't help that my next level would actually help...

I also never quite got over the teenage boy thing at delighting at levelling up. And I would appreciate the power boost of being lvl 9 and purchasing some choice items.

Magnius, it is your turn to act.

There can be a lot of them.

Conjured Leopards: two in the air on the Ormyr, four on the ground

That should be "Conjured Leopards: two in the air on the Ormyr, two on the ground". The other 2 died when they failed their save vs chain lightning.

I can't help by Glitterdusting, I am out of level 2 spells.

Yaos grits her teeth and her hair stands up briefly as she is struck by chain lightning, though she evaded the worst of it. She then moves, taking the children with her and positions herself so that she has partial cover behind the door and the children are out of sight from in the room. She then gathers her arcane power, drawing a medium air elemental from whence it dwell to serve her. The elemental Yaos positions inside the barrier, next to the Ormyr on the opposite side to the Leopards so that all have flanking. These creatures then tear into the Ormyr. The 2 leopards stuck outside the barrier that survived the chain lightning have nothing to attack, so merely snarl and claw at the barrier.

Notes- 1) 2 of the leopards that are outside the barrier are dead. 2) The summoning SLA is Summon Monster IV, 1 Medium Air Elemental. 3)1 point of the damage from each leopard [but not the elemental] attack that hits is electrical.

Air Elemental, slam: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Damage slam: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Reflex save, Yaos: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Summary- Yaos and Leopards 1, 2, 4 & 6 save against Chain Lightning and take 15 HPs damage each. Yaos is on 65 HPs and the Leopards 10 each. Leopards 3 and 5 fail the save and kick the bucket.

We clearly need to get Mindy a wand of Glitterdust....

Yaos too.

I would like to know The Omyr's special defences if I may.