Since teleportation was mentioned: Hey, Zhu Li. You have a scroll of greater teleport.
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But... boarding actions.
sigh
Fiiiiiine.
Edit: Well, it's not quite.like overtaking an airship with a triumphant grin on my face and getting to release my inner pirate, but I think I managed an appropriate level of drama.
Unless he's not on the ship, in which case I'm just gonna have to make my next scroll of greater teleport out of his hide.
@Zhu Li: THANK YOU!!!
“Have the PCs roll initiative. Each round on each PC’s turn, have her declare what she intends to do in order to pilot the ship. Assuming the PCs have reactivated the diamond- shaped artifact in the bridge in 4A and the ship is once again powered and flying, piloting the vessel is a simple skill check: a DC 30 Knowledge (engineering) or Use Magic Device check immediately allows that PC the knowledge to fly the vessel. Once one of the PCs has this knowledge, she may grant a +20 bonus to any other PC’s check to also figure out how to pilot the craft. Once a PC knows how to fly the airship, she can use the same two skills above or the Fly skill to steer the ship, increase power, or slow down.
“Adril’s vessel begins 1,000 feet ahead of and 500 feet above the PCs. Each time a PC makes a successful check to pilot the vessel, the airship gains on Adril’s ship by 100 feet, either vertically or horizontally. Note that the party may attempt more than one pilot check in a round as the PCs discover new ways to fly the ship more efficiently and as they develop a system of working together as a team.
“Additionally, the PCs’ airship isn’t defenseless. PCs who cannot fly the ship can use the ship’s forward harpoons to attempt to slow Adril’s vessel. The harpoons have a range of 500 feet, deal 5d10+20 points of damage on each successful hit (with a ×3 critical multiplier), and each harpoon slows Adril’s vessel, effectively giving the PCs another 100 feet of closing distance on the target vessel. The harpoons are bulky and unwieldy to load, however, and it takes at least two PCs a full-round action to load a fresh harpoon (the weapons begin unloaded and each PC simply declares that he’s assisting with the harpoon) and one PC a full round action to fire. The firing PC must roll a normal ranged attack, and the PC is assumed to be proficient with the harpoon.
“Adril’s vessel can and will fire back. It has two rear harpoons with the same details as those on the PCs’ ship, which are manned by [the heavily-armored humans on the ship]. A successful hit on the PCs’ ship slows their vessel as well, giving Adril’s airship a 100-foot boost ahead of the PCs.
“Both airships have roughly the same stats: they both have AC 28 and hardness 10, but the PCs’ ship has 1,000 hit points and Adril’s has only 800 due to existing damage. Adril’s vessel always fires on initiative 10.
“Lastly, there is a 25% chance each round, at initiative 0, that the PCs’ vessel encounters an obstacle or problem that affects the next round. Should the PCs encounter a problem, [roll a d% and] consult the chart below to determine what happens.
“01-29: Alien lifeforms! A flock of bizarre, two-headed, white- and-red-colored birds looms in front of the airship. The pilot needs to make a successful DC 30 Knowledge (engineering), Use Magic Device, or Fly check to pilot the ship or the PCs’ airship loses 100 feet of distance from Adril’s airship as it crashes into the flock.
“30-49: Updraft! A sudden, frigid gust of wind slams into the airship from below. The pilot needs to make a successful DC 30 pilot check (see the skills above); otherwise the harpoons roll off their mounts and scatter about the deck. Should this happen, it takes twice as long to load and fire a harpoon for the remainder of this encounter.
“50-69: Fancy Maneuver! Adril’s airship suddenly dives, whipping between thin mountaintops to throw off the PCs. The pilot needs to make a successful DC 40 pilot check (see the skills above) or he will lose 200 feet of distance between the PCs’ airship and Adril’s.
“70-89: Evasive Action! Adril’s airship whips violently side- to-side in an attempt to throw off the PCs’ aim with their harpoons. The PCs gain 100 feet on the opposing airship, but cannot fire the harpoons during the next round.
“90-00: [REDACTED]”
I did NOT want to run this! Teleporting onto Adril’s ship skips that encounter entirely; thank you!!!
Congratulations, guys, you have successfully broken EVERY predication and assumption that the rest of this scenario is built upon! Good job!
Due to a severe lack of the scenario telling me what to do in the situation where Adril actually lives (like, you know, what you were supposed to do!) I’m going to have to make a really weird GM call. I’m going to have to play really loosey-goosey with the enemies’ tactics and their actions as well as make some assumptions about Adril’s knowledge—most specifically that he knows the exact capabilities and mechanics of skinsend (which isn’t too big of a stretch since he knows you guys personally and had the chance to study up on your guys’ tactics). I also have to make a GM call on the interaction between skinsend and another spell.
I may be going off-book for a bit, but it’s only to put things back on the rails. I promise you that this won’t penalize you guys in any way, shape, or form.
Alright, that was the last encounter. Time for Day Jobs!
No Heroism Jordan; Guild Guide’s quite clear on that.
Arnaut, don’t bother rolling; you get 150 gp. I’m going to roll for Sahess because I’m impatient.
I’ll start writing the wrap-up once the Oblivion Oath stream is over.
EDIT: Oblivion Oath's over. Time to listen to Hadestown while writing the wrap-up.
Well, it won Best Musical at the past Tony Awards, so it makes sense. I've been following it since the Off-Broadway days. Blew my mind when I discovered that the lyrics for Why We Build the Wall was written about a decade ago, because when I first heard it I was just thinking it as a massive political statement inserted in (which it is to an extent) but was otherwise irrelevant to the current political situation.
Alright, non-Pathfinder tangent over.
Alright, I'll start Part 4 tomorrow; give everyone time to buy their things. Due to the weirdness of these two scenarios, I'm going to say, flavor-wise, that anything your characters bought in between scenarios was bought in the Akitonian city of Arl prior to Eliza rushing to you all with her news. Won't hinder you in any way, just a flavor thing.
OK, seriously now, can someone please explain what the flying hell is up with Beaky III?
I HAVE NO CLUE!!!!
I was Sovereign Court when I played this and THIS SPECIFIC FACTION MISSION irked me to no end! Beaky III was apparently Grand Prince Stavian I's pet owlbear who was stuffed and somehow put in the Woodsedge Lodge. In Part 1 they apparently needed a sample of fur for a DNA test or something to confirm that it is indeed Beaky III and had to do so without Eliza or her staff noticing!
AND Jaquo Dalsine (the faction head at the time) is literally the ONLY one of the faction leaders who doesn't tell their agents that they're going to Akiton! He even SAYS that he knows where you're going but that "I should let you find out on your own."
And there are also no rules written in for smuggling the stuffed owlbear! No Perception bonuses for Eliza and the staff. No DCs for what to do. NOTHING!!!
But let’s talk about how Zhu Li made Beliac carry 600 lbs. (his heavy load) of horse feed for a sec? :)
EDIT: By the way, you’re probably not getting that horse feed back.
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This whole series of scenarios has had some interesting faction missions.
Jordan upgraded his belt to +6 Dex, finally grabbed a buffering cap, and grabbed a page of spell knowledge (Acid Arrow) so I can actually remember to use the stupid spellstrike ability. Extra damage is extra damage.
Jordan is ready.
As always, the point of no return for purchasing equipment is going through the portal. As long as you mention what you buy then everything’s fine.
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Sorry, yesterday was hectic in ways I hadn't expected.
God forbid stuff happen when it's convenient for me, am I right?
Anyway, refreshing the same three temp scrolls, buying another Greater TP at my dark archive discount, and dropping 10k on upgrading my headband to +6, adding the Stealth skill to it. 2746gp left because everything costs money, including some of my extracts last game.
Day jobs might not pay much but they pay for material components.
Man, I hope Ioun Resonance doesn't make these things explode.
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Strength damage doesn't typically cause death. Is this special strength damage? Otherwise it's just unconscious and unable to move. Rules on strength scores
@Zhu Li: So the “Activating ioun stones for another” thing is weird; based on my understanding of the “animal companions with ioun stones” shenanigans on the forums, only the person whom the stone is intended to orbit around can take the standard action to activate it (and must have an Int. score of at least 3, but that’s irrelevant here).
@Jordan: I am well aware of the norm when it comes to an excess of ability damage—but I have run it correctly and Arnaut’s post is still true. I’ll explain later.
@Arnaut: If I may be absurdly semantical, technically not even your gear is distinguishable from the rest of your form (“Within the foyer, all occupants appear as…silhouettes without distinctions of body shape, gender, voice, or even wielded equipment.” Emphasis: mine). That said, there certainly are pieces of a broken talisman on the ground next to Arnaut’s indistinct body.
So…I’ve gone over the Guild Guide—multiple times—and the way it’s written with the “making prior arrangements” thing implies that as long as you have PP to spend and you become incapacitated in some way, you can just have it removed as long as you pay the cost with no penalty. Even looked at the basics for resolving death:
The basic rule for the Roleplaying Guild is that if a character dies during the course of an adventure:
- He can be raised by a character of appropriate class and level seated at his table by paying all costs associated with the resurrection.
- He can be raised by an NPC in an appropriately sized settlement by purchasing spellcasting services.
- He can be raised by his faction by spending the requisite Prestige Points.
Emphasis: Mine.
Strange that that’s how it’s worded. But it’s also only exclusive to reversing in-game death (or a similar equivalent), so to remove the permanent negative level you would have to either get someone in the party to do it or somehow get out of Skyreach, because the scenario heavily implies that the rift is one-way. Otherwise you gotta deal with it for the rest of the scenario.
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Heads up - I will be at a convention Friday through Sunday. As the sun doesn’t set up here in the summer, neither do the games stop. I will post when possible, but at a slower rate than usual. Please don’t hesitate to bot me after 24 hours if I haven’t posted.
Also, not going to lie, slightly disappointed Arnaut didn’t get to come back as a spooky shadow. I even found good ghost music and everything!
Apologies for the delay. I'll get Zhu Li organized for the new scenario tomorrow, then post. Everything feels kinda... grey. Makes it hard to do anything.
I’m well aware that Gen Con recently started—especially such a big Gen Con as this one with the release of Second Edition—so I won’t be as strict about posting every day while Gen Con is going on.
I'll be going out of town from Friday to Sunday, so my posting will range from spotty at best to nonexistent at worst.
That’s right! Totally forgot about that! I’ll rectify that.
OK, dragging myself out of the morass of inactivity to say HOLY BALLS.
Floating an idea, too. Adril is apparently fond of Simulacrum. Simulacra are Illusion (Shadow) school effects. If I were to look at the Adrils under Arcane Sight and noticed all but one of them radiated strong Illusion (Shadow) magic, this might indicate that the one without it is the real Hestram. Correct?
OK, dragging myself out of the morass of inactivity to say HOLY BALLS.
Floating an idea, too. Adril is apparently fond of Simulacrum. Simulacra are Illusion (Shadow) school effects. If I were to look at the Adrils under Arcane Sight and noticed all but one of them radiated strong Illusion (Shadow) magic, this might indicate that the one without it is the real Hestram. Correct?
Correct.
Good to see ya again!
So, an off-topic but kinda relevant thing that I didn’t know: apparently each member of the Decemvirate has a specific appearance—they don’t all look the exact same. For example, that image labeled “Decemvirate Member” in the Character Profiles is only what one specific member of the Decemvirate looks like in their full regalia. Shemis’s Decemvirate garb looks completely different from that, including the mask. And I know of at least one instance of a Decemvirate member described as “a dark-skinned woman wearing a mask shaped like a steely whorl with three eyeholes,” and another as wearing “a mask of whorled black mesh that wraps the head like a tangle of thorns” (debatable whether those last two describe the same person, as “whorl” is a common word between the two descriptions).
Not particularly helpful, but an interesting bit of information that I honestly didn’t know until recently.
Crap! Valicia had three human slaying arrows that I meant for her to use! Welp. Those go to Jordan, then. My fault!