The Tri is 8/16/14...its a double sprint.
350mtr swim
1.55 mile run
13.1 mile bike
1.55 mile run
350mtr swim
Not an Iron Man by any means but still something I want to train for, especially since it is broken up in this form. I will try to get things back on track next week. Thinkgs at work have calmed down, just don't have access to Maptools there.
Fellow Ape Bashers,
A short missive to advise that I shall be on a brief holiday to P$+%et starting tomorrow and returning on Monday. It's highly likely that I shall be non responsive during the period, though I assure you that I shall return to efficacy thereafter.
Regards,
Mihai
And back to reality again...
Going to try and get us back on track by next week. My triathlon trinaing is done for now and work is starting to settle a bit.
I will be out of town this weekend but once I get back I hope to have my PC back and get back to normal posting every day. Thanks for your patience. We are getting closer to the city, just need to live through this and another bigger encounter before we get to the outpost.
I'll go ahead and start working on a replacement. Should he or she come from the jungle, the government allies or the Mantis allies? Does it matter?
I'll go ahead and start working on a replacement. Should he or she come from the jungle, the government allies or the Mantis allies? Does it matter?
I think any of those angles would work. We can figure out how to work him in if the rest of the party survives.
A hasted creature gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
Evidence a Wizard should always include himself in his spells :)
And use the FC point in hit points every level :]
Squishy wizards can get taken out easily at times...
I can handle mapping duties if you need Stephen.
Lessons learned and duly noted. :] I'm sure you could tell that Tragershen was hardly optimized... *cough*universalist*cough*
His replacement will be more durable, that much is for sure.
vs a 10th level "fireball"? Not much you could do. This round... next round... *shrugs*
:P
So what level and wealth should his replacement be built to? Is the group close to 6th level?
Not close. We had 15801 after the Chemosits. No xp since then has been logged but I doubt it is enough to put us close to 23000.
Soooooo.... we dead right?
How is this ever an appropriate 5th level foe?
Meh, its a CR 7 creature. 5th level characters are basically CR 5 creatures, I don't buy they are CR4 with all of the books and extra stuff and there are 6 of you.
Its a tough fight but nothing you can't handle :]
If Nim would stop standing over in the corner drinking potions it would probably be over already...poke, poke...
BTW this is the basic creature as written, I haven't buffed him at all just trying to play him as well as I can since there are 6 of you instead of 4.
It's a CR7 creature that's incorporeal, with high DR, that casts shadow evocation as a 10th level caster 3 x per day... and has the ability to magic jar... or in other words, not really CR 7 (at least in my book).
If you were really playing him 'well' you'd be fireballing from the air where we would have even less chance of returning fire :P
CRs are wildly innaccurate.
Books and extra stuff?
Nim can't hurt it anyhow. No one can except Kragnir and even he is doing minimal damage per hit. (6 and 9 damage for his two hits thus far).
The next fireball should finish things.
I agree it is a tougher CR7 creature, this is a tough encounter. I have heard many a time that you guys were finished just to see you finish the creature. Have some confidence in yourselves!
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Have some confidence in yourselves!
Will do. :P
Nice one Mark. :)
Demon's got a +12 to Sense Motive, so even with the -4 penalty there's a 40% chance he sees through the ruse... then it's a question of whether it's 14 Int is enough to realise that it can just kill the rest of you now and chase me at it's leisure.
Hmmm I looked over the various character sheets and I believe you all might be correct about the probable TPK. Your only shot was to get the group to surround the Shadow Demon and try to wear it down while Mihai kept healing Kragnir with the chance of dropping it before it dropped him, which was a pretty slim chance at best. Although Kragnir critting could change that quickly.
Without align weapon or Cold Iron weapons or even the one time adventuring CI weapon coating you are pretty much done for. When Tragershen got knocked out in the second round it really hurt your chances since he could actually damage it with force spells and 50% damage on other spells.
Couple of options:
We can play it out and see what happens?
We can consider it a TPK and end the campaign. I think we have a good core group and I would be willing to run another AP for those that want to continue on another AP.
I am not the type of GM that likes to hand-waive a party death...if a TPK happens it happens.
With Alex to busy to post for who knows how long and Corb obviously dropping from the game it was getting hard to run with 6 PC's anyways.
Please let me know what you think and we can go from there.
Thanks for everyone's posting and efforts in the AP so far. I think we made pretty good progress in the AP, this creature just ended up being one of those that was the achilles heal of the group.
The inherent problem with 'surrounding' the shadow demon is that it's impossible. Given the incorporeal nature and perfect fly speed it would be able to escape through the dirt or through the air any time it wanted.
The options really depend on what happens next:
1) It follows Mihai, which likely results in an eventually dead Mihai - but the others might be able to escape.
2) It stays and kills everyone else, which potentially results in a live Mihai.
The first is really the only one that offers a 'play it out' scenario. Though since Corbius is still booking it as well there's a chance he might not be dead.
The thing that annoys me about how I assume it's written into the AP is where's the foreshadowing? How were we to know that we were potentially walking into shadow demon territory?
It was a bit of a fluke that it lasted as long as it did, since if Mihai didn't have daylight memorized we would have been in deeper darkness the whole time.
Ultimately I'm happy to flow with the group. I've got character concepts that I could fold into whatever, or we can at least play this out and see what's left over.
Since Tragershen is already dead, I have less of a horse in the race than the others when determining if or how this plays out; it will mean a new character for me regardless.
Stephen, if the group does decide to walk away from Serpents Skull and take up another story, what would you be interested in running?
With Kragnir conscious, i'd like to play this out. Sorry to all that I had to be botted (its unheard of for me to fail a double save like that damn it :( ) but lets see this story through to its grim end. I'll see if I can produce a 20 where it counts.
To death or glory!
20 produced.
I am fine with whatever is decided. I don't have as much invested in this campaign as the rest of you so I have no problem starting something new, but we might as well go out in a blaze of glory! Unless of course that last hit did some real damage...
Definitely did some real damage and i've landed two damaging hits before too. By my reckoning Kragnir has dealt 50 points of damage, but don't think anyone else has landed any.
lol, yes you have got its attention now. Another good hit and it may be down.
Unfortunately no one else has damaged it. It didn't drop Kragnir though...you guys still have a chance.
Nobody else can do any damage. :P
Someone should have kept spiritual hammer memorized :)
And someone should have been better able to withstand a blazing inferno and been throwing around some magic missiles.
Knew you were all just dead weight :P. Throw some damn holy water already!
Knew you were all just dead weight :P. Throw some damn holy water already!
It's Belril all over again! :)
Spiritual Hammer? - if you're letting us take 3.5 stuff then I've got a few more tasty things on my list :P
Spiritual Weapon on the other hand... would have a 55% chance of outright failure from SR, followed by 50% miss chance on each attack and even after all that would only deal 1d8+1... Sure, worth it... and maybe Mihai could've considered it if he had any idea we'd be facing a demonic shadow.
Funnily holy water would be even more useless... if the demon was in melee Mihai would need to hit a natural 20 to even make contact :P
I believe it is just the SR. Here is form the monster rules, "Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally."
It would do full damage.
Aye - it would do full damage - which is 1d8+1, but Mihai would need to roll an attack to hit it at +8 each round - which is less of a sure thing.
By my count it should be dead already
Yep Balani's last attack put it down...like there was any doubt! lol
Will post an update by tomorrow.
I shall henceforth be known as kill-stealer! ;)
Should my replacement for Tragershen be based on the original AP recruitment requirements? What gold should he start with?
I would base him off the original items but you can feel free to chose 2 general traits instead of one campaign.
Not sure about the current wealth by level, I know you guys were ahead of the curve so I would think the new person is as well.
There are two ways we can bring him in:
1) He is coming from one of the factions that support you with two character deaths.
2) You encounter him in the jungle for some reason.
I will let you decide how best to bring him in and support that. What are you thinking character-wise?
I'd suggest not being a Red Mantis... that would be awkward.
Are you thinking arcane caster again Mark? We seem to be completely out of those atm. :P
Yeah, I've got two ideas I'm looking at. Another wizard (either transmuter or evoker) or a classic bard.
Edit. I believe these are the party treasure items Tragershen was carrying.
-Ptn of Lesser Restoration (3)
-Ptn of Water Breathing
-Ptn of Remove Fear
-Ptn of Shield of Faith +2
-Ptn of Calm Emotions
-Restorative Ointment (4 uses)
-Antitoxin (3)
-Antiplague
-Soothe Syrup
-Vermin Repellant
--Map: Smuggler’s Shiv
--Map: Mwangi Expanse
If it helps, it would have been no secret that Tragershen would bequeath any wealth to the church of Calistria, since they helped him restart his life after a personal tragedy.
As I previously stated, not looking to loot Tragershen and Corb's personal wealth, just trying to recover party treasure. I try to do it IC and it becomes an issue. :P