[PFS GameDay V] GM Greysector's #7-99 Through Maelstrom Rift (Pregens Used)

[GM GreySector]

Please be sure to read the handout for your character, as it should give you an idea of what you should be doing for your secondary success condition.

[GM GreySector]

Dramatis Personae

• The Avalanche — Valjoen_KC
  
• The Chronicler — Tarondor
  
• The Genie — SodiumTelluride
  
• The Storm — N N 959
  
• The Torrent — PJP
  
• The Volcano — cartmanbeck

[GM GreySector]

Frequent planar travelers such as the PCs are aware of the properties of the Plane of Air.

Air-Dominant:

Most of the plane is comprised of breathable air. Creatures with the earth subtype are somewhat uncomfortable here because of the lack of natural earth. This discomfort does not confer mechanical penalties.

Enhanced Magic:

Spells and spell-like abilities with the air descriptor or that use, manipulate, or create air function as if their caster level were 2 higher than normal.

Impeded Magic:

Spells and spell-like abilities with the earth descriptor or that use or create earth are impeded. Such spells fail unless the caster succeeds at a concentration check (DC = 20 + the level of the spell). If the check fails, the spell is lost.

Subjective Directional Gravity:

In most parts of the Plane of Air, each individual chooses the direction of gravity’s pull. When walking on solid surfaces, choosing the direction of the surface to be “down” is relatively intuitive and does not require a skill check. In midair, creatures with natural flight can fly normally. Those without the ability to fly, or those who would prefer to move faster, can attempt to set the direction of gravity.

Once per round as a free action, an individual can attempt a DC 16 Wisdom check to pick a new direction for gravity. If she succeeds, she begins falling in that direction, moving 150 feet in a straight line on the first round and 300 feet on each succeeding round. If she fails, she can attempt the Wisdom check again the following round. The DC decreases to 12 until she succeeds. Once an individual starts falling in a direction, stopping requires a successful DC 16 Wisdom check to set gravity in the exact opposite direction. If she succeeds, she continues falling 150 feet in her original direction for 1 round, then stops.

Because an individual in free fall cannot stop quickly, performing actions during the fall is difficult. However, the PCs may ready actions and perform them during the free fall, such as readying an action to grab an object or to attack a creature while soaring past it. Moving past an opponent in this manner provokes at attack of opportunity. A PC under the effects of a feather fall spell falls at only 60 feet per round and gains a +2 circumstance bonus on the Wisdom checks to change direction.

[The Storm NN959]

It appears that the chronicles you uploaded have a TON of security restrictions on them. This may be why they don't show upon the website and why I am not able to copy them from my downloads directory.

[GM GreySector]

It is password protected against copying data from the file. I used Acrobat's encrypt feature for that. Perhaps it did more than just that?

I'm sorry it is so difficult, but I felt that I needed to be secure when distributing these pregenerated characters from the scenario.

[The Storm NN959]

Why did you need to encrypt it? It makes it impossible for me to copy and past the text or character information.

Is there some email or statement on from PFS as to encrypting these files? As most GMs would not be able to do this, I'm not sure I understand what prompted you to encrypt the files?

[GM GreySector]

Technically I shouldn't have extracted the pregens from the scenario in the first place. I'm trying to strike a balance between distributing the information you guys need and properly protecting Paizo's IP.

[The Storm NN959]

How are the players suppose to use them if they can't view them? At con's do they not hand out a copy of the pregen sheets?

FYI, it's not illegal to make copies of the character sheets and provide them to the players. IP is only an issue when someone is making money off of it or some one is losing money because of it. That's not an issue here.

The best thing to do is email the VO for online play and ask him if you need to encrypt the pregens before providing them.

[The Storm NN959]

Actually, don't sweat it. I just got the sheets from another game, so I'm all set.

[GM GreySector]

I e-mailed James McTeague, the gameday coordinator, on multiple occasions and never received a reply.

[The Storm NN959]

As I said, don't sweat it, I was able to get the text and put it into my character profile. So at the moment, this is a non-issue, at least for me.

James may have tried to get someone higher up to give him definitive answer and hasn't gotten it.

[The Storm NN959]

Are we waiting on someone(s)?

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

I'll be away until late Friday or Saturday. On travel with limited Internet.

[The Storm NN959]

Anyone still here?

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

I'm here!

[The Storm NN959]

Storm asked for Tarandor to do a K. Local on the captains and their ships.

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

Okay. -I'm- Tarondor. The character is Ember.

I'll go look.

[The Storm NN959]

Is this game still going?

[Rhyol The Volcano]

I hope so! But it seems to have slowed very significantly...

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

The GMs last post was a week BEFORE Halloween. This thing is dead.

[The Storm NN959]

Maybe we should PM him.

[The Storm NN959]

I PM'd our GM. No response. He posted as recently as last Wednesday. 5* GM, so I'm not sure what is going on. I'll send and email the online VO and see if someone can take over the game for us.

[IronHelixx]

We've not heard back either, so we'll find a replacement for you guys and make sure you get a chance to wrap up the scenario. (We'll add some time, if need be)

- Jesse

Jesse R. Davis [IronHelixx]
PFS Venture-Captain, Online Play
[e-mail]
http://PathfinderSocietyOnline.com
Discord Chat Server: ​PFSChat.com

Our Mission: To Champion, Serve, Support, and Build the PFS Online Community.

[The Storm NN959]

Much appreciated. I hope our GM is okay in RL.

[Rhyol The Volcano]

Thanks as always Jesse, and I mirror the hopes that the GM is alright and just got caught up in real life business.

[Luke_Parry]

Alright, Jesse has approached me to take over for this game - I'll try to get you through this, but as I am sure you can guess, we will *not* finish this by the official end of the games day.

[cartmanbeck]

Thanks so much, Luke!!

[Luke_Parry]

I apologise for this 'encounter' - it is, shall we say, a bit unusual...

[Luke_Parry]

Also, something that I should do...

Boon Rolls! (16 and 20 win):

GM: 1d20 ⇒ 12.
Zephyr: 1d20 ⇒ 13.
Octaris: 1d20 ⇒ 8.
Ember: 1d20 ⇒ 8.
Rhyol: 1d20 ⇒ 1.

Nope.

Ah, well.

[Rhyol The Volcano]

In preparation for the holidays:
I'll be unavailable a good chunk of time on each day between December 23rd and the 28th. I'll try to post as often as possible, but feel free to bot me if the games are moving quickly despite the holiday.

[Octaris, The Torrent]

I will be offline for the next two days. I might check in via phone, but I don't think it is likely to happen. Then I will have limited time for the next few days due to the holiday. I should be back more consistently starting Dec 26.

[The Storm NN959]

Still here.

[Luke_Parry]

As am I.

No-one is posting in the IC thread, though...

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

I'm here. Took a holiday over the, you know, holidays.

[Luke_Parry]

*mock horror*

Why would anyone want to take a holiday in the holidays!?

;-)

[Tarondor's Ember the Chronicler]

Please excuse a slowdown for a few days. My mother-in-law is in the hospital recovering from heart surgery and with my wife at the hospital, I am attending the kids full time in the evenings.

[The Storm NN959]

No problem, I can relate.

[The Storm NN959]

@GM

Okay, let me know how/if this works

1. Does Cloak of Winds qualify as a storm which would boost Call Lightning to 3d10?

Cloak of Winds & relevant text from Call Lightning:

Cloak of Winds Zephyr shrouds a creature within 35 feet with a protective cloak of winds for 6 minutes. The target can move freely through winds of windstorm or lesser strength, and ranged attacks against the target take a –4 penalty. Tiny or smaller creatures struggle to attack the target.

Text from Call Lightning
"If you are outdoors and in a stormy area—a rain shower, clouds and wind, hot and cloudy conditions, or even a tornado (including a whirlwind formed by a djinni or an air elemental of at least Large size)—each bolt deals 3d10 points of electricity damage instead of 3d6.

This spell functions indoors or underground but not underwater."

2. Using Zerphyr's metamagic rod to convert his damage spells to fire, does he then gain the fire boost from the fire Wysp?

Lesser Rod of Stewart:

Lesser Fire Elemental Metamagic Rod Zephyr can cast up to three spells per day that deal fire damage instead of the spell’s normal damage type, or half fire damage and half the spell’s normal damage type

[Luke_Parry]

1. I would say it doesn't count for the purposes a Call Lightning - a 'protective cloak of wind' is hardly 'a stormy area'.

2. Definitely not - you (personally) have to have the relevant Elemental Subtype to gain the wysp's benefit - so Octaris can benefit from Water, Rhyol can (theoretically) benefit from Fire or Earth, and Ember can benefit from Fire.

[The Storm NN959]

Call Lightning says a whirlwind from an air elemental counts, so it clearly doesn't have to be an actual storm. Cloak of Winds says, "You shroud a creature in a whirling screen of strong, howling wind." I guess I'm wondering how a whirlwind from a small elemental would qualify but not the howling winds from Cloak of Winds?

Is there an Air wysp?

[Luke_Parry]

Well, the whirlwind from a small elemental is up to 20' high, and 10' wide, whilst Cloak of Winds is a single-target spell.

There *is* an Air wysp, but it is currently corrupted by Chaos (and not granting a benefit to anyone other than the Protean).

Zephyr, although a Sylph, does *not* possess the (Air) subtype, and so cannot benefit from the Air wysp's resonance ability.

[The Storm NN959]

Wow...Rhyol killed in two rounds and we have no way to mitigate it?

I think we are trying to avoid a TPK now? I'm hoping the bard can casts some spells?

[Luke_Parry]

Well, to be fair, Rhyol rushed up to the thing, and took two full attacks to the face...

You still have a fairly decent chance to beat this thing - it has taken a chunk of damage, and no longer has kamikaze wysps to heal it (or boost its attacks), and Octaris (its current target) has a better AC than Rhyol did.

[The Storm NN959]

Luke_Parry wrote:

Well, to be fair, Rhyol rushed up to the thing, and took two full attacks to the face...

You still have a fairly decent chance to beat this thing - it has taken a chunk of damage, and no longer has kamikaze wysps to heal it (or boost its attacks), and Octaris (its current target) has a better AC than Rhyol did.

You're completely right. Rhyol charged the thing without attacking it, subsequently letting it get two full round attacks and that was the ball game right there. Had she made it move to attack her, it would have only gotten one attack the first round

[The Storm NN959]

I see the other problem is we are down two characters for the party? Does this scenario scale down the BBEG based on a 4 person party?

[Luke_Parry]

Yes it does, and I have already taken that into account - the four player adjustment is why two wysps broke away to begin with (if I had not done that, it would have received a lot more healing, which would likely result in TPK).

[The Storm NN959]

If the wysps are worth only 12 hit points each, I'd definitely vote for the extra teammates. Especially since one of them is a melee and that would have definitely soaked up more hits.

Oh well...let's hope for the best.

[Luke_Parry]

The wysps heal you 2hp per HD - so 12 for Rhyol, but 20 for the Protean.

The other effects of the 4 player adjustment are that you get a +2 bonus on saves Vs Confusion (which did not help Rhyol), and making it less likely that the 'Warpwave' which occurs each round actually harms a party member.

[The Storm NN959]

Well, the Genie and the Inquisitor might have fixed two wysps, the Genie has +12 Diplo, so maybe that's a wash. Nothing we can do about it now.

Question: Do I need to be able to fly to move off the rock we are on?

[Luke_Parry]

The Storm NN959 wrote:

Will Inspire Courage have any effect on the Kinetic blasts or Call Lightning?

It will give the kinetic blast +2 to hit.

Re: Moving off the rock you are currently on, you will need to jump, or fly.

Please post an action for this round :-)