You may also consider my approval for the spoilered section above. Very cool.
Also, Flowing Monk with Snake Style? That's inspired. I may just steal that idea. Give 'Haru' my compliments.
Thanks very much for the spoiler approval, Talking Skull.
le Artiste's "monk with no name" is largely on Haru's capable shoulders, with some advice from me in answer to his varied questions.
I expect that they will still find the "Forest of Spirits" to be reasonably challenging. Pett's excellent 'House of Withered Blossoms' will definitely put the characters to the test.
Ouch, it is going to suck eggs to be the bad guys tomorrow.
AC of Goh-Xila and TMwNN is 27-40, depending on how much the Summoner slathers on the barkskin, mage armor and shield spells. Tack on a well-timed haste ...
Now to see if they thought about minor details like terrain features and vertical movement. If they have, I anticipate that they will go through the House of Withered Blossoms like Ex-Lax through a goose.
Dramatis Personae update
As of this post, the important persons for this campaign are as follows:
"K_GM", CN male human Ranger (trapper) 1st/Fighter 9th nicknamed "Haggis McMutton". Trapfinder, switch-hitter, poor Will save. I believe that Haggis is a retrained former PC from the Red Hand of Doom campaign from near to 10 years ago.
You are correct. This is my surviving character from the Red Hand of Doom campaign of 2005/6. I started playing this character in 1992 in 2Ed. He was a cleric previously. He was previously known as "the Lonesome Friar." I guess he was 'lonesome', because you greased most of his companions in the Village of Hommlett and later in the Red Hand, and other adventures... He only reached 10th level, so he was the perfect level to use in Jade Regent, part whatever...
I think OJ is MIA for tomorrow.
Dramatis Personae update
As of this post, the important persons for this campaign are as follows:
"K_GM", CN male human Ranger (trapper) 1st/Fighter 9th nicknamed "Haggis McMutton". Trapfinder, switch-hitter, poor Will save. I believe that Haggis is a retrained former PC from the Red Hand of Doom campaign from near to 10 years ago.
You are correct. This is my surviving character from the Red Hand of Doom campaign of 2005/6. I started playing this character in 1992 in 2Ed. He was a cleric previously. He was previously known as "the Lonesome Friar." He was 'lonesome', because you greased most of his companions in the Village of Hommlett and later in the Red Hand.
I think OJ is MIA for tomorrow.
OJ is confirmed as MIA. The question remains, is the Lonesome Friar (aka Haggis McMutton) a Cleric or does he remain a Ranger/Fighter?
I'm sticking with the Ranger 1/Ftr 9. He'll just be semi-religious...
I'm sticking with the Ranger 1/Ftr 9. He'll just be semi-religious...
I was really close to going with a 'Scots-Dwarf' though. The thought of a red headed dwarf in a kilt, beating mooks like red headed step children was kind of appealing...
This guy wears a kilt. He just isn't a dwarf and doesn't have red hair. Hopefully, he'll still beat the opposition in like fashion, or failing that, at least survive to try another campaign in another ten years from now...
Who are Goh-Xila and TMwNN ?
Who are Goh-Xila and TMwNN ?
Goh-Xila is Haru's eidolon.
TMwNN (The Monk with No Name) is le Artiste's Monk.
First Session
Dramatis Personae, in no particular order
- Har Dhon, CG male Tien human Flowing Monk w/ full Snake Style 10th; oldest younger brother of Amatatsu Kaijitsu Ameiko; le Artiste's character
- "Faceman", CG male Tien human who uses prestidigitation to dye his hair blond; Arcane bloodline sorcerer w/ faerie dragon familiar 10th; youngest younger brother of Amatatsu Kaijitsu Ameiko; Agent J's character
- Ki Xing, CG male Tien human Summoner 10th, eidolon "Goh-Xila" (intimidation monstrosity, impervious to the four elemental energies); Ki Xing has the Brew Potion, Scribe Scroll and Craft Wand item creation feats as well as the 5% magic item creation cost discount trait, retainer of the Kaijitsu estate from Magnimar; Haru's character
- "Haggis McMutton" - aka the Lonesome Friar; CG male Varisian human Ranger (trapper) 1st/ Fighter 9th with a +1 adamantine human bane falcata - notable for a +28 Disable Device bonus and a vastly reduced Perception bonus by comparison; ranger favored enemy is ONI; K_GM's character
- "Shoanti Slim", the caravan's guide across the Crown of the World, middle-aged Varisian human Cleric of Shiruzu 9th - bearer of Suishen with the Youxia martial archetype; vicious hanging scar (among gobs of other battle scars); NPC and "self-propelled band-aid" with a sling of magic stones to pepper enemies at range with before hacking them up with Suishen; a (probably) necessary NPC
As none of the PCs wanted to wield Suishen due to the 31k gp price tag, the sword is now acquainted with Slim's capable hands.
Our Heroes 'entertained' the waste-of-flesh that is Prince Batsaikhar, Overlord of the Hongal city of Ordu-Aganhei. They plowed through the first four nights' of feasts largely with flying colors. In this case, primarily due to creative thinking.
Haggis McMutton mostly figured out how to eat with civilized utensils (chopsticks) instead of his hands and/or a knife.
The solution to the challenge on the night of the Feast of the Ancients was to put on a shadow puppet show - featuring Goh-Xila 'shadow fighting' Har Dhon, featuring Goh-Xila's roar whilst Ameiko took care of the singing and stringed instruments.
Their solution to the Feast of Fire was Har Dhon's phenomenal Acrobatics prowess with an out-of-left-field display of illusory prowess by "Faceman", culminating with another dazzling roar by Goh-Xila that was cleverly made to seem as if it was emitted by "the Faceman".
The Faceman took care of the culinary necessities of feeding 300+ royal guests without making them puke (let alone making it in such a fashion as to accommodate eating with chopsticks), while the characters' finale of the day was a live (stage) combat featuring the exotic fighting styles of Varisia. Such as they are.
The Prince, this whole time, had been summoning Slim to his lounging about area to nearly slobber all over Suishen. Slim would have none of it. Ameiko would have none of it. Pouting, he bade them enjoy their final night in the city, although they would have to pack their bags and depart the royal palace forthwith. Har Dhon and Haggis uncovered copious evidence of the psychopath's tendencies to take out his anger upon his hapless retainers. Our Heroes vowed to return at some convenient juncture to lop off the jackass' head.
During the height of the Feast of the Dragon's fireworks, paper candle explosions, and dancing imperial dragons our heroes failed to notice (admittedly, a DC 30 is tough to beat) anything wrong on the Sense Motive check. Goh-Xila and Slim alone noticed the golden imperial dragon costume and heavy drums being discarded with any ability to react.
The drummers were practically atop Haggis McMutton thanks to K_GM's electing to place his miniature virtually adjacent to one of the drummers. They moved to flank and hacked him up a good bit during the fight while the other six attempted to mow down Ameiko in a badly-aimed flurry of shadow essence-poisoned shuriken before whipping out their similarly poisoned katana and attempting to hack Slim into chunky salsa before turning their flanking, +4d6 sneak attacking bits of the ol' ultraviolence upon comparatively hapless Ameiko.
Needless to say, things did not go as the eight Five Storms ninja were hoping. They were pummeled, sliced, diced and horribly brutalized - with a timely slow from "Face" mucking them up something awful in the immediate aftermath of one of Goh-Xila's formidable roars. None of the tongueless wanna-be assassins survived the day.
"We're not in the prisoner takin' bidnez. We're in the ninja killin' bidnez. And brothers, bidnez is a-BOOMIN'!"
"But, we need to interrogate one of them."
"Wha'fore? They're ninjaws, they're here to kill us, they're minions of the Jade Regent. What the hell else do we need to know?" schlorp!
Miyaro, in peasant girl guise, emerges at the end of the fight to hustle the caravan out of the city and guide them through the Forest of Spirits at the behest of the kami therein.
Eventually they go through a "Studio Ghibli" experience ala Spirited Away et al. They endure trials by a great many tortured spirits - with poor K_GM's PC now stuck with having to zonk out an extra hour a day to get fully rested.
Dhan pulled yet more cleverness out by appeasing the spirit of the white tiger, using Slim's aid via dispel evil to release the tortured white tiger spirits still clinging to their pelts. A beautiful, peaceable solution in the finest spiritualism. The second easiest XP earned for the session.
Somewhere in all of this a trio of Tien stone giants were promptly turned upon each other via a confusion from Templeton "the Face". Easiest XP of the session.
Li Xu, the Wandering Song, bonds with Har Dhon their first day in the Forest of Spirits. Over that month, she teaches him Hon-La and eventually imparts to him a bonus rank of Perform (sing) as well as a +1 trait bonus and making that a class skill for him. (With his 7 CHA, this means that he has a +3 sing bonus - which is pretty impressive considering the circumstances!)
Our Heroes agree to fetch Akumi's bonsai should the find it, and are guided to the House of Withered Blossoms. The structure is an ancient stone pagoda soaring some 180+ feet above ground level within its terraced bowl of decay.
Leaving Miyaro to return to the safety of the enclave-sheltered caravan, Our Heroes drag Slim along. They buff to the gills before ripping the bronze-plated front doors open.
Sadly, Har Dhon, the Faceman and Ki Xing are the unlucky sods caught in the furious volley of flying daggers that trapped those front doors. Har Dhon caught a critical hit while the other two were perforated fairly badly. A 7d6 channel energy from Slim's luminescent holy symbol of Shiruzu alleviated all but a few points of the damage dealt by the trap. Ki Xing's timely stoneskin upon Har Dhon absorbed roughly a third of the critical hit damage dealt.
Four mounts were summoned forth by "Face". The first three died screaming hideously to the three 'Floors of Long Knives' traps, while the fourth took its dirt nap when the four Aranae in A3 obliterated the poor beast with a dozen magic missiles.
Unfortunately for the quartet of mutant Star Trek lava monster-looking things, both Goh-Xila and Ki Xing possessed active shield spells. The aranae attempted to obliterate the enlarged monster with more magic missiles to no avail, before a dazing fireball from "Face" put three of them into loopy-eyes-mode. The slaughter was mercifully short, if messy. The webs that filled the funnel (A4) were swiftly burned away by the aforementioned fireball.
Next session the campaign picks up in media res, wherein Our Heroes attempt to kill as many things in the House of Withered Blossoms as 20 minutes' or so of game time will permit.
Not accounting for Haggis McMutton, Goh-Xila & Har Dhon are sporting a mind-boggling AC of 35 each. Dhon's AC goes up based on the number of adjacent foes (up to a 40 with 5 adjacent foes). This gets just all kinds of nasty when one factors in what a Flowing Monk and a veteran practitioner of Snake Style - aka "Flowing Snake Gung-fu" - does to those that miss him...
A barkskin from Ki Xing will put Haggis' AC at 29 as well, making his AC third-highest by a landslide. Only Slim can come close to that, largely due to shield of faith.
We survived session One. And there was much rejoicing: Yeah...(Monty Python chorus fading...)
Pish tosh. At least now you know that your superlative Disable Device bonus will probably not be a waste of gear, feats and skill ranks.
Haggis was left conveniently outside the door guarding the rear after you had to leave the session.
Next session is 20th July, when we will see how gawdsawful 2 PCs with a 35 AC are for book bad guys to deal with....
Gotta love the summer months with an older group of participants.
The session we were supposed to have yesterday was delayed a week.
*sadface*
We did play yesterday. I suspect Turin will comment at length soon. He did grease one or more PCs yesterday. I'll let him fill in the details. Good game.
Second Session
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Dramatis Personae, in no particular order
- Har Dhon, CG male Tien human Flowing Monk w/ full Snake Style 10th; oldest younger brother of Amatatsu Kaijitsu Ameiko; le Artiste's character
- "Faceman", CG male Tien human who uses prestidigitation to dye his hair blond; Arcane bloodline sorcerer w/ faerie dragon familiar 10th; youngest younger brother of Amatatsu Kaijitsu Ameiko; Agent J's character
- Ki Xing, nickname 'Fu Manchu', CG male Tien human Summoner 10th, eidolon "Goh-Xila" (intimidation monstrosity, impervious to the four elemental energies); Ki Xing has the Brew Potion, Scribe Scroll and Craft Wand item creation feats as well as the 5% magic item creation cost discount trait, retainer of the Kaijitsu estate from Magnimar; Haru's character
"Haggis McMutton" - aka the Lonesome Friar; CG male Varisian human - now mysteriously a Dwarf Ranger (trapper) 1st/ Fighter 9th with a +1 adamantine human bane falcata - notable for a +28 Disable Device bonus and a vastly reduced Perception bonus by comparison; ranger favored enemy is ONI; K_GM's character
- "Shoanti Slim", the caravan's guide across the Crown of the World, middle-aged Varisian human Cleric of Shiruzu 9th - bearer of Suishen with the Youxia martial archetype; vicious hanging scar (among gobs of other battle scars); NPC and "self-propelled band-aid" with a sling of magic stones to pepper enemies at range with before hacking them up with Suishen; a (probably) necessary NPC
The Fearsome Foursome resumed their clearing out of the above ground pagoda of the House of Withered Blossoms. Venturing upwards, they entered the trap-riddled mohrg-stalked second story. The dozens of black lacquered 8' high, 5' wide screens that divided this story into a labyrinth failed to hide the obvious iron grates embedded in the stone ceiling at regular 10-15 foot intervals.
Two of the araneae guarding the upper floors of the pagoda were spotted watching the Fearsome Foursome through the nearest pair of grates. "Faceman" proceeded to set two batches of webbing alight via spark while Goh-Xila, enlarged via evolution surge, ripped his own grate out of the ceiling. Faceman slathered him with a grease to permit the monster to squeeze into the overhead chamber, lit by burning webbing that ascended towards the ceiling some twenty yards above.
The araneae and sapphire spiders didn't pose much of a threat other than to reenact Mothra vs. Godzilla at Goh-Xila's expense courtesy of concentrated webbing attacks and actually inject a wee smidge of poison into the eidolon.
The fat opium junky araneae sorceror Akinosa was another matter. Despite being rather thoroughly blitzed out of his drug-fried arachnithropic widdle mind, had been a smidge too busy taking hits on his poppy pipe while the PCs were incinerating webs and curb-stomping his magic missile flinging mini-onions.
The Fearsome Foursome elected to have Shoanti Slim bringing up the rear with the gear.
As combat with Akinosa unfolded, Faceman attempted to one-shot the eight-legged fat-body with black tentacles, which he avoided altogether. Goh-Xila began its climb up the interior walls to Akinosa's floor while Har-Dhon did the wushu "ascend the stone column due to having gobs of ki".
With Haggis McMutton still trundling up the stairs, the mouthy Scotsdwarf made rather loud mention of finding Akinosa's precious stash of poppy juice.
Freaked out at the thought of this bunch of asshats taking his joy juice, Akinosa cashiered the thought of casting mirror image, instead making several of the characters dance on the end of a lightning bolt courtesy of his chain lightning spell (6d6x2 = 44 damage). This put Faceman worrisomely close to winding up in the hurt locker, although the rest of the group shook it off well enough.
Goh-Xila and Har Dhon attained floor level with Akinosa while McMutton, Slim, Faceman and Ki Xing milled around on the floor some 3 stories below. McMutton ineffectually peppered Akinosa twice in two rounds with meager arrows.
Ki Xing, after dancing on the wrong end of the first chain lightning, cast a protection from electricity on himself. Goh-Xila's pernicious immunity to the four elemental energies proved once again a highly valued investment of evolution points.
Not down very many hp, Akinosa's ongoing joy juice-induced version of Pink Elephants on Parade saw an impossibly tall Scotsdwarf talking smack about wrecking his beloved stash of processed poppy squeezings. Two other mutants were within 30 feet of McMutton: Faceman, and Ki Xing.
McMutton ate the damage without much more than a scorch mark on his jockstrap. Ki Xing didn't even do that much thanks to the aforementioned abjuration.
Faceman, however, danced in full on the end of a 1.21 gigawatt lightning bolt (6d6x2 = 50 hp) from Akinoa's second chain lightning, failed his Reflex save and found himself at -37 hp.
As the map would have it, Slim was within a move action of the sorcerer, so he moved up to him and jabbed a REALLY large needle into his chest, delivering a breath of life with a ki-boosted CL 13 that resulted in the sorcerer receiving 41 hp , returning him from -37 hp all the way to 2 hp above 0. Gotta love that youxia archetype. A worthy trade for both domains as a cleric.
Akinosa wound up prone but largely intact when he elected to defensively cast a baleful polymorph upon Har Dhon. Failing his Fort save, the 'Water Moccasin Style' Monk *bamf'd* into a cute, fluffy, Diminutive white bunny. Unfortunately for Akinosa, Dhon made his Will save with flying colors.
Which means that the Diminutive rabbit retains all of his class features.
Stable, prone and eager for vengeance, "Faceman" popped a glitterdust on the araneae after regaining his feet.
Between being blinded by the glitterdust, Goh-Xila pinning the fat-bodied araneae and a seriously pissed off White Rabbit, the BBEG of the Pagoda of the House of Withered Blossoms was pummeled unconscious by a rabbit of the BBEG's own making. The ferocious rabbit apparently has the requisite sharp, cruel fangs as he slew Akinosa with a coup de grace, against which the villain failed his Fort save by 1 point.
Yes, Akinosa had his throat ripped out by the very rabbit his own magic created.
The August session will see the mopping up of the pagoda, before entering 'the Penance' with an 11th level group. Slim will advance to Cleric 10th. There is some debate as to whether or not Har Dhon will request that Slim prepare a break enchantment to rid the "White Rabbit of Antioch" of his cursed form.
Great (rabbit) tale so far! :)
Where can one find the Youxia archetype?
Great (rabbit) tale so far! :)
Where can one find the Youxia archetype?
One may find it for free here, good Bellona.
Yep, there's a variant for every class even. A PbP I'm running on another site has Youxia Druid in it. Very feng shui.
Thanks for the link. I can think of at least one player in my groups who would love to try out that one! :)
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Thanks for the link. I can think of at least one player in my groups who would love to try out that one! :)
I have become fond of the Youxia archetype package, especially compared to the other packages. When a deity's domains seem lacking or just repetitive, swap 'em out for the Youxia archetype and add fun stuff like (a) boosting CL by +4 for 1 ki; (b) full level Lay on Hands for 1 ki; (c) Jubei Ninja Scroll - style "slicing blade of death"; and quite a few other highly entertaining ki talents. Worth the loss of the domains, especially as an experiment.
I would permit a PC taking Youxia to select Monk Vows as appropriate, although I did not have Slim take any (mostly due to not having thought of doing so before typing this).
Third Session
Our Heroes spend 3 days getting trained up to maximum hit points, advancing to 11th level, having Slim break enchantment several times before returning Dhon to his human form, and tallying the haul from the pagoda of the House of Withered Blossoms.
Returning to the ground level entrance, they find that the doors have been closed but the traps have not been repaired. (There simply hasn't been sufficient time, especially given 3e/PF's crafting rules, barring access to fabricate.)
They make their way around towards the Throat - a sinkhole leading into a 10-foot diameter shaft that descends 100 yards into the bowels of the earth beneath the pagoda.
Goh-Xila's keen hearing picked up on very quiet whispering coming from four women somewhere in the Throat. The PCs buffed, as did the four Gossamers awaiting the invaders that butchered their boss, lover and supplier of opium with 'the White Rabbit of Antioch'. alarm spells are fun like that.
Rounding the corner, Har-Dhon and Goh-Xila, buffed as usual, took the lead. Spidery shadows with no bodies casting them shimmered out of the near-total darkness nipped at the pair, inflicting 6 Strength damage to each of them. The Gossamers, still hidden in the shadows, used their shadow call spell-like ability to weave a swarm of 11 giant spiders about the monk and eidolon with a few stragglers spilling out into the hallway blocking easy ground access to the meat shields by the rest of the group.
As the shadowstuff spiders nipped ineffectually at the group, the beat down commenced. As Goh-Xila roared, clawed, chomped and tail-slapped so did Har-Dhon's "Water Mocassin Style Gung-Fu" prove efficacious in dispatching the shadowstuff spiders and, to a much reduced degree, pulverize the shadow companion spiders bent on slurping Strength from the Gossamers' foes.
A dazing fireball from 'the Face' dazed two of the Gossamers and obliterated the shadow companion that Dhon had worked over. While McMutton chopped down many of the shadowstuff spiders, Slim worked his way forward to obliterate the three shadow companions that had survived this long with a 7d6 burst of channeled positive energy. Selective Channel ensured that none of the Gossamers benefited from the destruction of their arachnid companions.
Early in this fight KGM had McMutton declined 'the Face's' players offer to telekinetic charge him into melee range. The why of this is puzzling, as McMutton can dish out some serious damage, more so on a per-hit basis than either Goh-Xila or Har-Dhon. This prompted 'the Face' to maneuver and fire off the dazing fireball.
As the shaken Gossamers attempted to keep Dhon and Goh-Xila from dispatching their sisters-in-webbing by the simple expedient of shoving them down the throat, 'the Face' dropped all four Gossamers into a magically created 50-foot-deep pit, against which all four of them promptly blew their Reflex saves.
One of the Gossamers, having been beaten to within an inch of her miserable life and still dazed, died as a reaction to the sudden stop at the bottom. Dhon did a slow fall elbow drop on the second one that was still dazed and finished her.
A back and forth prone pummeling-while-prone did not go in the two surviving Gossamers' favor. While the riddled Dhon with several volleys of defensively cast magic missiles, the attrition went against them. The fourth Gossamer, attempting to escape getting her skull shattered, shadow jumped 40 feet up the side of the pit, promptly failed her Climb check to retain her hold, and fell forty feet. The finishing move was a boot to the head as she provoked an attack of opportunity from Dhon.
After dismissing the pit, Our Heroes rested, had Slim prepare a pair of restoration spells to cure the Strength damage incurred upon Dhon and Goh-Xila.
Making their way down the shaft via copious amounts of well-secured, knotted ropes onto the stairs, Our Heroes emerged into the theoretical killing field that is the approach to entering 'the Penance'. A quartet of hobgoblin fighter/rogues manned the wall. A quartet of vats of boiling pig fat and oil, resting upon iron rails permitting movement of the vats along the length of the wall as well as over the gatehouse could be seen as well.
As could two moaning, writhing peasants impaled upon the massive spiked doors that barred conventional entry beyond the wall.
Conventional entry being the operative phrase. A telekinetic charge put Dhon atop the wall near two of the guards. Ki Xing teleported himself and Goh-Xila adjacent to the other pair of guards. Dhon deals as much, if not more, damage by way of engaging multiple foes that miss him (provoking attacks of opportunity that do not miss nearly as often). He proceeded to lay the beat down upon the pair of guards nearest him while Goh-Xila shredded one of the two guards into a goblinoid
The guards attempted to incinerate Dhon and Goh-Xila by way of tipping the vats backwards upon their foes. Dhon evaded while Goh-Xila enjoyed the bath.
In return, Dhon continued opening up cans of whoop-ass on the guards, ultimately grabbing one by the neck and power-slamming his ass onto the ground outside of the wall. Slow fall has many uses for the creative!
Slim used his 'slice of death' to up-end the last vat near the two guards that Dhon had engaged to bathe the hobgoblin in cooking oil.
Xila grinned at the surviving guard it was engaged with, used one claw attack to dump the last vat of 'cooking oil' onto the hobgoblin in question - then ate him while cooking alive in the boiling concoction.
'Goblinoids don't taste good ... until now!!' omnomnomnomnom
The trapped decoy rooms beyond the marshalling grounds inside the wall were ferreted out by the clever tossing of hobgoblin corpses onto the rooms floors. Two dismembered corpses later, the trapped rooms were sprung and the false doors confirmed.
Entering the 'murder gallery', depicting sculptured scenes of debauched and depraved violence by oni upon hapless Minkaian people, Our Heroes easily noted the arrow slits. They almost didn't notice the well-hidden hobgoblin guards at the far end of the room.
Dhon went in first, nearly falling into the 50-foot deep heavily spiked pit trap. 'the Face' slathered a wall of stone partway across the room, electing to keep it at two inches thick to ensure that Goh-Xila's massive bulk wouldn't overload the load bearing capacity of a mere two inches of stone.
Our Heroes swiftly made their way across the room as further stone was extended (unknowingly capping the second pit trap) across the floor of the room, dumb luck maneuvering them through the would-be death trap chamber without triggering the remaining pair of spiked pits.
McMutton was tasked, once the spiked commoners were removed and fully healed, with returning them to the safety of the caravan. Into this chamber Slim went nearly fully buffed, holding off on casting a wrathful mantle due to the current group's inclination to operate under the use of darkvision.
As Goh-Xila bounced off of the barred door securing the chamber, the others maneuvered as best they could to either not be in a hobgoblin's firing arc or to stab/pummel a guard.
Goh-Xila's second attempt to smash down the barred door succeeded spectacularly, as did his customary early-battle roar (Dazzling Display, packing a disgustingly effective +22 Intimidate bonus). For the most part, almost everything they fight quickly find themselves fighting under the effects of the shaken condition.
Smashing open the door permitted Dhon to engage one of the hobgoblin guards quite effectively. 'the Face' erected a wall of force that isolated one of the two hill giants, their readied actions triggered by the bursting of the door [which counts as opening for all practical purposes] with thrown rocks were utterly ineffective in doing anything to the AC 33 Large walking lizard.
Ki Xing had dropped a haste on the characters and Xila early on, which permitted the group to close with impressive speed. barkskins were also passed around, making Slim a happy cleric with his fully-buffed AC increasing to 28 with the haste and barkskin. While Slim dispatched two of the guards - the first by way of grabbing the front of his cuirass and violently pulling him through the arrow slit; the second by way of shoving him through an arrow slit to join his comrade-at-arms.
A stocky creature like an armored hobgoblin doesn't do very well in terms of retaining skeletal integrity when a yard-wide torso is shoved through a space a sixth that width.
The rest of the group easily dispatched both of the hill giants with Dhon and Goh-Xila focusing fire on the same mediocre AC target one round at a time translating into red stains on the pavement. Goh-Xila pined for more 'cooking oil' as the giants tasted terrible. 'Like unwashed ogres.'
While in hindsight, the four opponents we faced when I elected not to be 'thrown' into combat, probably wouldn't have posed a serious threat, I didn't know this at the time. It seemed more prudent to have Agent J soften up the opposition at range before charging in with dudads hanging, than to do so immediately when they were at full/near full HP. The Pit spell that Haru dropped likely would have put the opponents out of my reach also (unless of course I ended up going down into the pit along with them)...
While in hindsight, the four opponents we faced when I elected not to be 'thrown' into combat, probably wouldn't have posed a serious threat, I didn't know this at the time. It seemed more prudent to have Agent J soften up the opposition at range before charging in with dudads hanging, than to do so immediately when they were at full/near full HP. The Pit spell that Haru dropped likely would have put the opponents out of my reach also (unless of course I ended up going down into the pit along with them)...
Agent J cast create pit, not Haru.
Be that as it may, it would have immediately engaged Haggis McMutton / the Lonesome not-Friar in the carving up of bad guys. Agent J and Haru would not have been using the same spells with Haggis' lower Reflex saving throw bonus in mind.
Well, not without slathering on a protection from fire to absorb any fireballs first I would presume. The dazing doesn't work if you don't take any damage.
Hrm, seems that I have neglected to update the campaign journals.
Never fear, dear readers, for the crew has continued to slaughter their way through the House of Withered Blossoms with nary a concern for their continued well-being.
The next session on 14th December should wrap up the infamous pagoda.
At least two of the players frequent the boards. I would bet that they recall the details better than I do at this point.
My memory is deteriorating by the hour these days. I'll leave it to whoever else can recall... Happy Thanksgiving incidentally... You and the Mrs. watching the Steelers game tonight?
My memory is deteriorating by the hour these days. I'll leave it to whoever else can recall... Happy Thanksgiving incidentally... You and the Mrs. watching the Steelers game tonight?
We caught the tail end of that particular travesty. Robbed of 2 downs, ROBBED I say!!
Ill weather forced delaying the 14th December session until sometime in January 2014, assuming weather does not continue to rob us of play dates.
Turin (or other posters), can you explain to me the concept of the "play-by-post" campaigns. How are dice rolls & mechanics handled? Is that sort of game a 'Role-Players' dream come true (where rules/mechanics/dice rolls don't apply much, or have little use)?
For example, some of the 'play-by-post' campaigns have some basic stats listed at the top of each players post. One example is: Male Wood Elf HP:85/85 + 16/16 Temp | AC:16 | HD: 8/8 | INIT: +3 (Advantage) | SAVES: STR +4/ DEX +3/ CON +3/ INT +1/ WIS +2/ CHA +1
I can make obvious inferences about how some of these are used, but explain combat, skill checks, etc.
~KGM
Play by Post is simply a medium where the game is played via online postings rather than any sort of live, real-time gaming (such as in person or over a voice-chat program such as Ventrilo or Skype).
Some PbPs can be very freeform, while others stick closer to the rules. It really depends on the GM's and players' preferred style. Paizo has been so convenient as to provide a built in script that can handle die rolls and such:
{dice}1d20+5{/dice}
replace the { } with [ ] and you get
Auto-formatted by the site for you. And even better, it doesn't change if your edit or delete and repost - the site remembers the originally-rolled number, thus preventing cheating.
Those listed stats at the top of the page are usually done for the GM's benefit so he can roll against ACs, roll saving throws or certain passive checks (such as perception), and other things on the PCs' behalf so as to save time.
If you click on my profile and go to the "Campaigns" tab, you can see the PbPs I'm in here on Paizo, if you want to have a look and see how some of them play out.
Thanks to Orthos and Sir Charles for the explanation of Play by Post.
Next session is this coming Saturday.
I've gotten horrible about doing these, and for that I do apologise. The Heroes Three have concluded Chapter Four by way of a combination of pulling rabbits out of orifices with GM improvisation.
Chapter 5 will be pretty short as I find most of its contents "meh" in the aftermath of unexpected water damage to the hardcopy. *sighs*
The Heroes Three tackle Chapter 5 on 5th April.
Ugh.
With the stepping out of KGM that put the group at 3 adult players. When any one of the four of us miss, the game is canned for the entire month.
This happens again, campaign is probably pooched.
I've gotten horrible about doing these, and for that I do apologise. The Heroes Three have concluded Chapter Four by way of a combination of pulling rabbits out of orifices with GM improvisation.
Chapter 5 will be pretty short as I find most of its contents "meh" in the aftermath of unexpected water damage to the hardcopy. *sighs*
The Heroes Three tackle Chapter 5 on 5th April.
My lousy luck. I had to bail just before the GM's hardcopy suffers water damage, and I would have caught a break when the GM cuts out a lot of PC suffering on account of it being partially/largely unreadable, had I been able to stick around...
Ugh.
With the stepping out of KGM that put the group at 3 adult players. When any one of the four of us miss, the game is canned for the entire month.
This happens again, campaign is probably pooched.
My regrets. I wish it were otherwise.
Why are the chuckleheads not able to make/work their schedule around a once per month game?!?
No idea. In any case, 10th May is the conclusion of this campaign for assorted reasons.
...sighs... Most unfortunate.
Moreso because the campaign is now over.
Did you guys play prior to May 10 (which is tomorrow), or did the game literally croak prior to the finale?
Prior. There's not much point waiting pretty much all year to play the same campaign again.
I regret the end of the game. Are you still running Shattered Star, or something for Ineptus and the 'former Savage Tide group 1?' or are you totally without any game/group anymore?
Very unfortunate to hear =/