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God, my party's encounter with Staunton Vhane was so embarassing. He killed his brother in a surprise round and then they killed him in...uh, a third of a round, maybe. It was at that point that I looked askew at the Mythic Ruleset and began to question it.
It was what I did with Joran afterwards that made me happy. They took him alive, kept him in the dungeon in Drezen and casually worked at trying to reform him. He was open to the idea, but by his own admission he "didn't take human deities seriously" and doubted the divine "work ethic" of the human-centric party. No dwarves among them. It seemed a fitting viewpoint from the standpoint of his original faith.
Now that they are in the Abyss, one of the paladins got a communication from Arueshalae (yes, he took her anarchic gift, yay!) letting him know that a merchant in town was murdered and a single piece of armor from an armor rack was apparently taken from his store. Then she contacted them a day later and let them know that someone broke into the dungeon, strangled Joran to death, and scrawled the dwarven rune for "traitor" in his blood on the prison wall.
I am waiting for them to put the pieces together and figure out what's up with him. I fully intend the rematch to be a lot less embarassing!
Wow. That's very close to what happened in mine. Except I had Soulshear summon a babau and used mortal minions to free the armor. But lost interest in mythic before he was re-introduced.
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26-July-2014 Game
With Staunton dead, the rest of Book 2 was basically "clean out the Drezen dungeons". As I mentioned in my previous post, this involved really ludicrously-underpowered encounters (CR 7, 4, 6, 9, 6, 9, 4, 5, and 7 for 9th-level, 2nd-tier PCs. Seriously? This would be a joke even without mythic.) Even worse, the creatures are specifically written to avoid aiding each other.
So the Drezen dungeons are really the first sign you'll see as a GM that even if you ignore any issues you might have with the mythic rules, this particular AP suffers from vastly under-CR'ed encounters in great profusion. Your choices are to bundle lots of low-level mooks into fewer encounters, or add templates to the mooks to bring them remotely close to the level of the PCs. I'd suggest the latter; no 9th-level player enjoys destroying a 100-kobold army. And then being asked to do it a second time. And a third time. And a fourth time. Etc.
This session also marks my first "real" conflict with a player, and it's hard to describe it as such, since we didn't actually argue. I simply *love* Arueshalae's story. The fact that Desna herself descended to the Material Plane to free her speaks volumes to me. So in Arueshalae's cell I added a Forbiddance keyed to Good on top of all the other effects. Our poor Beyond Morality neutral tengu bard went in, and in a strictly-GM call I ruled that effects placed by gods bypassed any mortal defenses. So he got hit for a minor amount of damage. But it was to change NoPrey's attitude towards the "Good" gods forevermore...
Anyway, let's set about clearing that pathetic excuse for a dungeon...
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06-Rova-4713 (Continued from last game)
It took very little time for the ministrations of the paladins to wake Joran Vhane, so the party went to Irabeth's tent to find out what they could from him.
First and foremost, Joran was both happy and surprised to be alive. Having become accustomed to the habits of demonkind, he was under no illusions that his life was safe at any time. The party first informed him that his brother was dead. He did not react much, except to say, "Yeah, I figured as much."
Next, they offered him some of the fine dwarven ale they had "liberated" from Staunton's room. Joran seemed truly grateful, and loosened up a bit.
Over the course of a long conversation, the group learned Joran's story. He grew up with Staunton in the Five Kings Mountains, but turned to worship Droskar, a "betrayal" that Staunton, ironically, could not abide in his youth, and so the two went their separate ways. Several years ago Staunton contacted him after decades of silence and invited him to be the "head smith" for the demons at Drezen. Joran jumped at the chance, but soon learned that the depredations of demons ran far fouler than he could have imagined, and he wanted nothing but to go back to his forges in the mountains.
Unfortunately, one does not simply "resign" from employment to demons, so Joran stayed, and continued his task of corrupting crusader weapons brought to him by Staunton and the others.
The last few weeks had been a great trial: First the corrupted wardstone was destroyed, preventing the demons from committing their "final strike" against the crusaders. A few days later, after Aponavicius left Staunton in charge as she took her armies southwards, the "heretic succubus" Arueshalae escaped by means unknown to even the kalavakus demons that had been guarding her constantly. As Staunton encountered failure after failure, Joran realized that Staunton's days were numbered, and when Staunton was slain, he surely would be as well.
Yet he had toiled at the forges so hard for so long! He had followed Droskar's tenets, performing great deeds and stealing any and all ideas for improving his technique from all he came across. But this was not enough? Joran's faith in Droskar was shaken, and he took to praying every day for deliverance.
And now he had been delivered. By the PCs. Kariss gently explained that it was perhaps not Droskar who had saved him. While Joran didn't seem quite ready to abandon his religion altogether, Kariss suspected that he needed to be treated carefully and with kindness, and turned him over to Sosiel in the hopes of eventually seeing him redeemed.
Before they left him, they asked him about the dungeons below Drezen. He described the areas he knew: A low-security prison just down the stairs, with a secret door in the back of the southern jailors' cell leading directly to the Corruption Forge. He did not tend to travel east of the jail cells because of the spectres guarding the higher-security cells to the east. He knew that Arueshalae's cell was toward that end of that hall, as was the torture chamber.
He knew nothing of where the Sword of Valor might be, nor of who or what Eustoyriax might be.
Satisfied they had all the information they would get out of him, and that the remaining denizens of the top level of Drezen were no threat to the army, they rested for the rest of the day.
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07-Rova-4713
Once Merissa had completed her devotions in the morning (and dedicated all of her 4th-level spell slots to Death Ward for some reason), the party headed back in. This time, they used the front entrance and simply slaughtered the gargoyles guarding it. No doors were locked, indicating that the brimorak who had locked them the previous day was long gone from Drezen.
They stopped at the top of the stairs and Merissa put Protection from Evil and Death Ward on everyone, along with her usual Magic Circle Against Evil on Jake and various combat buffs (Bull's Strength and Weapon of Awe come to mind). She cast Daylight, figuring they would want as much light as possible in undead-filled catacombs.
And that was really all she wrote for the first half of the dungeon. They went downstairs and felt the assault of the evil auras and heard the Whispers of Madness, but no one was affected. The spectres dutifully followed their instructions to "reach out to suck the life from any living creatures", which really DOES suck when you're undead and the whole party is Death Warded, armed with magical weapons, and toting a mythic cleric around. The party glanced in at the high-security cells, noted one of the cell doors hanging off its hinges, and moved on, since their buffs were burning and they heard nothing there.
The vampire spawn crusaders were similarly horrifically useless, lasting barely long enough to attract the babaus from the torture chamber to assist...
...except Kariss hit them with Black Tentacles and they were spectacularly and hilariously grappled for several rounds, during which the party used them for target practice.
As Kariss dismissed the Black Tentacles so Jake and Merissa could close, Theruk Nul sprang forth from hiding. My entire note line for him? "Vampire really stupid bad day."
A-yup. Everyone Death Warded, everyone mind-protected, and a fighter and cleric loaded for bear right in your face. That'll ruin anyone's day.
After being reduced to negative hit points in a single round, he fled in Gaseous Form to his hidey hole. Jake removed the obstructing door with his adamantine morning star, leaving Merissa and her maxed-out Knowledge: Religion to try to figure out how to permanently kill an unconscious vampire.
Even in dreamland, Theruk Nul Did Not Like.
Finding themselves at what appeared to be the end of one section of the dungeon area, the party decided to slow down and spend some time exploring. Theruk's hidey hole was sparse, populated only by his coffin and a slab on which was a recently-deceased crusader. As usual, into the Bag of Holding for a proper burial went the crusader, leading to the question, "Just how bad DOES it smell in that thing?" They relieved Theruk of a magical dagger, wand, and magical studded leather armor, then started checking the nearby rooms. Just outside of Theruk's hidey hole was his library, a truly magnificent collection of hundreds of books on the history of the Crusades and even Sarkoris before then. NoPrey wanted to grab the books immediately, so into the second Bag of Holding they went. Yes. My party has two Bags of Holding. One for the various corpses Jake collects during his adventures, and the other for "corpse-unfriendly" things like books, food, and so forth. Some day I should make him make a roll to avoid mixing them up!
The torture chamber had a bloodstained restraining table and many implements of torture (go figure). The Whispers of Madness were louder here, so Merissa walked up to the table and cast Dispel Evil, ending the whispers forever. (Did I mention the pesky maxed-out Knowledge: Religion roll?) A thorough search of the adjoining smaller chambers revealed nothing else of value and no secret doors that even the keen-eyed Jake could detect.
They moved back up to the prison cells the vampire spawn had come out of, but again there was nothing of interest.
It was time to investigate the broken-open cell in the high-security wing.
Moving into the area, the party could feel the strong aura of Good emanating from the eastern cell. The western cell was intact, with layer upon layer of arcane sigils glowing red in the dim light. Clearly, this cell was intended to contain magical beings of great power. The eastern cell looked like it had once been similar, but the door was bent and broken off one of its hinges and the sigils did not glow. As they approached, Kariss felt a welcoming Presence. The Abyssal Infusion and Unhallow effects that permeated the rest of the dungeon were not active here. As each of the others moved in, they felt their very souls being weighed by some greater being.
And NoPrey's soul was found wanting.
The Forbiddance was not enough to damage him seriously (something on the order of 24 points of damage even with a failed save, I think), but it was enough to make him righteously indignant. Wasn't he fighting the "good fight"? What right did this being have to judge HIM?!? As he squawked and muttered and sulked, the others searched the cell. Carved into the wall as if by a clawed hands was a prayer: "Hear my prayer, Lady Luck. For it is luck I need in escaping this cell. Not just the life behind these bars, but an eternity spent shackled to the Abyss itself. If you truly are the tender of dreams, then tender unto me a new existence. Let me sing the Song of the Spheres, see the stars with new eyes, and escape the pit into which my soul was cast. Bring me good fortune, my Lady. Bring me a new spirit made clean. And I will forever be yours, in life, and in faith. I am ready. Finally ready."
Kariss, curious, cast Detect Magic on the wall. And all became clear. A god had personally touched this prison. Or more properly, a goddess. Whoever or whatever had been in this cell, Desna herself had freed her!
A bit stunned, the party rejoined their grumbling tengu companion and moved back to the southern cell by the entryway, where Joran had told them there should be a secret door leading to the forge. Fortuantely, Joran was true to his word and they had little trouble finding the secret door.
The forge itself was in a gargantuan room. The entry passage came out 20 feet above the main floor, with an elevator providing transport. The party's tour was momentarily interrupted by the four salamanders who manned the forge, but (of course) they had already put up Resist Energy on hearing they were headed for the forge, so yet another non-fight in the dungeon. The group explored the forge maintenance room, the armory, and figured out that they needed to hit the Corruption Forge with both Dispel Evil and Dispel Chaos to neutralize it, and they didn't want to burn any more of Merissa's mythic surges before their exploration was complete, so they let it be for the moment. My one moment of solace was they they did not find the secret door in the forge maintenance room to move on without confronting Chorussina.
Speaking of whom, I think she wins the award for, "Most stylish demon of Drezen." I LOVE her look with the form-fitting full-length dress and the dragonfly cape and all. But wow... she is just NOT built for hand-to-hand combat, and she's got nowhere to run.
Anyway, back to the story. The group heard Chorussina through the door, she dutifully hid within her Wall of Force while buffing herself, and her schir allies didn't even amount to speed bumps on the first round.
GM Note: As Seanoss has recommended multiple times, don't bother with the whole, "This bad guy takes xx rounds to buff" angle. Just have them fully-buffed and ready to go. I could have really used that Wall of Force to keep Jake isolated from the rest of the group.
So, Chorussina dropped the Wall of Force, hit the party with a Lightning Bolt right down the center, and died. I just noticed that Web spell right now while reading her stats, so I'd suggest opening with that just to have a pretense of an inkling that she might be a real fight. But no, she died quickly and noisily.
After ensuring that whatever ritual she had been performing when they arrived was disrupted, the party looted her body, searched the temple, and moved on. A relatively short hallway led to a great hall of colorful murals of Deskari mutilating the major good-aligned gods: Iomedae, Sarenrae, Torag, Desna, and Shelyn. In a side chamber just off the main hall was another iron framework displaying another Sword of Valor. A quick Detect Magic was all the party needed to know the banner was another illusion. They went back to the next door in the dungeon and opened it...
GM Note: Thank goodness for, "If the party tries to leave the room," traps!
...and every party member saw him- or herself being attacked by one of the images of Deskari. Unfortunately, in NoPrey's continuing misadventures, he was the only one to fail his Will save to become exposed to the effect. Fortunately, he made his Fortitude save, so other than a few ruffled feathers (and another 3d6 of damage), he was "unharmed".
The next hallway was a pair of circular ramps around a deep pit in which stood a statue of a marilith. NoPrey correctly identified her as Aponavicius, general of Drezen, but she was not in at the moment. The party carefully edged around the pit, expecting the statue to come to life at any time, and were thus very surprised when a telekinetic push tried to shove Jake off of the ledge and into the pit below. Unfortunately, it chose to push the wrong person, and Jake withstood the assault. The party quickly roped themselves together so that no one individual could fall, Kariss put Fly on herself and a mythic Extended Fly on Jake, and they moved around the pit.
GM Note: Now this is just the kind of thing that I both love and hate about the APs. "Here is an obvious trap with an obvious solution. If you use this obvious solution, you will have a much easier fight ahead of you."
In Rise of the Runelords there was a monster that created rough terrain (trying not to spoiler too badly here), so the party ended up with Freedom of Movement, making the later fights laughable. Here it was obvious the fighter needed to fly, making the fight with Eustoyriax similarly laughable. I love the fact that the APs do it, because it's a nice feeling for players when they figure out the clue. I hate the fact that it really turns the subsequent fights into laughers.
So... Eustoyriax. Poor, dim, Eustoyriax. The party had Daylight going, so his Deeper Darkness was exactly canceled. Unfortunately, Jake had used Terendelev's scale to Alter Self into a half-orc, and NoPrey had taken darkvision as a mythic ability, so half the party could see him the moment the door opened. They all had Protection from Evil, so his Magic Jar ability was so much wasted text, and everyone saved against his Shadow Evocation for very little damage. Jake flew up to him and started ripping down his hit points, NoPrey performed, Merissa did a blind mythic Holy Smite to fill the room with unhappiness for him, and Kariss put Darkvision on herself so she could introduce him to empowered mythic Magic Missiles.
In short, he had a Bad Day.
His only shining moment was using Telekinesis to drop NoPrey into the pit of Green Slime in the previous room. You might be thinking, "Geez, NobodysHome, you really hate NoPrey, don't you?"
And the answer honestly is, "He just kept managing to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
So Eustoyriax dropped, Kariss rescued NoPrey, and the party approached the next Sword of Valor.
The party wasn't clueless. "Merissa, YOU pick it up!"
So Iomedae's goddaughter raised the banner high, and the Sword of Valor activated, seriously inconveniencing all demons within a 10-mile radius.
The party had won! Waffles for all!
*** End of session ***
Next planned session: Friday, 08-Aug-2014 (already played)
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As usual, another good write up from you. I was missing yours and Magnus' recaps.
As you said, this part is easy. I changed this up by having the vampire and some mythic shadows I created attack the PCs in their camp at night after they defeated Staunton. I would also suggest looking at Demons Revisited which has some feats for shadow demons to help them get past those pesky defenses. Eustoyriax already has one of those as a mythic ability so they are right on line with his powers.
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Yeah, unfortunately after our games stopped and I thought I'd have plenty of time to write, my son's teachers all decided to hand him major projects. Add that to a major handoff for me this Friday and a loss of 10 hours of writing during a computer transfer, and things have been... slow...
We'll see whether I can pick up the pace...
Contributor
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I attached detect good to the unhallow spell in Drezen's dungeon. Eustoyriax used his at-will summon shadows and sent them through the dungeon with orders to "attack any good creatures you detect".
...And then the party buffed up with a wand of nondetection, in a desperate search for any buff they could find. No warning or idea that this tactic existed. So occasionally groups of shadows would wander by, obediently searching for good creatures as they passed the group.
I also gave him the Penetrating Possession feat. 'Cause he has no need for protection from evil.
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I did a few things in the citadel to spice things up. My PCs decided to enter from Soltengrebbe's den, the tower, and so pretty much started by figuring out that Chorussina was trying to destroy the entire city. I made a minor change, resulting in them getting the impression that it could be any moment Chorussina managed to complete her ritual. As a result, they opted to clear out the entire citadel in one run, no sleep, they don't have a cleric, and during the run they spent their last healing wands and potions.
Add in an advanced template for every creature, that I combined some encounters and they actually were challenged from time to time, but only one of them went unconscious. In the end they opted to buff their monk's AC up to 33, and then just threw him into rooms with low CR creatures, figuring that lower level creatures would need a crit 20 to hit him. This saved them some HP. I also decided to roleplay some encounters being as I sensed the party would lose interest if I didn't change pace, but they didn't save much HP that way.
Unfortunately we stopped right before the Corruption Forge, so I won't know before next session how the rest of my changes will go down. Chorussina will, as you suggest, already have her buffs up.
As for Eustoyriax - I made one major change. Very major. My PCs were very intrigued once they learned that Aponavicious had a red dragon. And disappointed when their PCs read that she had died. When I saw how disappointed they were I made an on the spot addition. Their disappointed changed to horror, when I "read" them the change I had made. The red dragon died, but it rose again. It seemed to have lost all intelligence and was quite unable to cast spells, and was more clumsy than one would expect, but it rose. And Eustoyriax likes to possess the remains of the dragon.
Basically I took an Adult Red Dragon, gave it the Ravener template and removed its ability to cast spells and fly. Eustoyriax will be possessing it once my party arrives, and my party is low on resources <insert evil laughter here>
(if the party is getting smashed I'll (after some time) drop some hints letting them figure out that they can summon a planetar with the Sword of Valor, and the creature answering their call will be the Herald of Iomedae)
Nice changes! Yeah, it's funny; Jake's player is running another group (including Kariss' player) through WotR, and he's seriously worried about what's going to happen in the dungeons without a cleric.
I *love* the red dragon idea! Nice job!
i concur! this Ap has few dragon, and it wastes them!
Next book, let they abyssal wyrm attack drezen!
I expect they will run into problems sometimes thanks to not having a cleric, but mostly they manage thanks to the large amounts of loot in this campaign. They just buy all the wands they lay their eyes on and plenty of scrolls and potions. Though I can see some entire modules where they might be in problems, depending on how they play - module 4 and 5, for instance.
An abyssal wyrm (or woundwyrm, whatever Paizo calls them) would indeed be a nice one :D I've also been wondering over when might be a good idea to use the succubus Zelmisdria and the green dragon Azrivauxus, their section in the Worldwound campaign setting intrigued me.
I started to see a problem with a lack of a cleric in late book 3, and into book 4. The problem is that the amount of damage both sides do starts to get ridiculous and unless you start to increase PC hp they need access to powerful in combat healing, to keep the melee combatants on their feet
Auch, I hadn't considered that. Two of the players are paladins in my campaign (or, well, one of them is a bit of a mixture of all kinds of stuff, but basically functions like a paladin) so they have some healing, but probably not enough. Neither using mythic, so I should keep my eyes open on how to solve that potential problem.
Well, at 12/6 in Book 4, we've used all of ONE mythic Heal. But it was a biggie.
It's the ability to spam Death Ward and Dispel Evil that's huge. Paladins get Death Ward, but most paladins will choose Champion or Guardian instead of Hierophant, so won't be able to spam it on the entire party a couple of times per dungeon.
There are only one or two areas where the PCs encounter swarms of draining undead, but one swarm of draining undead using touch attacks can quickly decimate a party. And of course there are the demons in Books 2 and 3 that throw Enervates like candy, which is really deadly for 8th-10th level PCs.
I'm just looking at Merissa with 6 spell-like ability Protection from Evils a day, a 24-hour Circle of Protection from Evil, and enough mythic surges to throw off Death Wards, Dismissals, and Dispel Evils willy-nilly, and know she uses 'em practically every session, and wonder what parties without clerics do about the "obviously you need a cleric for this" road blocks.
As I said, the other group is still playing weekly, and they'll be in the Drezen dungeons in a few weeks, and we'll get to see how that plays out for a group without Death Ward. Seems like it'll be a lot more painful/dangerous...
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In some cases it has been very painful. Enervation from the Nabasu in the broken chapel - it almost killed them. Especially because I decided to ignore the tactics as written for the Nabasu. They survived due to lucky dice. Overall lucky dice have played a huge role so far and the Magus in the party had a bright idea, creating Named Bullets for the Holy Gun paladin before entering Citadel Drezen, basically allowing them to destroy the more dangerous enemies before they had the chance to act more than once.
In general our party has a tendency to play without clerics yet we seem to survive. In RotRL one of the players is a druid and I play a bard (and I have ignored every cure spell there is), the others are a gunslinger and barbarian. We have played two campaigns with a cleric during the 7 years I have played, yet only one TPK. The players were idiots and I was the GM, I had no way to save them from themselves.
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Ehm, not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but we just had the strangest session which pretty much was exactly the opposite of what I planned.
Camrad - Human monk of Iomedae with a vow of silence, rigid bloke, very LAWFUL good, sort of makes the paladins seem relaxed and chaotic.
Azzah - Holy Gun, Gunslinger, Evangelist of Sarenrae. Tries to redeem everything and everyone, very high charisma, loved by everyone.
Plank Tsinatra (yeah, I know XD) - Wizard who has been redeemed from CE to CG, converted to Desna in Arueshala's cell, very much a prankster, the party's walking library.
Sir Fumble - Aasimar Paladin of the ideal of paladinhood. Naive, young and charges anything.
Jestak the Barbarian NPC
We start by entering the corruption forge under Citadel Drezen. They were fully buffed expecting a boss fight with the Ravener I previously mentioned and the shadow demon.
To their disappointed they only saw four advanced salamanders. Not much else to do than attack. Azzah starts shooting and Plank sends of one of his two remaining fireballs, turning it into a coldball. The Salamanders almost but not quite die.
Camrad being the acrobatic monk buffed up to 33 AC jumps off the balcony and charges the salamanders. He doesn't hit them. Now the salamanders on the other hand - I have never in my life rolled this well. Crit, crit, crit and crit with x 3 to the crit damage. Confirming again and again and again and again against his 33 AC. My mouth dropped to the floor as Camrad went down. Until then he had been hit a total of 6 times during the entire run of the citadel.
The party kills the Salamanders, checks the left and right room, finds nothing. Now they go for the double doors.
Kiranda the succubus has previously managed to escape, so she is in the room with Chorussina. I expect a tough fight because I have given everyone advanced templates, added a few spell slots to Chorussina and allowed her to buff herself fully before they enter.
Azzah crits against Kiranda. She dies.
Sir Fumble and Jestak kill the schir demons and the Ankylosaurus I had Chorussina summon. This they manage 3 rounds. They took a good deal of damage from lightning bolts and the dinosaur, but nothing major.
Azzah enters the room and tries to get through Chorussina's 5 mirror images and displacement. She doesn't. Chorussina throws the surprise, hammers up a wall of force between Azzah and the party. Azzah is running out of grits, she is doomed, I believe. That is until the wizard uses a magic item to summon an earth elemental, which earth glides in and manages to grab Chorussina. 5 mirror images and many misses later she is dead.
Me being the generous GM add in a raise dead to the loot and the players get Staunton Vhane's brother to cast it on Camrad. After almost all of the party wands and cure potions are gone they go back down again, this time entering the Hall of Deception, the one with the altered phantasmal killer trap.
The party is wary, not quite convinced it isn't a trap, but move slowly up towards the illusory Sword of Valor. They trigger the trap. Azzah manages her will save, Jestak, Sir Fumble and Camrad as wel. Plank the wizard and walking library fails it. He proceeds to also failing the fortitude saving throw, goes unconscious, gains psychosis and CE.
I take the player outside, inform him of this and that Plank now plots the other PCs downfall. He mumbles "oh no" and laughs.
We go inside again, the other players heal him up and then ask him what happened. He is the resident walking library, remember, they don't have the skills. He lies to them and says that it just was a weak version of phantasmal killer.
The party moves on to the Gauntlet of Ruin, the pit with green slime and the illusory floor 10 feet down, hiding the other 30 feet of the fall.
Camrad's player laughs, proclaiming "10 feet, hah! I jump down with my awesome acrobatics, of course!".
My mouth drops to the floor again, I look at him and say "Sorry, man..."
And inform the party that Camrad seems to fall through the floor.
This time I ask Camrad's player to come outside. I tell him what he sees, tell him that the green slime seems to be eating through his equipment and is starting to burn through his skin. I inform him that Camrad doesn't see a way to get out of the pit on his own, and that he can shout for help explaining what happens without thereby breaking his vow.
The other PCs shortly thereafter for the first time ever hear a high pitched womanish voice coming from the big strong male monk, shouting for help and informing them that some green slime is disintegrating his (non-magic) gear and burning his skin.
Plank, who has gotten psychosis, manages his check. He knows exactly what is happening. He knows exactly what green slime is. He knows exactly how to save Camrad. His player informs me via Skype to tell the others that Plank is unable to figure out what is happening. No one else has the necessary knowledge skills to identify green slime.
I watch in horror as they first try getting him up with a rope - well, he is covered in green slime, the rope is burnt up as he touches it. By the time Camrad remembers that he has gaseous form and can fly up he has lost has taken 6 constitution damage. And the others just don't figure out how to get the green slime of him. I had ruled that while in gaseous form Camrad did not take damage, being as the green slime much like the clothes and equipment changed state with him. He decides to enter gaseous form again. He knows the once he leaves it, he takes damage and dies. He debates with himself where to go, almost deciding on the desecrated temple to Iomedae upstairs so he can die "in her presence" before I remind him that it is, indeed, desecrated. He then decides just to leave the citadel, go outside, see the sky and sun a last time, and goes. We do the math, he manages to get outsided before running out of ki points for gaseous form - and I take his player outside again.
I inform him that Camrad survived. As soon as he left gaseous form, the green slime seemed to wither and die. The green slime dies in sunlight. He survived with 1 constitution.
Now back to the rest of the party, as far as they know Camrad is quite dead. They decide to move on, I ask them for perception checks and not a single one spots the traps. Sir Fumble fails the DC and is knocked into the pit with the green slime.
Azzah and Jestak watch in horror, while a sly smile enters Plank's lips. He does his best, he really does his best, trying to convince Azzah that he should put cloud walk on her so she can go down and get Sir Fumble up. She doesn't want to, doesn't see the point when she can't carry him (charisma and dex based) - which is exceptionally good for her, being as Plank's player had informed me that he was planning on deactivating cloud walk once she was over the pit.
Plank then flies down (informing them that unfortunately he can only move 10 feet a round - it is 20) and watches as Sir Fumbles dies.
At this point Azzah and Plank decide to flee with Jestak, and they are greeted by a Camrad looking pretty much like death himself, but still alive.
For the rest of that evening, the cleric NPCs need to prepare restoration, so they decide to sleep, they all fail their sense motive checks. I grow desperate and allow some of the major NPCs to make some as well - and Plank's player informs me that Plank, who carries the Pauper's Tighbone, hardly can move due to they weight it places on him.
Sosiel notices that something strange is going on, informs Azzah that Plank is behaving oddly. Camrad succeeds his perception check and notices that Plank is hardly moving and looks as though he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. I inform both PCs of what they see outside, but they quickly put two and two together, I roll to see if Arvashniel had prepared dimensonal anchor and they use it to pin Plank down, use restoration to help him manage a new will save and Plank no more wishes to kill the party, but is quite depressed by Sir Fumble's death.
Either way - the party sleeps, prepares spells, buffs and goes down once more.
Finally, finally! I think to myself, they are going to fight this awesome ravener of mine. Oh yeah, battle of the ages, buh yeah!
Azzah wins initiative. She crits. She confirms. She one shots my beautiful ravener.
Eustoryiax leaves the ravener and manages to possess Plank. Plank blasts the party and himself with a fireball. Plank is grabbed by Camrad. Eustoyriax leaves Plank and manages to use shadow evocation to cast detonate, knocking Plank unconscious. The party rolls badly, does some minor damage to Eustoyriax, who again manages to use detonate, killing Plank and knocking Azzah down to one HP.
I decide it is a good moment to vividly describe (again) how beautiful the Sword of Valor is hanging behind the shadow demon, and oh how they understand why such a thing of beauty could protect the entire city. Camrad manages to catch my sledge hammer hint, gets up to it, activates it and they summon the Herald of Iomedae. The herald heals Azzah and helps them turn the tide, hanging around long enough to raise their friends.
But man. I have /never/ before been this wrong about how a session would go... my beautiful ravener...
*Edit, now that I think of it, perhaps I have once been more wrong. When one of my players managed to wipe out an entire race of potential allies and destroyed a large chunk of a city I had spent 52 hours drawing...
Just... amazing... rolling!
I need your dice! :P
EDIT: For those as care, I got *almost* my entire handoff done yesterday, and the kids are out of school this week, so my goal is *3* posts -- two WotR and one RotRL. We'll see how that pans out...
Camrad's player actually offered to buy the d20, haha :D
I've used the same dice ever since I started playing 7 years ago. Although I did have one PC once in 4th edition which we jokingly said had "crits every other hit" as a class feature, that dice has never done THAT before :D
Camrad's player actually offered to buy the d20, haha :D
I've used the same dice ever since I started playing 7 years ago. Although I did have one PC once in 4th edition which we jokingly said had "crits every other hit" as a class feature, that dice has never done THAT before :D
I hate when my dice roll hot as a GM as I often roll in front of the players. Anytime the GM is rolling hot, it means bad things for the party.
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Camrad's player actually offered to buy the d20, haha :D
I've used the same dice ever since I started playing 7 years ago. Although I did have one PC once in 4th edition which we jokingly said had "crits every other hit" as a class feature, that dice has never done THAT before :D
I still have one of the red d20s from the first D&D Game Day. It has a reputation of sorts, so much so that it's been "retired" for a while. Although now that I think about it, my players have been getting a bit uppity...
What's the emoticon for "sinister plotting"?
Camrad's player actually offered to buy the d20, haha :D
I've used the same dice ever since I started playing 7 years ago. Although I did have one PC once in 4th edition which we jokingly said had "crits every other hit" as a class feature, that dice has never done THAT before :D
I still have one of the red d20s from the first D&D Game Day. It has a reputation of sorts, so much so that it's been "retired" for a while. Although now that I think about it, my players have been getting a bit uppity...
What's the emoticon for "sinister plotting"?
I use >:) for 'evil grin', does that work?
This is from my Runelords game and I should add a caveat: I altered how critical hits work. If you crit, you auto-confirm unless you need a 19 or 20 to hit, at which point you auto-confirm. Rather than rolling damage, I have crits provide maximum half of the critical result (thus a crit with a longsword does 8 damage, a Longbow with Deadly Strike at 1st level would do 15 damage, etc.)
After boosting her armor class, the halfling cleric (whose player had been having a bad week) rushes into combat to kill an ogre fighter. The ogre proceeds to get two strikes in.
Two dice, I roll twin 20s.
Seeing her AC was really high, I roll to confirm. One 19. The damage brings her legitimately to 5 hit points. I had been willing to fudge, but didn't have to.
Then again, the Set Dice are in their own box covered with pentacles and a black cat on it (I bought it because it was pretty). So maybe the good luck rubs off on them. ;)
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08-August-2014 Game
I have to admit, after the disappointment of Book 2, Book 3 started off with a "bang!" That might just be because I'd already run Kingmaker Book 1 for 9(!!) PCs, so running a "Kingmaker Clone" for 3 PCs and a GMNPC was a piece of cake! As expected, the as-written encounters (Woundwyrm included) were really darned easy for the party -- only the shachath demon gave them any pause at all. Fortunately, the whole idea of letting the PCs explore the Worldwound while integrating their background stories into the narrative was really quite fun. And the one encounter -I- accidentally threw in turned out to be the best fight of the entire book. Go figure!
Anyway, there's a Silver Tsuto Award lying around in this session somewhere: The party encountered a bebelith that pretty much exploded the moment they saw it (triple fumble), but NoPrey, never wanting to play second fiddle to an NPC, went ahead and blinded himself against the helpless bebelith. Which is worse? Failing so badly that the party just feels pity for you, walks up, and puts you out of your misery, or being so clumsy that you trip and blind yourself while trying to perform that act of mercy? You know, I just can't decide, and since I get 'em for free, I'm going to give BOTH NoPrey and the bebelith Silver Tsuto Awards! There! Now everyone's happy! Ow! My eye!
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07-Rova-4713 (Continued from last game)
The triumphant party headed up out of the dungeon and then the citadel proper, Merissa holding the Sword of Valor high. As they emerged, the cheers of hundreds of crusaders greeted their ears. While they were cheered by this greeting, they knew they had a bit more business to attend to before they could join in the festivities. (And who doesn't want to go to a huge party populated by paladins of Iomedae? Oh, wait...)
They quickly met with Irabeth, Aravashnial, Aron, and Sosiel, and decided that the Sword of Valor should be hung in the relatively-undesecrated Chapel of the Inheritor, and Merissa should Hallow the area. This gave Merissa pause; she had not thought to bring any hallowing herbs, as when she left Kenabres she hadn't been powerful enough to even consider hallowing an area. At first the party thought this would be no problem; of course SOMEONE had to have brought hallowing herbs. But as they asked around, they quickly learned that Merissa had been the most powerful cleric leaving Kenabres, and as she had been quite some years away from being able to hallow sites in the eyes of her superiors, no one had thought to provide anyone in the army with such equipment!
Fortunately, Merissa was now powerful enough to perform multiple Sendings, so she first contacted Galfrey's lieutenant to inform him that the mission was accomplished and they needed at least 2 sets of hallowing herbs. Moments later, Queen Galfrey herself contacted the party, congratulating them on their success and informing them that the Fifth Crusade was having similar successes in the south, with Saint Rae'Sheleth leading her band against and slaying a demon lord and his hosts, bringing relief to the troops as the demons regrouped from this shocking loss.
With the south going well and Drezen held, the queen asked them to stay in place until additional troops and supplies could arrive, that Mendev might once again establish Drezen as a fortress against the Worldwound. Seeing as they were now the most powerful force in the area, if they could secure the area surrounding Drezen as well, that would be even better!
The party was considerate enough not to mention Nurah.
Unfortunately, once their audience with the queen was done, they learned that at least one of them would not be free for the afternoon. As Merissa handed the Sword of Valor to Irabeth, the protective field around Drezen faded, instead infusing Irabeth's army with its power. Alarmed, Irabeth quickly passed the Sword to one of her paladins. This time, the aura faded entirely. He quickly handed it back to Merissa. The protection of Drezen resumed. Apparently, Merissa would have to hold the Sword until the chapel was cleansed and consecrated.
The party, unwilling to leave Merissa alone, went with her back into the citadel, along with a platoon of paladins. (OK. That's just fun to say. "Platoon of paladins. Platoon of paladins. Platoon of paladins." Ok. I'm done. Almost. Platoon of paladins.)
Merissa and some of the paladins set about cleansing the temple. Jake took others with him to guard those in the temple, and to search for anything the party might have missed. Kariss and NoPrey took Joran back to the Corruption Forge to try to figure out how to disable it.
Fortunately, disabling the Corruption Forge was a relatively straightforward matter: Someone simply had to overcome Abyssal Infusion of the dungeons to cast Dispel Evil and Dispel Chaos on consecutive rounds. Unfortunately, there was only one cleric in Drezen powerful enough to cast those two spells, much less overcome the infusion, and she was already busy upstairs. On top of that, fully redeeming the forge would require yet another Hallow spell.
Kariss pondered buying Merissa an appointment calendar for her next nameday.
By early evening, an exhausted Merissa and her paladin escorts were sweaty, tired, and pleased. They had restored the temple enough that Merissa had no hesitation in Consecrating it for the night. Once cleaned and consecrated, Merissa hung the Sword of Valor and it retained its protective aura even after Merissa released it. She was free! Jake and his cohorts had found nothing fun to smash, but he was still in good spirits after a day of "routine" duty. Kariss told Merissa about the forge, Merissa ordered additional hallowing herbs from the southern forces, and NoPrey entertained the troops.
It was a low-key but highly-celebratory evening! Dancing crusaders. Woo hoo?
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08-Rova-4713
In the morning, Kariss and Merissa set out to deal with the Corruption Forge. Figuring it would be easier for Merissa to cast the first spell aboveground, Kariss had Merissa cast Dispel Evil and try to hold the charge as she Dimension Doored the two of them to the forge. Unfortunately, they had not been aware that the Unhallow effect in the dungeon had a Dimensional Anchor tied to it, and Kariss' effort failed. Sighing, the women decided to go downstairs the old-fashioned way.
Eventually, it took Merissa her prepared 5th-level spells and 5 mythic surges, but she finally managed to cast consecutive Dispel Evil and Dispel Chaos spells, rendering the forge inert. Now, all they had to do was wait until the reinforcements arrived with the hallowing herbs...
The party spent the rest of the day in Drezen proper, searching out and eliminating any creatures still loyal to the demons. Fortunately, once the Sword of Valor had become active, most such creatures had made themselves scarce, so it was light work.
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09-Rova-4713
With Drezen cleared and the queen's reinforcements still days away, the party decided to act on the queen's orders (and on the fact they were all Kingmaker veterans) to start clearing hexes around Drezen.
GM Note: And here's where you can have a lot of fun with the Worldwound. When the army came up Keeper's Canyon, I figured they didn't have a lot of visibility to the abomination that is the Worldwound. Fighting in Drezen, they were more focused on the citadel and city than the terrain. But wandering in the open under a sickeningly-multihued sky, with rains of frogs and insects, squishy soil that oozed blood when you walked on it, plants and rocks with eyes that stared at you, and whatever else popped into my imagination, the Worldwound was a fun fun place.
For the first 10 miles from the city, the Sword of Valor's aura reigned. The sky was blue, the ground was a rusty brown, and the world seemed right. However, there was no need to guess at the boundary of its effects, as just beyond the boundary was a multicolored sea of madness. As they approached the boundary, a tremendous insectoid burst from beneath the ground and attacked!
A bebelith.
My poor, stupid, pathetic, awful-rolling bebelith.
In its surprise round, it missed Jake. Stupid heavily-armored fighters! Then it rolled a hopeless initiative. Kariss hit it with a Dimensional Anchor, then Merissa hit it with a mythic Holy Smite and it failed its save. OK, I'm blind, trapped, and about to be whomped on by a fighter. Maybe I can kill him first!
Using its scent ability, the bebelith did a full-round attack on Jake... and got a 1. Another 1. Another 1. And a 3. Drawing three fumble cards from the deck, my bebelith was blind (again), hit itself (what a surprise!), and could perform no attacks of opportunity that round (Hello? Blind!). To make me feel better, NoPrey's player decided that NoPrey wasn't going to perform, but was instead going to fire his crossbow. HE fumbled and drew ANOTHER blind card. The bebelith is blind, NoPrey is blind, everybody's blind...
Fortunately, Jake put me out of my misery by utterly annihilating the blind, wounded bebelith.
Into the Bag of Holding to show to the paladins it went...
...OK, yeah, at this point I cried, "Foul!" and indicated there was NO way he could fit a bebelith into his bag, so he just had NoPrey take mental "pictures" so he'd be able to show the paladins later.
But I did love watching them try to do it. "It's dead? We stuff it in our bag!"
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and the party chose to return to Drezen to camp for the night...
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10-Rova-4713
The party finished exploration of the hex.
Sometimes, you can just write off a day...
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11-Rova-4713
The party started on their next hex. By around midday, they were astonished to see a babau approaching them, hands out in an imploring manner. "Ah, my friends! My friends! How wonderful it is to see crusaders this far into the Wound! Now, I know I am a demon and you may not trust me, but do I have a deal for you!"
The demon was carrying what looked like nothing so much as a golden flute. And the party wisely wanted nothing to do with it. At first the demon asked what they would give for it. Then offered it for free. Then offered to perform services for the party if they would just accept this wondrous gift.
The party was Not Amused.
Finally, curiosity got the better of Kariss and she had the demon hold still while she used Detect Magic and Spellcraft to try to identify it. What she saw astonished her! This was a major artifact! In the hands of a selfless, generous man (or woman), the artifact would allow the wielder to use known metamagic feats without increasing the spell level! In the hands of an evil person (or demon, apparently), the artifact would burden them with the sins of their entire existence. Kariss smirked. The babau must be burdened indeed!
The party discussed their options. The artifact was obviously good, and they could obviously use it, but did they really want to help a demon?
Ultimately, it was pretty sad. Kariss accepted the Pauper's Thighbone, everyone rolled initiative, and Jake killed it before it got a chance to move. Problem solved!
Poor babau.
(OK, technically they made it promise not to leave once it gave them the thighbone, and Jake simply declared that if it tried to teleport away he'd kill it, but what was a demon faced by a cleric of Iomedae supposed to do?)
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12-Rova-4713
The party finished their next hex. On getting back to Drezen, they found that the queen's reinforcements had arrived, along with a nice note from Queen Galfrey about what a good job they'd done (for once) and enough hallowing herbs to keep Merissa busy for weeks.
To their utter and complete astonishment, Master Gwerm was with the army. On seeing their astonished faces he snapped, "Well, someone has to make sure this city is run properly!"
*** End of session ***
Next planned session: Friday, 09-Aug-2014 (already played)
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In less happy news, one of our Jade Regent players just bowed out of both that game and our Sunday Runequest game (he keeps saying, "It's not you, it's me," but...), so our "regular" group is down to 3. (Was it something I said?)
We're talking this week about whether to finish Jade Regent, finish Wrath of the Righteous, or find a fourth player and start a new AP.
But since Kariss' player is in a second WotR campaign and has already asked not to be sent the writeups to avoid being reminded of things, I think her preference is most likely going to be Jade Regent, ending this campaign until NoPrey decides to end his sabbatical.
On the other hand, I have notes all the way through December, so at my pathetic rate of one post per 2-4 weeks there's a remote chance I'll be caught up by the time NoPrey's player rejoins us...
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Best Artifacts add-on article of an AP yet!
the Artifacts themselves are pretty bad ass, then you add on some of the set-ups/history and its pure gold (especially the Pauper's Thighbone) though my favorite will always be Fiendsplitter but then i'm a sucker for a great ghost story:-p
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Best Artifacts add-on article of an AP yet!
the Artifacts themselves are pretty bad ass, then you add on some of the set-ups/history and its pure gold (especially the Pauper's Thighbone) though my favorite will always be Fiendsplitter but then i'm a sucker for a great ghost story:-p
Oh, the babau was entertaining, but the jawbone that followed Kariss around, disintegrating every time anyone else touched it and then re-forming in her tent was awesome! She's used the jawbone ONCE in the entire campaign, but watching her get more and more creeped out as it followed her around was priceless!
EDIT: And in "wouldn't that be awesome" news, Impus Minor REALLY wants to join the party for Jade Regent. After running him in Serpent's Skull and watching him roleplay rings around kids 4 years his senior (doesn't sound like much until you consider that's 40% of his life), I figure he's ready for an "adult" campaign. But the other adults have to unanimously agree to it, so we'll see how that all pans out. I'm a firm believer in, "If the kid proves he can play, let him play," but also in, "Don't make your other players uncomfortable, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR OWN KID."
snipEDIT: And in "wouldn't that be awesome" news, Impus Minor REALLY wants to join the party for Jade Regent. After running him in Serpent's Skull and watching him roleplay rings around kids 4 years his senior (doesn't sound like much until you consider that's 40% of his life), I figure he's ready for an "adult" campaign. But the other adults have to unanimously agree to it, so we'll see how that all pans out. I'm a firm believer in, "If the kid proves he can play, let him play," but also in, "Don't make your other players uncomfortable, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR OWN KID."
A few personal anecdotes about children playing and it is a mixed bag. However, if we don't let them play, who will run games for us in our dotage?
Our wotr group plays with the daughter (14) of one of the players. This is her third AP with us (Skull and Shackles and Shattered Star). There was some discussion amongst us about it, but she has the nerd cred to play.
We do the obvious things like tone down some of the graphic content, try to limit swearing and take time to explain new rules. She falls into the passive roleplayer camp in that rarely is she going to take charge of an encounter and do all the talking, but she follows the story and adds input to party discussions.
On the other hand our 5E game was set up to allow the son (9) of one of the players to play. He is in more the narcissist roleplayer in that he has to do everything. "but perhaps the rogue should search for traps?" "Nope, my barbarian stomps on each tile to see if there is a pit trap" "okay..."
Because the game was specifically started to help him learn how to play, the players were effectively given the option to opt in or opt out depending on personal preferences. And, in fairness, he is getting better at recognizing that different characters have different roles and each should be allowed to shine in turn. Not perfect yet, but improving.
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Well, our situation is a *lot* easier. Impus Minor has already been through all of Crimson Throne. He's played in several "adult" campaigns with this group of adults and impressed every time. He makes the other kids look like... er... kids. (His greatest shortcoming is that he gets extremely frustrated with the juvenile players in the kids' game, and wants to play with "players who don't mess around all the time".)
But the chemistry of my "core" group is such that we are VERY careful not to disrupt it, hence it's more, "Will he gel with the other players?" than, "Can he handle it?"
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Maybe run a quick module first then give everyone a white and a black pebble for an anonymous vote. Even one pebble of a particular colour means he's out. That way the other players actually get to see what he's like in action. In truth, there's a chance he might be too good for the kid's game but not quite up to snuff for the adult's game. Hopefully he makes the grade. :)
While in this particular case it won't be necessary, that's a FANTASTIC system! The whole reason I chose this group is their ability to be 100% honest with me and each other, and they've known (and gamed with) Impus Minor for years, so they're just going to tell me what they think once they've had time to digest the loss of 2 players in 2 campaigns in the last few months.
However, I'm going to loot it for the other games I run! The Wednesday night kids' game has become insanely popular, and I wanted a good anonymous way to yea/nay any more players in that one...
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Best of luck to Impus Minor:-)
I'm still waiting for my invite to the adults table (you'll get there someday, just keep slipping me those 20s, they say, i'm starting to wonder if they're being truthful... they've been saying that for about 30 years now...)
Hey NobodysHome,
This is in response to your post about the dungeon being a push over, that you made on another thread. I didn't want to derail there more than I already had and these questions fit better here.
I wanted to ask, the vampire whose name escapes me, did you have him shatter anyone's holy symbol? I feel this could be a very very cruel thing to do. Our cleric worships Torag, and there are no other holy symbols for him around, and I know they wouldn't want to go back to Kenebres. He's also the one that lost a ton of gear to the vescavor swarms, so I'm rather hesitant to do this.
Also, what are your thoughts on having spells already cast having to save against the Impeded effect upon entering?
Hey NobodysHome,
This is in response to your post about the dungeon being a push over, that you made on another thread. I didn't want to derail there more than I already had and these questions fit better here.
I wanted to ask, the vampire whose name escapes me, did you have him shatter anyone's holy symbol? I feel this could be a very very cruel thing to do. Our cleric worships Torag, and there are no other holy symbols for him around, and I know they wouldn't want to go back to Kenebres. He's also the one that lost a ton of gear to the vescavor swarms, so I'm rather hesitant to do this.
Also, what are your thoughts on having spells already cast having to save against the Impeded effect upon entering?
In my game he never got a chance to do much of anything. I think shattering a holy symbol is fair game, and absolutely hilarious as it would force them to head upstairs to get a new one. Don't forget you have an army of hundreds of people in Kenabres, and at least one of them is going to have Craft: Wood and be able to knock out another one, or Sosiel can just cue up Make Whole. Honestly, our sorceress had Mending and it wasn't a magical holy symbol so it would have delayed the party by all of 10 minutes. In any case it's more of a delaying tactic than a crippling loss. (And don't forget to let the object make its Will save.) I like it, and it definitely seems like something a vampire would do. Take the cleric out of the fight and take your chances with the rest of 'em.
And I absolutely approve of casting the spells aboveground and then heading down. That's what long-term buffs are for. There's nothing in the listing on Impeded spells that says existing spells are affected, and it shows an intelligent party to notice the Impeded effect, head upstairs, cast the long-term Good-aligned buffs, and then head back downstairs.
Hey NobodysHome,
This is in response to your post about the dungeon being a push over, that you made on another thread. I didn't want to derail there more than I already had and these questions fit better here.
I wanted to ask, the vampire whose name escapes me, did you have him shatter anyone's holy symbol? I feel this could be a very very cruel thing to do. Our cleric worships Torag, and there are no other holy symbols for him around, and I know they wouldn't want to go back to Kenebres. He's also the one that lost a ton of gear to the vescavor swarms, so I'm rather hesitant to do this.
Also, what are your thoughts on having spells already cast having to save against the Impeded effect upon entering?
In my game he never got a chance to do much of anything. I think shattering a holy symbol is fair game, and absolutely hilarious as it would force them to head upstairs to get a new one. Don't forget you have an army of hundreds of people in Kenabres, and at least one of them is going to have Craft: Wood and be able to knock out another one, or Sosiel can just cue up Make Whole. Honestly, our sorceress had Mending and it wasn't a magical holy symbol so it would have delayed the party by all of 10 minutes. In any case it's more of a delaying tactic than a crippling loss. (And don't forget to let the object make its Will save.) I like it, and it definitely seems like something a vampire would do. Take the cleric out of the fight and take your chances with the rest of 'em.
And I absolutely approve of casting the spells aboveground and then heading down. That's what long-term buffs are for. There's nothing in the listing on Impeded spells that says existing spells are affected, and it shows an intelligent party to notice the Impeded effect, head upstairs, cast the long-term Good-aligned buffs, and then head back downstairs.
Hahaha, I always forget about Mending and Make Whole (see my vescavor post in the sword of valor thread). Okay, good to know! I certainly won't feel so guilty about doing that now.
As for Impeded, I'd only wondered because the effect was written for planar travel. And I had thought back in the day, for Planescape, any spells currently on you were immediately affected by the plane. I was wondering if perhaps a rule for that existed somewhere in Pathfinder, but I wasn't able to find it in my cursory search.
EDIT: Okay I found a hint of that.
Static: These planes are unchanging. Visitors cannot affect living residents of the plane or objects that the denizens possess. Any spells that would affect those on the plane have no effect unless the plane's static trait is somehow removed or suppressed. Spells cast before entering a plane with the static trait remain in effect, however.
That however seems to imply that may be the case? I'll keep digging and see if I find anything.
EDIT 2: Yeah, I can't find anything more specific.
hey, it has been a month...the peanut gallery wants its updates...
He's been pretty busy with work and stuff I believe
He's been pretty busy with work and stuff I believe
IRRELEVANT!
I know it got put on hold with Noprey's departure, but it is my understanding that there are several sessions played but not written up.
I ask for purely selfish reasons in that I am always looking to steal ideas for my campaign, and I find that his write ups provide good ideas to steal. My own group is about to find Arueshalae and Xanthir, so if I can get ideas before those sessions...
Did I mention selfish? Of course.
I suspect he's on an African Safari, ready to bag his first Rhino!... or is that Ted Nugent......
I'm at the same spot. :)
Also, his forum name adds a lot to this discussion, when you think about it...
The lights are on...
:D
Maybe he was abducted by aliens and is working on a device that will sterilize anyone genetically linked to Justin Bieber or Kim Kardashian, please note I didn't say forced to:D
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Geez. I wander away for a few weeks and look at the rabble that wanders in! :-P
Honestly, Cap has it right -- I had a major handoff at work, then my manager (bless her) is pushing to get me a promotion and "loaned" me to another department for a couple of weeks... and they proceeded to abuse the crap out of that offer.
So I've been working 12-hour days plus weekends for the last couple of weeks, rendering my writing... nonexistent.
I finish up on Friday, and I've already informed my manager that next week I ain't doin' nothin'.
So both campaigns (WotR and RotRL) should see posts resume starting late next week.
EDIT: And in case you think I'm being facetious about my manager, she was willing to have me do just half the work and then take the hit for my "not being able" to complete the rest of it, then looking to a more reasonable set of personages to get me my "out of department" cred. Which is one of the reasons I'm busting my tail to do it all. It makes her look good, it makes me look good, and we get to tell them to look elsewhere if they ever need such assistance again...
well you're always welcome to wreck up my place whenever you get some free time or anyone really, it's so lonely :-)
its quite fun so far, especially as the players for Anne and Poe really brought their A game in the dialogue dept.
all those years of watching The Office, Parks & Recreation, Archer and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has really paid off:-p
edit: hey i did it! a successful on-site link:-D that calls for a smurf:-p
edit 2: also sorry for the bieber kardashian crack, too dark Cap'n, too dark:(
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Could be worse I've not been writing because of laziness. And the cold dark despair of winter, but we New Englanders are now claiming it never happened while also putting together a lynching party blaming all this on Al Gore so... ;) (please note, I do believe in Global Warming, but we're talking Al Gore here. http://xkcd.com/556/ )
Tis the Groundhogs that are to be blamed, you were just fine until they crawled out of their nefarious little holes
Edit: you are also welcome at my place Tangent :-)
I apologize for the necro post, but as an avid fan of NobodysHome's work and a happy consumer of all things Pathfinder, I was curious if this campaign had come around from it's hiatus status?
And while I'm here, I might as well say:
NobodysHome, your write-up on this and RotRL have truly inspired me to better my game. That and it's been a motivating factor in trying to get my gaming group to get more invested in the campaigns we play, and their character's own heads.
Ego properly stroked, I look forward to any updates on this or other campaigns in your (and your players') future!
I apologize for the necro post, but as an avid fan of NobodysHome's work and a happy consumer of all things Pathfinder, I was curious if this campaign had come around from it's hiatus status?
And while I'm here, I might as well say:
NobodysHome, your write-up on this and RotRL have truly inspired me to better my game. That and it's been a motivating factor in trying to get my gaming group to get more invested in the campaigns we play, and their character's own heads.
Ego properly stroked, I look forward to any updates on this or other campaigns in your (and your players') future!
Aw, thanks!
Here's where our campaigns stand at the moment:
So on my "to do" list every day is: Prep 1 room for Jade Regent, prep 1 room for Serpent's Skull, prep 1 room for Crimson Throne, and, if there is time left, write my final WotR and RotRL entries.
As you can tell, I never get to "if there is time left".
But thanks for the kind words!
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I apologize for the necro post, but as an avid fan of NobodysHome's work and a happy consumer of all things Pathfinder, I was curious if this campaign had come around from it's hiatus status?
And while I'm here, I might as well say:
NobodysHome, your write-up on this and RotRL have truly inspired me to better my game. That and it's been a motivating factor in trying to get my gaming group to get more invested in the campaigns we play, and their character's own heads.
Ego properly stroked, I look forward to any updates on this or other campaigns in your (and your players') future!
Aw, thanks!
Here's where our campaigns stand at the moment:
Hi's player is STILL on "indefinite hiatus" from tabletop RPGs
I run a weekly Serpent's Skull "kids" game on Mondays. If you haven't looked at "NobodysHome's Silly Serpent's Skull Moments", it's worth a look-see. Those crazy kids!
In theory, I run a weekly Jade Regent game for Shiro's player, Raesh's player (GothBard), and Impus Minor. However, social events and the like frequently get in the way, so it's more like once every 2-3 weeks. And I'm not writing up THAT campaign, considering how far behind I am on everything else.
Again in theory, I run a biweekly Crimson Throne game (once per two weeks) for our greater group (6 players), but again, it's more like once every 6 weeks once everyone's schedules get sorted.
On Sundays, GothBard has started up a Skull & Shackles campaign where I'm playing Blaarg Cracktooth, half-orc barboracle. We're only at second level. Again, I LOVED writing as Leilani in Second Darkness, but considering how that campaign crashed and burned, I'm not writing up a journal from Blaarg's point of view. He's not the kind of guy to write a lot of words, anyway.
On Wednesdays, Shiro's player is running a separate Wrath of the Righteous campaign for GothBard and three other players. They're exploring the...
Seems you have 2 options:
1) Learn how to live without sleeping.2) Learn how to travel through time.