PbP Community MTS II - Blood under Absalom GM Discussion Thread [spoilers]

[Shifty]

Looks like just under half have taken down their second wave...

[GM Aerondor]

We're working on it, about half way through them now.

[GM Aerondor]

And that is wave two finished off.

[GMTrex]

Wave 2 is down for my table. Is there somewhere else I should report this?

[GM kuey]

Question. We are in the midst of the 2nd wave (a bit slow as I rolled the highest CR encounter for this low tier table).

Anyway, for some reason, one of my players just stepped on a trapdoor even though I have explicitly indicated its location (due to their high perception skills). So I'm going to have to drop him through (pending his reflex roll). However, the scenario doesn't indicate how someone who has fallen through can get back out. So if he fails his reflex, is he out for the rest of the battle?

[Shifty]

Nah Trex here is good.

We are just on half having dropped the second group (9) so this may roll early.

Kuey I suppose they could stage a rescue? Otherwise climb out a 20' pit :)

[GM kuey]

Well, I hope they have rope! :)

[N N 959]

@Shifty - Wave 2 is down. Are we suppose to report this some other way?

[Shifty]

Thanks Trex, here is good - some PM'd but we can report stuff in this thread and people can all see :)

10/17 (Target 12/17)

[GM Hmm]

Hey, if we end early... More time for the Ronin encounter!

Hmm

[N N 959]

I just noticed that the Kuwa Oni in the scenario have different stats than those in the bestiary. For example, the bestiary lists them with an AC of 19 while the scenario lists them with an AC of 18. The difference is that the armor in the PRD lists half-plate with no dex bonus, while the scenario does not list half-plate but provides a Dex bonus.

Which is correct? I get the feeling the scenario may have intentionally removed the half-plate for the arena, but the entry does not identify the armor.

EDIT: Ah, now I understand why the scenario refers to Page 13 instead of the bestiary for the Kuwa Oni and other creatures, it's because the stats have been intentionally changed.

[The Man Behind the Curtain]

My table has one tengu KO'd, 2 tengu nauseated for the forseeable future, and 1 more shakened, sickened, flat footed, and staring at a rogue who is next in initiative. It's safe to say wave 3 will be surrendering as soon as said rogue posts.

[Shifty]

OK then I expect to be doing an Overseer post in about 8 hours...

Well done team!

[GM Evil]

My table is still on wave one, due to me rolling a pretty difficult encounter, but are close to finishing it, I think.

[N N 959]

How much time between when the combat ends and the party can descend down the shaft? I really wish scenarios would pay attention to this type of stuff.

[GM Hmm]

I think they can do it right away.

Hmm

[Shifty]

They can descend immediately - the implication is that the tunnels are open, and people are heading down now to try find the limited number of McGuffins, so they are subtly being pushed to get down there ASAP.

[Tyranius]

I see that there is not an Overseer post for the next couple of acts in the book.

Is there a point you want us to wait for a go ahead from you Shifty or should we continue on from Tunnels---> Ronin (If time permits)----> Act 4 Assassination----> Stop at Overseer post at beginning of Act 5?

Just want to make sure everyone is on the same page and not going to get too far ahead.

[Shifty]

From the last announcement, we have 9 days to complete Act 3.

If your team completes the tunnels in 6 days or less, you have time to run the ronin for 3 days. If they are taking longer it might be best to skip the Ronin.

At the end of 9 days I will conclude Act 3 - It will just be a block of non commital text posted so you can abstract them into where they need to be and wrap what is taking place and let it all look seamless. We are probably hoping to maximise the surprise of the bad people turning up.

Act 4 can run for 5 days.

TLDR - Expect a wrap-up for phase 3 by its 9th day :)

***

When I have run this live, Act 4 turned into a BLOODBATH and we had a significant mountain of deaths - it is a controversial section and WILL upset some players. Be prepared for some dummy spitting.

[GM Aerondor]

Question for act 3:

The pipes that go from S4 down S6 and into S7...

How does it actually connect into S7? That is are they open so you can you leave the pipe and go into The Troughs, or are they below those sewage lanes?

[Shifty]

I will be away with work for about 48 hours and will be out of touch during that time - sorry for the interruption!

[Shifty]

S6 and S7 appear to be on the same level, and are accessed by the drop down pipe from S5 They appear to run above the sewerage lanes (the pipes continue)

[N N 959]

Could us some input from Shifty or anyone else who knows definitively. My group has not encountered the agents yet. The scenario says:

S7:

Creatures: As the PCs explore the sewer tunnels, so do many other groups of hopeful contestants, each looking for one of the treasured vases. A team of Aspis Consortium agents dead-set on gaining entry in the Ruby Phoenix Tournament approach from the south. Allow the PCs a Perception check opposed by the Aspis agents’ worst Stealth score in the appropriate subtier. If the PCs hear the Aspis agents’ footfalls on the sewer pipes, they may act in the surprise round; otherwise, the Aspis agents get the jump on them as the PCs investigate the cage

One way to read this is if someone in the party detects the agents, then the entire party auto-surprises the enemy. I do not see that we are supposed to roll for individual surprise/reciprocal Perception/stealth. Also, it would mean the aspis agents do not get their pre-combat spells/buffs.

Another way to read this is that you roll Perception/Stealth for both sides and you just resolve it normally. That seems overly burden some and kind of contrary to the text which seems to simply the encounter.

Anyone know for certain?

[Magabeus]

My opinion based on the scenario:

You roll stealth normally for each Aspis agent: pick the worst result.

Now you roll perception for each Pathfinder. If a pathfinder beats the worst stealth roll he can act in surprise round (and see the total Aspis party). If he does not he is surprised.

[N N 959]

Magabeus wrote:

My opinion based on the scenario:

You roll stealth normally for each Aspis agent: pick the worst result.

Now you roll perception for each Pathfinder. If a pathfinder beats the worst stealth roll he can act in surprise round (and see the total Aspis party). If he does not he is surprised.

Still confusing.

1. So if all Pathfinders beat the worst Stealth roll, then all the Pathfinders get a surprise round on the Aspis?

2. If one Pathfinder does not beat the Stealth roll, but some do? There is surprise round where everyone acts but PCs that do not beat the stealth roll?

3. The Aspis agents do not make Perception checks, correct?

4. The Aspis agents only get their precombat buff is they get to act in the Surprise round, and if they do, then the have already cast them or they cast them during the Surprise round?

[Magabeus]

1: no: then it is a normal first round because all combatants are aware of each other
2: correct
3: correct, they want get the jump on the pathfinders
4: i would give the aspis their buffs prior to surprise round regardless of the perception checks. This part is indeed confusing.

[I'm DMing In Your Closet]

"My" party is absolutely butchering the opposition. They're an 8-9 party, but I'm wondering if I should have pitted them against the 10-11 foes - could I even have done that (maybe since there's 6 of them)???

[N N 959]

I'm DMing In Your Closet wrote:

"My" party is absolutely butchering the opposition. They're an 8-9 party, but I'm wondering if I should have pitted them against the 10-11 foes - could I even have done that (maybe since there's 6 of them)???

No, you can't change the stats or mechanics of the encounter unless the scenario specifically tells you how and when. This is a rock-solid aspect of PFS play. You have to GM the scenario as written.

[N N 959]

Magabeus wrote:

4: i would give the aspis their buffs prior to surprise round regardless of the perception checks. This part is indeed confusing.

Confused about this. Several of the NPCs have specific information about how things work if they don't get to precombat. These instructions would be unnecessary if it were not possible to catch the Aspis unprepared, no?

As an aside, I generally hate it when scenarios pre-buff combatants because it usually involves ignoring rules and hand waiving.

[N N 959]

I'm DMing In Your Closet wrote:

"My" party is absolutely butchering the opposition. They're an 8-9 party, but I'm wondering if I should have pitted them against the 10-11 foes - could I even have done that (maybe since there's 6 of them)???

For comparison, my 5-6 group made a mockery of the travern fight and killed the 2nd wave Arena fight in the first round. It may be these early battles are intentionally weak.

[The Man Behind the Curtain]

One member of my party has the vanity that says he owns a ship, so the party is choosing to stay on board his ship in the harbor for the night. I presume it would be acceptable to use a generic ship map for part 4 instead of the inn map provided?

[GM Hmm]

That should work just fine.

I applaud their originality.

Hmm

[Shifty]

Back again.

@NN959 - Looks like Magabeus has given good info, looks right.

@IDiYC & NN959 - Remember that this scenario was written when a FOUR person party was the expectation - and since then there has been power creep as well. Sadly these scenarios CAN be a cakewalk for a modern 6 person party. We have to run as written (as NN959 observed), but yeah now you get a feel for why it might be an idea only running 4 player tables if you go back to older scenarios... except Seasn 0 which just has parts that can get way out of hand and murder parties.

@TMBTC - I have that vanity on my dirty rotten pirat...errr, Grey Corsair.
Generic ship map it is.

[N N 959]

How does a 4th level sorcerer get slow as a 2nd level spell? I'm looking at the tier 5-6 sorcerer and it's not obvious to me how she gets slow at 2nd level? Clearly I must be missing something.

EDIT:

Equally odd is that the tier 8-9 version gets fly as a 2nd level spell.

Unless someone can explain this, I encourage all GMs to double check the NPCs to make sure they are PFS legal.

[Shifty]

Yeah that's awesome, because both of those are corrected in the T10-11 stat blocks and are back to the correct levels.

Bad editing of this scenario strikes again - at least the players all appear to be having a ball.

[Yours is mined]

AND at least one GM! ;)

PS: @GM Hmm, that "OMG they killed Kenny!" line is totally swiped!

[GM Hmm]

Heh. It seemed appropriate. And yes, I've been having an absolute blast with my table!

[GM Hmm]

Okay, I have a grumble about part four.

Scenario Ambush suggestions:

They could disguise themselves as inn servants coming to turn down the bed, hide in a closet or under a bed, or even hide under the suds in a bath waiting for a PC to enter and relax.

There are NO closets or bathrooms on that map. I'd love to have a ninja hiding under bath suds, but practicality means that they're likely hiding under a bed because I at least have the map for that!

[N N 959]

Shifty wrote:

Yeah that's awesome, because both of those are corrected in the T10-11 stat blocks and are back to the correct levels.

Bad editing of this scenario strikes again - at least the players all appear to be having a ball.

Okay, but what is the 2nd level spell at Tier 5-6 then? I am going with Inviso, since Scorching Ray is given to the Bloodline for free at 5th level and no reasonable person would choose that ahead of time.

[Woran]

GM Hmm wrote:

Okay, I have a grumble about part four.

** spoiler omitted **

There are NO closets or bathrooms on that map. I'd love to have a ninja hiding under bath suds, but practicality means that they're likely hiding under a bed because I at least have the map for that!

Old fashioned inns had wooden or metal bath tubs that were drawn on request in the persons room.

You can add a picture of a bath to the room. Have the water murky from the soap.

AND HAVE THE NINJA HIDE IN THE BATH.
Because, ninjas.

[GM Hmm]

Alright, I am going with that. Because soap sud ninjas are more fun.

[Michael Hallet]

Greetings, I wanted to alert you to an outage with Myth-Weavers that may have resulted in data loss.

One of the tables of this special was running there and I have no idea how long it will be down or what state it will be in when it comes back.

Here's a link to the Facebook post about the outage.

I'm actually a player on that table, not a GM, so I probably won't be watching this thread too closely. But as the VA for Myth-Weavers, it was my job to alert you to the problem. I'm sure Hmm can keep in touch with me about updates.

[GM Hmm]

Oh dear! Keep us informed, Michael. I hope that Mythweavers is up and running again soon.

[Michael Hallet]

Sounds like posts will be OK, the big loss will be to character sheets stored on Myth-weavers. It sounds like all changes since July 25, 2016 will be lost.

As someone who keeps all their PFS character sheets on Myth-weavers and only on Myth-weavers, that's a big deal for me :(

[Shifty]

Thanks for the heads-up.

We only have one GM running this on MW, so from the Multi perspective they should be able to get back into it ok, but the character sheets must hurt :(

This section tended to run a little long and one of the encounters is optional, suppose it might need to be bypassed.

[Shifty]

It is now Tuesday morning, this stage has been going for 6 days, and there are 3 days left.

If you have completed the tunnels you may run the interlude, if you are still in the tunnels then you will not have time for the interlude.

[GM Hmm]

Ha! I just barely completed it in time! Ronin, ho!

(Being ill this week did NOT help.)

Hmm

[Michael Hallet]

Myth-weavers is back up, but we lost all character sheet updates since July 25, 2016. So I suspect people will have to recreate some lost data. (I had to input my last paper copy and then level up.)

[The Man Behind the Curtain]

That would probably explain why one of my players in another game suddenly appear to have lost 2 levels since I last looked at his sheet.

My table finished up the sewer encounter before Shifty's post, but I didn't close it out on my end until afterwards. Since my table is full of faces, I just went ahead and moved onto the interlude. It appears as though I may be deliberately dragging out said encounter because my party is roughly half faces. So two bards and an oracle walk into a bar...

[Shifty]

Roughly half the party is faces, the other half is rough faces.

:)