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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Upkeep. I was going to get straight to homeward, too, but it's late and I have tomorrow
18 Calistril
The Old Beldame's Hut; H4
Tuskwater Lakeside
The crone grinned (or sneered, it was hard to be sure) at Kyrie. "Well, it sounds like your ma's are smart people, then. You do well to listen to them."
Zeran added his commentary, recalling the machinations of Grigori, the bard from Fort Drelev.
"I don't know about any of that business. When it comes to the game of politics and land grabbin', pretty soon you find just about everybody fancies him or herself a king of this-or-that and is happy to stick a knife in you to get it, with or without all kinds of otherworldly forces scheming about. All the same, mightwise could be."
Elga yawned. She rose from her chair and rubbed the stiffness from her knees. "All right, that's enough. Time for bed, then. Get out, please. You're welcome to camp by the house, just don't go spooking my scarecrow." The Beldame flicked her hand at the door, which opened of its own accord. She turned to her bed without further ceremony, but stopped short.
"Right. One more thing." She turned to where Giles was only too happily moving for the door. "You," she announced. "I wanted to take a closer look at that magic robe you're wearing.
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Dozing, Still Grumpy
(Also, welcome to page 38 of Kingmaker and the first time this game has updated in over half a year! With three posts in a row, no less.)
Posted on 2016-09-02 at 04:11:59.
Edited on 2016-09-02 at 04:14:20 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Auguries of Destruction - Wheel of Fate
Subject: I keep remembering that there is another fight scheduled for after this one and cackling.
Izzy's plan was working—the barioth was allowing his frustrations with the girls override his better judgement. The moment the mist cleared she would have him right where she wanted him.
Then with a suddenly orange-warm blur across Izzy's vision, Kara leapt back into the picture. Izzy lost track of what was happening but clearly heard the sharp ‘crack' before the blur leapt away. Moments later there was an upward rush of motion and a blast of wind dispersing the fog and revealing all opponents.
An ear-splitting roar followed by a burst of speed from the Kara blur shot into the air. Izzy switched back to normal vision just in time to witness the ice cat crashing back down to the earth.
The barioth tried to stand, but he couldn't move. He was nowhere near where Izzy wanted him. She hesitated. Her focus slipped just a bit.
Come on! Roll with it! Izzy raised her sword level at the barioth. She had intended to do with the spell more or less exactly as Kara had already done, so it fell to her to be the follow up instead. She gripped her sword arm with her other, attempting to control the shivering. Rather than let the energy unravel entirely, she unleashed the kinetic lance the moment she had a shot.
Like a magnified version of the bolts she'd thrown earlier, the lance streaked through the air toward the barioth. Her hesitation cost her focus, but the spell still carried the majority of the force she had gathered. Instead of all that energy connecting behind a point, the barioth was blanketed with a wave of force at an glancing angle centred on his shoulder.
The ice cat spun through the air out of control, landing some twenty feet back, with his arm bent at an angle that did not look natural.
Izzy did not hear her own guttural scream of adrenaline and fatigue, nowhere near as impressive as Kara's roar from before. She charged wildly at the fallen barioth. He didn't even have enough of his senses intact to do anything but groan, much less attempt to fight against the lingering neurotoxin locking up his body. Izzy jumped onto his prone back, her tiny body almost comical mounting his. She clung to his neck, holding her gladius to his throat.
"S-Surrender. You are our p-p-prisoner now."
(If the barioth surrenders, Izzy will stay on him until Kara can tie him down. Of course, I know enough not to expect that outcome, so that said; Izzy talks a mean game but she can barely feel her hands at this point. The para should wear off any second now, giving him a chance to make one last futile stand or attempt to flee. Whichever he does, he'll have to shake Izzy off his back first, who clings desperately as long as she can. The bent arm is probably a dislocated shoulder, but that won't necessarily do more than slow the barioth down for long, even if he doesn't just pop it back in at his earliest convenience.)
Posted on 2016-08-23 at 03:03:34.
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Topic: Who Owns Rusty Dull Swords? (W.O.R.D.S.)
Subject: Exploration
Erroneous
Xenogenic
Plutocrats
Love
Ornate
Retrograde
Artifice,
Transposing
Intentionally
Obsolete
Narcicism
Posted on 2016-06-09 at 13:29:03.
Edited on 2016-06-09 at 13:29:29 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Auguries of Destruction - Wheel of Fate
Subject: Izzy seems to have experience exploiting opponent's rage to make them careless
When Izzy dove into her pack, she had no idea what she was looking for. She needed something, anything to hit the barioth with that might leave a lasting dent in his ego. She pulled an herb out of the acorn-shaped backpack and stuffed into her mouth, chewing the bitter leaves while she thought. Though she could barely keep her teeth from chattering, she could already feel the rapid healing effects easing her aches.
Wasting no time, Izzy immediately went to rummaging through the mass of collected junk with stiff fingers. What hadn't the girls thrown at him by now? Fire would be the most painful to the tundra cat, but with the cold and the damp, Izzy would be wearing herself thin by the time could muster a spark. She was not built for war.
If only Kaz were here. She'd fry the brute bully with a blast of textbook fireballs in the time it took to complain about the weather.
A rush of wind and slush hissed through the trees somewhere behind her. The gust was punctuated with a loud, splintering crash. Izzy flinched, as if she needed any more reason to lose focus and panic. With a force of will, she pushed the fight out of her mind for the moment to concentrate on the task at hand.
Her hand brushed up against a handle buried deep in the pack. It took a sharp tug to pull it free, revealing a sheathed sword, about two feet long. It was her training gladius from Basic Combat—lost and forgotten in the depths of her bag.
It wasn't much, but it was a weapon. That and a distraction and she might have half of a plan, and Izzy knew exactly where to find a distraction. She dove back into her backpack and came back up with just the instrument for the job—a three-pronged boomerang-like implement.
"Kara!" Izzy shouted. She had lost sight of the battle for the moment. The nargacuga was good, but the first step of the plan was to get the barioth off her tail long enough to catch her breath.
A flash of inky black forty feet to Izzy's right landed for a bare second, then leapt up over another log impact. "I'm making us some cover. Watch out!" Izzy tucked the sword sheath into her belt and rushed to catch up, stopping short as soon as she saw where the barioth had taken up shop on one side of the clearing he had made, next to a cast-off pile of logs.
Without drawing attention to herself, Izzy extended her consciousness out into the air around her. Fire would be near impossible, but it would be only too easy to work with what she was given. The rain had already kicked up a low, clinging mist, helped along by the ice the barioth was throwing about. She knelt down in the mud and spread her arms out, raising them slowly as if she were lifting a great weight.
Starting at Izzy, then spreading rapidly from her across the whole clearing, the steady rain exploded into a dense fog. Izzy willed the wall of fog crashing through the clearing to envelop the barioth. Within seconds, anything beyond five feet was utterly obscured by a solid bank of grey.
Izzy let out a breath. That working was the hard part—everything else was pure will and raw aetheric muscle now.
She pulled her goggles down over her eyes. The lenses took on a faint orange glow and the fog covering the landscape peeled back before her eyes, revealing a forest of cool colours dashed with colder areas of melting ice.
Izzy took a moment to allow her perceptions to adjust, slowly winding up her boomerang arm. Against this background, the barioth's thick insulation should have masked his body heat, making him nearly invisible to infrared vision. That might have been the case if he had not just been fighting. Worked up as he was now, the ice cat's body radiated with elemental cold.
Taking advantage of his momentary blindness, Izzy hurled the boomerang at him. Whether he sensed it coming or not, the device clipped his ear and glanced off his head. As it sailed away, the magic of the boomerang took effect, locking onto a return trajectory coming in for a second pass, its approach concealed by the fog.
Izzy knew she couldn't hope the boomerang-cover trick to keep the barioth distracted for very long, so she wasted no time. She drew her training gladius and held it low to her side, blade pointed down. Ignoring the shivers of cold and adrenaline, Izzy took deep, stabilizing breaths. Slowly, purposefully, she drew her will into her right hand and waited, watching the barioth's frustration grow.
Posted on 2016-06-05 at 03:28:26.
Edited on 2016-08-23 at 03:33:10 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Question of the Week
Subject: Ambi
I could go either way depending on the system. I definitely subscribe to the philosophy that Full Plate AC does not make you harder to hit, just harder for any hit to hurt. Kyrie, the paladin in my ongoing (semi-hiatus) Kingmaker game regularly gets hit like a train and just grits through the blow. Of course, she usually has a decent deflection modifier going with it, so she is harder to hit also.
Of course, on that note, I also run hit points as an abstraction, so that also strongly affects my descriptions of combat. When you have 110 hit points and are struck by a summoned comet for 38, the reason why you're still standing where a lower level adventurer would be a pair of smoking boots is not so much because you're too strong for comets to hurt anymore, but you have the experience, training, and endurance to avoid taking the blow head-on.
Posted on 2016-04-09 at 22:59:56.
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Topic: The Death of the Inn?
Subject: Admittedly my biggest interaction is mostly with my irl friends in Kingmaker
This reminds me I still have to post for my game. Time gets away so easily suddenly I haven't updated in a week and a half.
I'm glad the inn isn't going anywhere at least. There's no where I can think of that I'd rather hold my play-by-post game, even if I'm only active about half the time between Kingmaker and Jade Regent.
Posted on 2016-02-18 at 16:03:18.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Beware the foreshadowing, my players! With jaws that bite and claws that catch!
18 Calistril
The Old Beldame's Hut; H4
Tuskwater Lakeside
Kyrie started on a short version of the party's last two years of adventuring, joined in by Miguel and Zeran. Giles spoke little, keeping a weather eye out, inspecting the shadows cast by the cook fire, dancing at the edges of the small hut, while the others did the talking. The sky outside darkened to twilight, then to dusk.
"Pah!" the Beldame exclaimed, interrupting Kyrie in the middle of explaining their charter. "Those sabre-rattling fools up north are still getting other people to do their dirty work while they play politics, eh? Some things never change."
The old woman got up to check her stew as Kyrie continued. When the adventurers got to the part about taking down the Stag Lord, she cut in again, muttering, "Good riddance to him and his lot. That deluded brute never came down this far, but his little circus made it a pain in the arse to get around."
She paused the tale for a moment to go to the window. The crone sucked in a breath and shouted out, "Supper!" She scowled at the sky, then called again. "Vrana, get in here you daft animal!"
While her back was turned, a crow—very likely the same one from earlier—alighted in the opposite window on the other side of the hut. It flew in and landed near the bubbling cauldron. The woman prepared to call a third time when she noticed the crow.
"You're lucky I don't turn you into a toad. You'd be less trouble if I did," she told the bird, scowling.
The crow cocked its head to one side, then answered with a rough, croaking voice. "Who'd keep all the other crows out of your garden, then? Not that pumpkin-brain standing out there, that's for sure!"
The Beldame snorted. "Hah! I should like to see the other crows do half as much damage as you! Now take your stew and shaddap." She filled him a wooden bowl and sent it floating over to the table, then motioned to let the party's story continue. Not much later in the evening. Giles would notice ‘Vrana' the crow settle on a perch near him, much to his displeasure.
At the mention of Tiressia, the dryad to the east, the Beldame cut in again. "Ah, yes, I know the one. A good kid. Comes from good stock—she takes after her mother." Even the crow seemed to pay attention as Kyrie described helping Tiressia (skirting around the exact cause of the forest fire, as far as that was from here) with the scythe tree, and then doing battle with the Dancing Lady.
"It's funny they call ‘em the Stolen Lands when right here even the fairies are getting in on the game of kings and thrones. As if they didn't have enough with the bandits and giants trying to stake their claims on just this one patch of land between the swamp and the mountains," the crone observed. "I don't think the region's been so exciting since I was a lily weed, and that a long time ago I assure you."
After the end of the story, the Beldame leaned back in her chair, biting her cheek. "Well, I been here long enough to see a lot of stupid ideas come and go. Why just the other week I was interrogated by a bunch o' gnomes looking for directions to some fancy dwarven fortress. I told ‘em I didn't have any use for no fortress and I ain't seen none neither.
"But no, I've seen a lot of claims on this land come and go in my life—most nothing but wind blowing over the lake, but a few real attempts. As far as those go, your little operation there is as good as I've seen. Of course, that's how it usually goes around here, before everything goes pair-shaped and collapses in on itself. Even back before, if you look into the history of this land, it's always been that way for as long as anyone cared to record it.
"If you want my advice, and even if you don't ‘cause I don't do this often, so listen up. If you want my advice, I'd be ready for just about anything to come at me. I know you might think ‘how can it be that bad if an old woman has managed to live out here by herself her whole life?' Well I'll tell you, there's a reason why no man has successfully laid claim to this land in over a thousand years If you want to know the truth, I think there's something out there in these lands that doesn't much like civilized company.
"It might just be I've finally started to lose my wits and the superstition's getting to me, but you get a certain feel for the land after living on it for so long. Little things like me are not worth the time, but it seems like there's something moving in the swamps and forests, making sure that no claims go unchallenged, and no settlement lasts for long."
The green-skinned woman jabbed the embers of her fire pit with a stick. "But then, maybe I'm just a crazy old woman whose gone mad from too many years watching the will-o-wisps dancing over the lake and eating same watery stew."
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Dozing, Still Grumpy
Posted on 2016-01-30 at 04:48:16.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: The Beldame appears to be somewhere in her 60's at least, if not older.
18 Calistril
The Old Beldame's Hut; H4
Tuskwater Lakeside
The party looked at one another, then Kyrie strode boldly through the self-opened gate. The moment she crossed the threshold, the pumpkin head of the scarecrow turned smoothly to look directly at her. With another screeching ‘caw' the crow took flight, leaving the animate guardian and whisking off to a nearby cypress tree.
Kyrie's stride did not falter, and the scarecrow did not move from its perch. Miguel and Zeran followed close behind her, and, with slight hesitation, Giles took up the rear. The scarecrow silently tracked their movement in the span between gate and front door until all four entered the witch's mud brick hut.
On the inside, the entire hut comprised of one room, about 20' in diameter, with a plain dirt floor. The Old Beldame herself stood in the centre of the room, stooped over a bubbling cauldron hanging over the firepit there. She peered into the murky liquid, stirring its contents. The strange green tint of her skin was no less strange by the light of the fire.
"You can get your own chairs over there," she said without looking up. She pointed to a stack where unused furniture lay. "I hope ye brought your own food. We've lived alone for a very long time, and I don't make big meals."
The crone paused her stirring to look up into the rafters, where dozens of dried and drying herbs and swamp weeds hung suspended. When she spotted what she was looking for she simply held her hand up and the bundle untied itself and floated gently toward her. She plucked one of the herbs out of the air and inspected it, before gesturing the rest of the bundle into the pot.
She stirred the pot another few rounds, virtually oblivious to the party, before drawing out a feeble looking carrot. The old woman plucked the carrot from the ladle, sampled it, then dropped both back into the bubbling stew.
"Elga Verniex," she said, at last. She crossed the room to her own chair and dragged it into position with the others. "That's my name—one of them at least. Back before this whole ‘marsh witch' business and people started calling me the Old Beldame."
"So tell me," the Beldame said, easing into her chair. "What's been going on in the world outside my swamp that brings people to seek their fate in this fey-ridden land again? Not that I miss those bandits that ran the show before the lot of ye came 'round."
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Grumpy
(I'm happy to let a re-counting of our story thus far to slip by as a single-line comment, but I leave the floor open for interactions. Also I got distracted reading about Baba Yaga's lethal feet, so it's 3am and I need to end this post somewhere.)
Posted on 2016-01-19 at 04:14:22.
Edited on 2016-01-19 at 14:05:53 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: 20 Cha means not having to give a flying chicken turd.
18 Calistril
The Old Beldame's Hut; H4
Tuskwater Lakeside
The old iron bell let out a sharp chime that had seen better days. No sooner had Kyrie struck it than a voice came from inside the mudbrick shack.
"Eh? Who's there?"
The head of an old woman with oddly greenish skin appeared in the window. "What do you want?" she demanded. "You'll have to speak up, my hearing's not what it used to be!" she added, not giving anyone had a chance to speak in the first place.
Giles grumbled to himself, the word ‘witches' barely audible in the sentence. The party began to remember fragments of rumours about an old swamp witch living on the shore of the Tuskwater. They called her the Old Beldame.
Zeran decided to extend his best courtesy. "Hello, there!"
"Yes, yes, 'hello' is what the bell is for. What do you want? You're not going to try to sell me something I don't need are you?"
Not to be put off so easily, Zeran introduced the party from their somewhat awkward distance. "We're in charge of that little town just north of here, and," Zeran paused. ",I'm not actually entirely certain what we're doing just now," he admitted with a sheepish grin.
Kyrie came to his rescue. "Mostly just homeward-headed, but we haven't been here before exactly, so it's usually a good idea to say ‘hi' to our new neighbours."
Diplomacy 17+8
"Whassat? Neighbours, you say? Do you know who yer talkin' to? The cackling-mad Old Beldame dances naked with demons, eats babies, and does not do social calls! Bah! Neighbours! Nothing good ever came of havin' neighbours!" The green-skinned crone shifted as if to move away from the window, but paused, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Kyrie and the others.
",Then again, it has been quite some time since we got any decent company ‘round these parts." She chewed her tongue, reconsidering. "Nyyeh, I like you, girlie. You remind me of when I was young and stupid. You and your friends are welcome to come in."
The old woman flicked her hand dismissively at the crooked wooden gate. The old gate swung open with a hideous creak, beckoning the party to enter.
"An' if you're worried I'll eat ya, you can stay out in the cold."
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Grumpy
(Note that normally attempting to influence someone's attitude with Diplomacy takes at least 1 minute of interaction, but exceptions can be made, at least when you don't realize you've been making the roll)
Posted on 2016-01-10 at 05:08:19.
Edited on 2016-01-19 at 14:06:14 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Grugg
Subject: The Return of the Grugg
This is very good news. The grisly Grugg must return to haunt the halls of the Inn soon, at least once the Canadian healthcare system recovers from its fateful encounter with the mad and hairy one.
Posted on 2016-01-10 at 05:07:08.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: An perfectly inconspicuous hut in the middle of the marsh next to the Tuskwater
Exploration & Mapping
14-19 Calistril
Hexes: H4 +25XP
The party loaded the unhappy Cat onto their wagon along with the hermit's small treasure of coins and potions. Miguel inspected the potions and found that one was a standard healing potion, but the other was in fact a potion to turn the drinker invisible for a few minutes. As for the cloth with the map, a few moments deciphering its contents pointed toward a powerful weapon hidden in a tomb in the hills between the rivers Shrike and Gudrin.
Thanks to their encounter with the Narthropple Expedition long ago, the party already had an accurate map of a burial cairn out in the hills, and a quick comparison revealed that the two locations were one in the same. The faded cloth treasure map also added vague warnings of traps and restless dead haunting the tomb and protecting the weapon (New Quest).
Following this, they continued their travels east toward the shore of the Tuskwater, creeping past the mid point of the month. They were out of the forest and back into open hills on the fifteenth, and at times from the crests of the snowy hills they caught a glimpse of the lake in the distance.
Along the southeastern bank of the Tuskwater they found a small, flat marshland. More interestingly, as the sun started to go down they spotted a squat mud-brick hut atop a small rocky hummock raised above the marshy ground. A thin tendril of bluish smoke trickled out a hole in the roof, indicating a high probability of inhabitants, while a wooden fence festooned with all sorts of odd fetishes crafted from sticks, feathers, and animal bones ran the perimeter of the mound.
A single, crooked gate hung askew in front of the hut, with a fist-sized rusted iron bell, tied to a small wooden hammer. Between the gate and the front door to the hut stood a frozen, pumpkin-headed scarecrow, lightly dusted with snow. On the scarecrow's shoulder, a large crow cawed noisily at the party.
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Grumpy
(Given recent memory of how the last encounter went, I can only imagine this next will be an absolute blast.)
Posted on 2016-01-03 at 17:20:42.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Exposition Fairy is helpful! Even though all of this is foreshadowing for a very distant future
13 Calistril
Mad Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
Giles listened to the two prattle on. "‘It's coming'," he grumbled. "‘Its' are always coming. And if it isn't an ‘It', it's a ‘What'. Why doesn't anybody appreciate the simplicity of a straight answer anymore? ‘It' always amounts to the same thing, anyway; ‘You're all going to die'."
Tyg harrumphed. "Some people have no sense of flair," she explained to Miguel. "I think it's ‘cause they're stunted."
Perlivash filled in helpfully where the grig left off. "A few nights ago Lady Tiressia and Tyg experienced a surge of energy that filled their dreams. It apparently woke Lady T. from her hibernation. She said some confusing things about the link growing stronger. She looked pretty tired, still, so I thought maybe she was talking in her sleep like Tyg usually does—" "DO NOT" "—but then she asked us if we could go find you and bring you this message."
"Yeah, I felt it, too!" Tyg jumped in, excitedly. "Like a whoosh and suddenly I got really full of energy—"
"And knocked me out of the tree."
"—and then everything was normal again. Lady Tiressia thinks it might have something to do with Home because only fey like me an' her can feel it, but she doesn't know what it means, so she thought maybe you should know, too, just in case you see anything weird or something."
Kyrie frowned, trying to wrap her head around the quick-tongued little prankster duo. "Something to do with Home? And it's something only you can feel? Kind of like an intuition type thing? I'm sorry, I don't quite understand, what kind of a house is it?"
"No! You've got it all wrong. It's just, Home, y'know? The Old Country? Way Back? The Fair Lands?"
The more Tyg went on, the more it became clear that she didn't know much about what ‘Home' actually was, either.
"Okay, so I've never been there myself," she admitted. "But I do know what it feels like, and this whole forest feels like it. That's why so many fairies like to live around here. Now that feeling is a teensy-weensy-eensy bit stronger."
Posted on 2016-01-03 at 04:57:12.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: This is kinda cooler than what I had in the first place, inspired by a random line I re-read.
13 Calistril
Mad Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
Zeran scrambled to get the jerky from Kyrie's rations as she instructed. He offered it to Cat while Kyrie attempted to get the cougar to settle down with little success on either of their parts. Cat ignored the offered stick of dried meat and rolled on the frozen ground struggling to force herself free of the ropes. It was looking alarmingly like she might succeed, too.
They were beginning to worry that the panther might manage to free herself and get herself a piece of meat to chew on when a sudden high-pitched voice from overhead interrupted them. "No, no, you're doing it all wrong, that's not how you play the game at all."
A flutter of large, insectoid wings overhead and Tyg-Titter-Tut the grig landed on one of the lower branches of a nearby tree. "C'mon, Perlie, show ‘em how to do it proper like."
The blue-scaled, orange-winged faerie dragon swooped in low, coming straight for the panther. "Behold, foul beast!" he crowed, "for by the power of my magic I shall vanquish thee!" Perlivash drew up right, flapping in place just in front of the panther and raising one claw. The three Greenbelt leaders were momentarily dumbfounded as the faerie dragon incanted a spell.
The three tried to protest, but couldn't get the words out in time to stop Perlivash. He finished his spell, throwing a faint pulse at Cat. The magic washed over her and suddenly her struggling slowed. As much as she tried to fight it, within moments her eyes closed and she was fast asleep.
Tyg dropped from the trees as Perlivash gently landed on Cat's back, striking a pose. "What do you think pretty cool, eh?" Then adding, quieter, "This is usually the part where we run away before it wakes up and gets angry at us."
(Going to assume Kyrie, Zeran, and Miguel work together to buff Kyrie's grapple mod so that she can tie up Cat tightly enough that she can't get out.)
Meanwhile Giles ducked into the hermit's tree-hole grotto-house, chasing after a faint magical aura he could feel emanating from the area. There was not much to see inside. A few pieces of crude wooden furniture, a bowl and spoon, and a pile of dried leaves for a bed. Giles scanned the tiny house with his magical senses. The aura was coming from beneath the pile of leaves.
It took only a moment to dig out the small, flat chest sitting in a hole hidden by the hermit's bed. Inside there were two potions—the source of the faint magical aura he sensed—a faded piece of cloth containing a tarnished silver locket, and a few pounds of mostly silver coins, mixed with a few gold. Upon further inspection, the locket held a faded portrait of a young woman, and the cloth itself he recognised as a partially drawn, highly faded map of the Greenbelt.
Stepping back outside he found the two pranksters had arrived, and a sleeping cougar now securely trussed up.
Tyg looked down at the mad hermit's body. "Lady Tiressia was right, you guys did need our help after all."
"Uh, Tyg, I don't remember Lady T. saying anything about crazy old guys," Perlivash said, tapping one claw to his snout.
"Huh? Oh! You're right! She said that we had to tell you guys to be careful because It's coming. She said people like you and Perlie couldn't feel it like she an' I could, so we had to tell you."
Giles 20/42 - B1 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/55 - Heroism (50min)
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 19/42 - -1G, 28 bullets
Cat: Uninjured, Tied Up, Asleep (7/30)
(I was originally going to just have Kyrie and Zeran's attempts to use Handle Animal work out after a couple rounds because I have grown fond of the idea of the kingdom having a new pet mascot and Zeran's got a pretty good modifier even if I don't think this usage is strictly legal, but then I came up with a cooler idea. Now without worrying about the cat busting out, we can transport her home safely, feeding her daily, then get her a leash when we get home so she can be trained properly)
Spells:
Giles 2/0
Miguel 1/1
Posted on 2016-01-02 at 04:31:59.
Edited on 2016-01-02 at 04:32:19 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: I have looked forward to meeting the goblins (again) for quite a while.
(Night)
Nona watched as Fox disarmed herself of at least half a dozen darts, plus a couple daggers. "Damn, girl, and here I only brought the one," she said, laying her dagger in its sheathe next to the bed. Nona made no particular effort to place it within reach. If an intruder burst in their door in the middle of the night, her knife wouldn't be the first weapon she went for.
"Poor Ameiko has no idea what she's getting herself into with you," she mused.
Fox held out her hand, pointing up, though no light appeared.
"Sounds like you have some kind of innate magical talent. It happens all the time. Could be anything from exposure to a magical energy at a formative age, the whim of the gods, or even just latent magic power from something non-human mingling in your bloodline.
"I bet you'd make a fair sorcerer if you developed that talent a bit. You wouldn't even have to study, though you would probably have to learn to use incantations and other foci to channel better. Also I think"
(Breakfast)
"One believes so, though as pointed out, One notes that we should also uncover the means by which they picked up the fireworks, if they do have them," Fox suggested as she tidied herself up to be ready to leave, "If they have a supply, it's quite possible the supply is more dangerous than they are."
Nona snorted rather ungracefully. "That is true. Both can set things on fire, but fireworks are less prone to rendering themselves harmless if left unattended."
Before leaving Nona thanked Walthus for his hospitality. Once outside of the swamp Nona let Serafina stretch her wings a bit more in the open air, but once they reached the Old Fish Trail she had her familiar return to within line of sight. The nature of their bond meant they were both more alert when near each other, and neither wanted to be surprised by something in the dense, foggy swamp.
(Goblin Corpse)
Zwei, the tall pale-eyed fetchling was the first of three to suggest that they take advantage of the goblin's fate.
"One was just about to suggest we do that." Fox added.
Nona smirked. "I'm sure nobody would complain if we brought back one or two pairs of ears that we didn't actually kill ourselves. The bounty is only for the ears, and it's not like we're just going to find the whole tribe already dead."
Zwei harvested the ears quickly with his kama. Nona watched for a moment. The body was pretty badly mutilated. Not likely the work of a creature like Walthus' assailant—the halfling barely had any injuries besides the blood drain.
The illusionist spotted one of the large, three-toed footprints by the body. Just like the one they found yesterday on the New Fish Trail, just before Nona had glimpsed the humanoid silhouette in the fog. Nona suddenly turned away from the goblin, not from a squeamish stomach, but because she suddenly did not feel comfortable with her back to the swamp.
(Licktoad Village)
Nona thought Walthus' place looked like a run-down dump. This time she didn't have a witty remark to make, not even about the brilliant idea of building a palisade wall but leaving a gap where it hit the pond. Something was off about the village-fort. Nona didn't know what goblins did in the middle of the day, but she figured there should be at least a few visible from here.
"One cannot hear any movement. One might not be close enough, or it might be ambush, or no longer has people. One and Zwei could try to find out before entry," Fox suggested, "One has learned how to be light on one's feet, and one suspects Zwei has as well."
"The hell you two are," Nona hissed, keeping her voice down out of the fog's compulsion for silence. "There's hardly any cover in there. If there is an ambush, you two will be out in the open without backup."
Despite her protest, Nona couldn't imagine how the goblins could have known they were coming, at least not with enough warning to stage an ambush. Besides which, the gate that should have barred their entry was laying in ruin. The possibility that the goblins had broken down their own gate to make it look like their fort was vulnerable was entirely more cunning than Nona would ever have given the Licktoad tribe credit for. On top of that, the gate was pushed outwards. Shoddy craftsmanship aside, the only reason for that should have been that something trapped inside the fort had desperately wanted out (and for some reason didn't want to swim the pond).
"If you two do go in, at least Alexis and I should get as close to the gate as we can—and you should take Sera with you. She's small enough she can help you scout without giving you away, and she can get a message if you two get out of sight."
(If Fox and/or Zwei do change their minds about going in to scout, Nona can suggest that Serafina do a little aerial reconnaissance. She's only got 6 Int so the level of detail we could get out of her is limited, and I'd rather not steal the role of party scout when we have two perfectly good ones waiting to show off their skills.)
Posted on 2016-01-01 at 04:55:41.
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Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: Well I stayed up too late again. Don't expect much tomorrow, I work like all day.
Nona extinguished the lamp. The room went dark. Keeping her voice down as much as possible, she incanted her spell. At once four cherry-red flames appeared in the air around her, illuminating the spare bedroom.
"Technically red light takes the least energy to produce, but the difference is so small it makes no functional difference, and most people find they have a natural affinity for certain colours that they trend toward. Besides, red light is a tad macabre for illumination purposes."
The red light cast a certain cheerfully hellish glare over the normally white sheets that covered most of the furniture in the room. "I don't know what kind of spellcasting you use, but to change the colour is mainly a matter of focus," Nona told Fox. She put her hands together and concentrated. The cherry red flames shifted to a more natural looking orange fire, better resembling an actual flame. They followed up this change by rounding out into floating orbs.
"Orange tends to make everything look like the sun's just setting, but otherwise pretty closely resembles fire light enough to startle somebody very foolish." The orbs changed colour again at Nona's behest, turning yellow. "Yellow light meanwhile strikes just the right balance of warmth that it looks most like natural sunlight." The lights came together to form one large ball.
"Colours between green and blue usually give people the hardest time. Some people can do a four or five shades of green, green-blue, and blue-green, but others can only muster a green and two kinds of blue. Some theorists think this may be because of the way our minds perceive colour, which affects how we picture the spell."
"Then violet light is, generally common among disaffected students and apprentices who want to appear mysterious or quirky, which I suppose is perfect for you. Just don't go overboard with it, it starts to bugger with your perceptions after so long."
"She'd know." Serafina peeped from her perch atop the bed's headboard.
"Hush, you, you're supposed to be asleep."
(Next day)
Nona stretched her arms, yawning over breakfast, her spellbook open on the table beside her. She wasn't studying it yet, merely perusing her options. She didn't unleash anything yesterday that she couldn't pull off in her sleep, so there was no need really to wind up. Still, she skimmed the pages, weighing the value of each spell against a possible goblin horde while Serafina pecked at a chunk of bread donated to her in lieu of letting her hunt for insects in the snake-infested grasses around Walthus' house.
"So, is everyone ready to head back around to the Old Fish Trail?" Nona cracked her knuckles. "It's been nice visiting, but there is still a profit to be made here."
Posted on 2015-12-26 at 05:40:54.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Just a quick bonus post since I already knew most of your follow up actions
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
Miguel pulled out his rope, strafing the dog pile (cat pile?) to go to Kyrie's aid. The panther lashed out and struck Zeran in the chest with a claw that winded him, but didn't cause him to lose his grip (-8dmg Zeran 9/42).
Kyrie steadily applied more pressure until she had the cat pinned again. Miguel gave her the rope, then turned his attention to heal Zeran (+10hp Zeran 19/42). Cat squirmed in Kyrie's grip, threatening to throw her off with brute strength, but she couldn't get the right leverage.
With a concerted effort between her and Zeran, Kyrie wrapped Miguel's rope around all four legs and muzzle of the cougar.
As soon as she and Zeran stepped back, they realized the ropes would not last forever. They would have to find a way to calm the panther down before she escaped or they'd have to do it all over again.
Meanwhile, Giles stepped away from the wrestlers at once. All he needed now was a solidly aimed claw to connect and take him down. His distance was justified immediately when the cougar slapped Zeran.
The next thing to do—without any other more pressing distractions, the biting and stinging under his clothes was becoming insufferable. He stripped off his new magic robe to get at the vermin that some how infested his body.
At once the biting and stinging abruptly halted. He threw the robe on the ground and saw—only for a split second—the swarm of insects crawling over the inside of the garment. In an instant the swarm faded, not dispersing naturally, but vanishing as if they had never existed.
Finally free of the swarm's maddening influence, Giles chose to deal with the robe later, leaving it in the snow. He healed himself with his magic (+12hp Giles 20/42), then while the others were tying up Cat, cast a quick orison for detecting magical auras.
"If you've got that, I'll see goodies our late friend might have hid away in his little tree house."
Giles 20/42 - Bug Bitten, B1, Resiliency, 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/55 - Bastion, Grappling
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 19/42 - -1G, Grapple Aid, 28 bullets
Hermit: DEAD
Cat: Uninjured, Grappled
(Quick addition)
Spells:
Giles 2/0
Miguel 1/0
Posted on 2015-12-25 at 18:45:52.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Giles has trust issues.
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
Miguel was faster than Cat. He thrust his sword at the Bokken look-alike. The old man was in no position to evade—the sword struck him in the abdomen through his leather (-24 *crit* Hermit). The old hermit grimaced, and fell to his knees, then fell back. Zeran let him drop. Blood welled up out of the wound readily (Hermit Dying).
"This!" barked Giles, coughing. His eyes had a wild look as he stepped over the hermit's body. In his rage he instinctively invoked the bane of humanity. How many times had those who recognised his nature tried to take advantage of him? How many assumed that his celestial blood equated to naievete and blind trust? Fools. He may have been born to angels, but he grew up with devils.
"This is why I trust no one." He reversed his grip on his sword. All these snakes disguised as men. He would slay them all. Giles drove his sword down, planting it in the hermit's chest (-26dmg *coup de grace* Hermit DEAD). He left the sword in the corpse for a second, panting, then drew it back out, suddenly regaining composure.
The cougar struggled in Kyrie's grasp. The beast was very strong; she couldn't keep her grip. Cat got her paws free, rising on her hind legs, suddenly overpowering the paladin. Kyrie got off with only a bloody scratch above her eye (-9dmg Kyrie) before the cougar suddenly pushed off, turning toward her master and the squishier, less scrappy prey.
Zeran had only just finished dropping the man's body when he turned to see the cougar ready to pounce on either him or Giles. No time to make a decision he braced himself to jump on the panther.
Kyrie was not to be denied so easily. She took hold of Cat again—the cougar twisted around and bit down on Kyrie's steel-plated arm to no effect. Zeran immediately jumped in with her, following her lead and giving her aid (Cat Grappled).
"Miguel, I need rope!" Kyrie called.
Giles 8/42 - Bug Bitten, Resiliency, Power Attack, Bane (human), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 31/55 - Bastion, Grappling
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 17/42 - -1G, Grapple Aid, 28 bullets
Hermit: DEAD
Cat: Uninjured, Grappled
(Did anyone remember to bring a deer haunch for Sasha the Christmas Tiger? Might be a good plan to tame her. Btw I suppose now's a good time to point out that despite the fact that Cat's presence helps seal the druid façade, Hermit was in fact a rogue, and Cat is an animal he trained; presumably with the Handle Animal skill XD)
Spells:
Giles 1/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-25 at 15:32:46.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: GM's Notes: 'Mountain of lion' is a pun, not an error.
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
The hermit looked up from his sword just in time to see Miguel step in with another two-handed slash. He threw himself flat against the trunk of his house just as the blade whizzed through the air where he was standing (-11dmg Hermit). The old man was beginning to pant from exertion, his breath hitting the cold air in heavy clouds (Wearied).
Giles, stuck under a mountain of lion, had no way to strike at his intended target, despite the prescience granted to him by his spell. The magic was fading fast, so he abandoned his original plan due to unforeseen circumstances and turned his divine insight upon the cougar.
While his sword arm was still pinned beneath him, he had only but to turn his attention toward escape and the spell furnished him with instant foresight. The soldier shifted his weight suddenly to his sword arm, freeing his other hand briefly. Cat was forced to shift her weight to keep her hold on his bicep. Giles took advantage of her shift, twisting his upper body to throw her off balance.
At the same time, he reached out with his free hand and caught her under the throat. His grip on her neck was just enough to loosen her bite while she slid off his back. Finally, he pushed off on her with as much force as he could still muster, letting Kyrie get a stronger grip, and stepped back away from both master and beast while he conjured foul names for them through grit teeth.
Cat roared, twisting in Kyrie's arms. The farmgirl ducked a snap aimed for her head, while the cougar's claws hammered on her chest (-9dmg, -6dmg Kyrie 40/55).
Kyrie wrapped one steel-shod arm around the cat's neck and bore down with her weight, pinning her paw under her body and taking hold of the other (Cat Pinned).
Zeran spun his gun in his hand, slipping it back into its holster. Hermit slashed at him, clumsily. He sidestepped it easily. The old man was a slippery fellow, and normally it was Kyrie's job to pin down opponents that tried to get away easy, but she was a little busy right now.
He didn't bother to give it a second thought. He had a one-step running start and threw himself into the hermit, crashing into him. He wrapped both arms around his midsection and held on. "Get him! Just don't stab me!" (Hermit Grappled) (+1 Grit).
The old man twisted in Zeran's grasp like a live eel—instead of fighting back, he tried to slip through his fingers. Zeran only just managed to hold on. As soon as the hermit realized he wasn't getting out so easily, he cried out. "Halp! I've been caught! Cat!"
The cougar snarled and twisted her head to look toward her master, still wearing Kyrie like a collar.
Giles 8/42 - Bug Bitten, Resiliency, True Strike (discharged), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 40/55 - Bastion, Grappling
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 17/42 - -1G, Grappling, 28 bullets
Hermit: Injured, Wearied, Grappled, Bastion Target
Cat: Uninjured, Pinned
(Zeran, risking life and limb (or at least an AoO at 17hp) tackled and grappled the hermit despite the odds, potentially saving Giles from a reprisal and preventing the man from retreating any further. For this he earns his first free ‘daring act' bonus grit point.)
Spells:
Giles 1/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-25 at 01:28:59.
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Pretty spry for an old guy
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
The hermit turned and thrust his sword at Zeran's face, "Ha-hah! I'm practicing my stabbin'!" The pirate stepped back to keep his distance, calling the feint when the man instead stabbed for his chest. Zeran had to hop aside, but wasn't caught completely off-guard (-3dmg Zeran).
Miguel came up on Zeran's right—Bokken's long lost brother or no, no one can just stab his friends. Wielding his sword two-handed, he swung across the man's upper torso. The hermit's eyes popped, losing his grin for a moment, and he ducked (-10dmg Hermit).
While the hermit was distracted, Giles drew deep inside himself, pushing the swarm of biting insects in his robe and the large biting cat clinging to his body out of his mind—all without dropping his guard and letting the hermit get a free shot at him. No big deal, or anything.
He grasped with his mind for the energy, drawing it out with utmost focus as his lips began to shape his thoughts into the desired effect. With his other hand he clutched the small wooden disk shaped into an archery target. To his great satisfaction, Giles felt the spell energy click, releasing into the prepared matrix.
Cat, with her forepaws wrapped around Giles' neck and teeth around his sword arm, climbed up his body with her hind claws catching on his mail shirt (-5dmg, -4dmg Giles 16/42). She shift in weight threw off his balance as she worked her way up his back, forcing him to his knees (Pinned).
Kyrie, trying to keep her grip on Cat through the process grunted. "This only works if you pull on the other end, you know."
Seeing one of his targets forced to the ground, virtually helpless, the Hermit's attention snapped over to Giles. "Good work, Cat! This lot'll make the voices go away for a month at least!"
"Maybe you didn't hear me the first time," said Zeran. "I said catch." He smote the hermit between the shoulder blades (-4dmg Injured)
"Eep!" The hermit dropped to the ground, forced down by Zeran's attack (Prone).
Giles 15/42 - Bug Bitten, Resiliency, Pinned, True Strike (1/1), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 - Bastion, Grapple Aid
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 17/42 - -2G, 28 bullets
Hermit: Injured, Prone, Bastion Target
Cat: Uninjured, Grappling
No sooner had the hermit dropped than he popped up, crab-walking on all fours. "Hah! Ye'll not catch me that easily, sheriff!" The man scooted with surprising nimbleness for his age, retreating two (crab-)steps around the base of his tree home.
He turned over and stood up as soon as he was away from Miguel's sword. His eyes fixed again on Giles, kneeling at his feet, as soon as he remembered what he'd been doing.
"Hold still, now." He leaned down and thrust his sword into Giles' chest (-7dmg *sneak* Giles 8/42).
"Eh?" The hermit pulled the sword free.
The wound in Giles' breast stung, but it was far from fatal.
The hermit looked at his sword in disgust. "Damn thing's busted."
Giles 8/42 - Bug Bitten, Resiliency, Pinned, True Strike (1/1), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 - Bastion, Grapple Aid
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 17/42 - -2G, 28 bullets
Hermit: Injured, Prone, Bastion Target
Cat: Uninjured, Grappling
(In which Giles succeeds on three concentration checks to cast a spell he can't use. Actually that's not true, True Strike should technically apply to CMB, too. Note that Giles is only ‘kneeling', not Prone. This is for dramatic and descriptive effect b/c I didn't figure a mountain lion was going to pin an opponent with a full nelson the same way a human wrestler might.)
(Also, for clarity—it's not normally possible to move around that quickly while prone. This is a special ability that Hermit has from his class levels.)
Spells:
Giles 1/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-23 at 16:10:15.
Edited on 2015-12-23 at 16:29:25 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Am I not a merciful GM? No, I'm not; I planned that target change before I saw Zeran's hp dro
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
Zeran stumbled back, favouring his bad shin. He braced for a second strike, but the mad hermit wasn't even looking at him anymore. The old man drew his whip with his other hand and lashed out at Giles before the soldier could come to Zeran's aid (or at least to kill the hermit).
The whip wrapped around Giles' leg. He barely registered the sensation amid all the bites and stings before his leg went out from under him and he was laying on his back, groaning.
Miguel twisted side to side, trying to throw the panther off his back. He tried not to panic but he wasn't doing a particularly good job. He drew his sword while he struggled. Maybe he could convince it to eat somebody else.
Giles grumbled irritably, jumping to his feet. He did his best to put the biting insects filling his clothing out of his mind. He drew his sword as he approached Zeran and the hermit. "This is why I don't trust anybody," he muttered.
The cat leapt off Miguel's back, landing between Zeran and Kyrie, then with and ear-splitting roar leapt at Giles. He turned only just in time to avoid her mounting his back—instead she clamped her teeth around his forearm (-5dmg Giles Grappled), clawing at him (-6dmg, -6dmg Giles 25/42). The divine energy strengthening his body took some of the edge off the cougar's claws, but she was determined.
Zeran clutched at his stomach with one hand, hoping to keep the bleeding down. The other found its way to the handle of his gun. "Sorry," he coughed at the hermit. The hermit turned to him, as if noticing he was still there only just now. "My hands are full. Catch." He rammed the butt of his pistol into the hermit's chest (-4dmg Hermit). The crazy old man stumbled back, but didn't lose his footing.
Kyrie blinked. Everyone was already hurt. She prioritized. With a single thought she marked hermit for smiting. Next she reached out with one mailed hand and grabbed Cat by the scruff of the neck. "Bad kitty." She couldn't pry the cougar off of Giles, but she could give him a chance to pull himself free.
Giles 25/42 - Bug Bitten, Resiliency, Grappled, 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 - Bastion, Grapple Aid
Miguel 29/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 20/42 - -1G, 28 bullets
Hermit: Barely Injured, Bastion Target
Cat: Uninjured, Grappling
(I think the cat alone has done more damage than either of the trolls, with half the CR. Who says combat manoeuvres are useless? Well, they're not going to save them. Seriously, once you actually start attacking, his hp is negligible)
Spells:
Giles 0/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-22 at 16:08:53.
Edited on 2015-12-22 at 16:09:20 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Here, hold this
13 Calistril
Old Hermit; H3
South Narlmarches
"We are the barons of Volga, from north of the Tuskwater," said Giles. "I am Giles, and these are Kyrie, Miguel, and Zeran. We're here on a charter to explore and map this region. If you are familiar with this region as you say, you are more than welcome to accompany us. We could make it worth your time to act as our guide through this area."
"Hrmm..." The man ambling in pace with the wagon scratched his beard. "Well I ain't never heard of no Volgur place... But it has been a long time since we last had visitors, ain't that right, Cat?" The hermit flipped around, now walking backward facing the cougar. "What'dya say, girl? You wanna go for a trip?"
Something about the way he said ‘cat' makes you suspect that this is also the cougar's name. The large tawny cat stalking along silently raised her head and swished her tail noncommittally.
"Well that seals it! Cat ‘n' I are in. We just gotta stop by me house to pick up a few things. It's not too far off."
The old hermit's ‘house' wasn't too far off course from the direction the party were headed in, anyway. From everything they had seen about the old human so far, none of them were particularly surprised to find that he lived in a huge, hollow oak tree, with a large crack in the side, big enough for a man to duck inside, acting as the door.
"Help a feller out, would ya? Just need to collect a few things" the hermit asked Zeran. The pirate shrugged and followed him up to the tree. The shorter man popped into the hollow and puttered around inside for a few moments, muttering about what he might need.
He reappeared a moment later and gave Zeran a large, oblong rock to hold in his hand. "Hold this for me, will ya?"
Then another, larger rock. "And this."
"This, too." Zeran caught the glint of steel only in time to drop his stones. The mad hermit Bokken-lookalike thrust a dusty short sword into his gut. He grinned, gap-toothed, like he had just done something humorous and expected Zeran to chuckle.
Zeran reflexively rolled with the attack, sucking his gut in and stepping back. He felt the hot sting of steel slicing tender flesh, but it was not deep enough to puncture anything terribly vital (-26dmg *sneak* Zeran 20/42). You had to be faster than that to do in Zeran Stormsinger.
The crazy hermit laughed, then kicked Zeran in the shin sharply, withdrawing his blade (Zeran Hampered*). The rest of the party immediately reached for their weapons. Miguel wasn't even watching the panther.
Cat leapt onto Miguel's back. Her teeth closed around the slope between his neck and shoulder. Her claws tore into his back while he tried to shake her off (-5dmg, -7dmg Miguel 29/41 Grappled). The cat clung to Miguel's back, riding him like a horse.
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 29/41 - Grappled, 18 arrows
Zeran 16/42 - Hampered, 28 bullets
Hermit: Uninjured
Cat: Uninjured, Grappling
(Is it sad that this crazy old hermit had a much more effective opening round than either of the trolls? Btw, the hampered condition applied by the hermit's debilitating strike lasts 1 round and temporarily cuts Zeran's movement speed by half, as well as negating his ability to make a 5' step.)
(Also btw, Cat is maintaining the grapple passively with her Grab special ability. This means she is not actively grappling him, just holding onto him with her mouth—advantage, she can still fight back, disadvantage, her grip is really weak and easily broken.)
(Edit: I realized I don't think Cat can pull off that particular trick like that--I thought the penalty was to CMD, but it's to maintain I think.)
Spells:
Giles 0/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-22 at 00:59:25.
Edited on 2015-12-22 at 14:49:30 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Jade Regent Adventure Path
Subject: Indefinite extended hiatus - Life Support
Nona leaned her head out of the house. "Hey, you two almost done out here? Walthus says supper's ready!" Alexis and Fox were burying the faceless abomination in front of the house a fair way out. Walthus had insisted they not bury it in his backyard, on account of wanting to sleep again within this lifetime.
The two women worked by the light of blue spheres of light floating low to the ground around them. Nona came out to check on their progress. It was a shallow and short, befitting a headless monster. "Hmm? Who put up the lights?"
Alexis pointed at Fox. Fox giggled. Nona raised an eye brow. "Oh yeah?" She had not realized Fox could wield any kind of magic. Not that it was unusual for the odd person to pick up a simple trick here or there. "Just a tip, yellow tends to illuminate better and looks more like natural light."
Nona popped back inside to help set the table, wondering what else she might not know about Fox. The tiny Tian was secretive for sure, but Nona realized she didn't actually know all that much about her friend.
Posted on 2015-12-20 at 05:13:59.
Edited on 2015-12-20 at 14:07:20 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: The picture in the book is obviously for a summer encounter... poor guy...
Exploration & Mapping
8-13 Calistril
Hexes: H3 +25XP
The party travelled west through the frozen forest toward the shores of the Tuskwater. According to their well-worn map, there was a section of forest between the two rivers, then it opened up into hills just before the northern Skunk river joined with the Tuskwater, while the Murque turned south and drained into the Candlemere.
As was proving to be the case the further south the party travelled, the trees in the region were ever older, larger, and more impressive. On the second day the party spotted a small cave in the side of a small cliff, but hastily retreated when they found it contained a hibernating mother owlbear with two fluffy white cubs.
After studying the magical weave around the simple black robe for a few days, Miguel was able to discern its purpose. He found that the aura of necromancy was, in fact, tied to the creation of undead. When Giles slipped on the garment he saw the previously invisible embroidered patches that represented the types of mindless undead bound to the robe. There were twelve in all.
Deciding he liked the style of the article, Giles elected to keep the Robe of Bones to wear over his armour.
(13 Calistril)
Despite the snow slowing their progress, the exploration through the woods was almost serene. Not a great many animals flitted about between the barren trees, with most gone to warmer climes or waiting out the cold spell.
The party were finishing up their mapping of this edge of the Narlmarches on the last day when they met with a most peculiar individual. He stepped out of the sleeping forest in the middle of the day, strolling alongside the wagon as if he'd always been there.
The stranger's grin was missing a couple teeth, wreathed in a long, tangled grey beard. His hair was a chaotic bird's nest of grey. He wore a roughed-up but sturdy looking leather cuirass, with furs strung around his legs and forearms for warmth. Behind him padded a sizeable cougar, following him silently. Other than the panther, the old man was armed only with a whip, coiled up at his side.
The man came up alongside the wagon to Zeran's left. He turned his head slightly to the Greenbelt party, grinning amiably. After a few strides evidently he decided to speak. "Well hey-howdy there, strangers! What brings you folk to my neck of the woods?"
Though it had been some time since the party had last met with Bokken (Jhod and Tanya's wedding?), they realized this character bore more than a passing resemblance to the loony old hermit who brewed potions in his shack just a few hours outside Olegton. The two could have been brothers, if you shaved off half the beard and tidied up his hair a bit (but not too much).
Giles 42/42 - 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 -
Miguel 41/41 - 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - 28 bullets
(I don't hope to surpass Ian's off-the-cuff running of this particular encounter. To attempt to match how iconic that moment has become in my memory would be folly.)
Spells:
Giles 0/0
Miguel 0/0
Posted on 2015-12-18 at 19:53:11.
Edited on 2015-12-18 at 21:10:27 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: Just realized I've been labeling this hex as the warg hex on wrong side of the map
Exploration & Mapping
6-7 Calistril
Hexes: H2 not complete
It was no easy task to gather the wood to create the bonfire over the frozen swamp. The party quickly decided that attempting to move the bodies was not particularly feasible—at least they wouldn't have to worry about a second forest fire in the same area. Given that Kyrie had been able to confirm the trolls were actually dead and not just slowly regenerating, they settled for a large campfire and burning brands to sear the trolls' wounds and scorch their flesh.
Since it was still so early in the month, the Greenbelt Charter party decided to make good on mapping the northern half of the area above the Murque. During the afternoon on the 7th day of Calistril, they came upon a familiar looking scorched clearing, now in the dead of winter. With no foliage, the dense tangle of branches overhead no longer blotted out the sun completely (though an overcast day was doing that well enough for itself).
Laying to one side of the clearing, right where they left it, lightly dusted with snow, was the blackened fallen log of the scythe tree. The last four months after the fire had not been easy on the tree. Few animals had passed this way, with signs of rooting around the base of the trunk. The bones of the tree's long forgotten victims were mostly picked over and half-chewed by winter-hungry predators.
One spot did catch their attention—Giles noticed a spot of loose dirt that looked like it had been dug up. The party realized that had been the spot where the tree was ‘rooted' before it started to flee. Further investigation yielded interesting results. More assorted bones (likely the cause for the extra digging beyond simple rooting) but also three fair sized pieces of polished amber, a small pouch of coin (silver and copper and a few gold totalling 11.92G), a silver ring, and a folded-up bundle of cloth that turned out to be a robe.
With the value of the other items plain to see, Giles gave the unassuming black robe to Miguel to inspect. At once Miguel identified a moderate aura of magic coming off the robe. Though he couldn't discern the exact function of the robe, his knowledge was enough to see the tell-tale signs of necromancy in the robe's aura. What ever it did was probably related in some way to life or death—or, of course, undeath.
Posted on 2015-12-15 at 18:07:07.
Edited on 2015-12-15 at 18:07:21 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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Topic: Kingmaker Adventure Path 2.0
Subject: What's the Giantish for
5 Calistril
Hex H2; Former Scythe Tree/Forest Fire Territory
South Narlmarches - Murque River
The troll female didn't seem like she was about to slow down on mauling Giles. He gladly stepped into range of Kyrie's bastion of good, simultaneously drawing himself right up next to the brute female.
Giles wound up his long sword, silently bestowing his strike with giantsbane. At his side, the ghost sword lunged out and jabbed into the troll's thigh as she shifted her weight, piercing deep into the thick leg muscles (-17 *crit* Troll-F Injured). The female stumbled forward to catch herself—right in time with Giles' slash.
It happened almost by accident, but Giles' flaming blade ended up buried half way into the female's throat. Giles pressed his advantage, scorching flesh with a burst of fire that wreathed the troll's head in flames for a moment (-38dmg, -13fire *crit* Troll-F). When Giles withdrew his sword, a solid foot and a half of blade was soaked from the fountain gushing from her neck, boiling in the heat.
The female collapsed from blood loss and pain on the spot. It was a testament to the durability of all trolls (especially with regards to the thickness of their necks) that she was not dead when she hit the ground (Troll-F Unconscious).
Kyrie aimed to fix that. She stepped in with her sickle and struck down on the thick knot of muscles at the back of the exposed neck (-13dmg *coup de grace*). Against a lesser creature that might have been enough, but the paladin knew instinctively that the female was still not yet dead.
Meanwhile stationed not 10' away around the body of the male, Miguel and Zeran hacked at green flesh, hoping to slay the creature before the burning fire oil covering the brute's back burned away (-26dmg *coup de grace* Troll-M). If Kyrie hadn't been focused on her own problems she might have been able to tell the two that their troll had died from that last strike (Troll-M DEAD).
The saying goes, "there's no kill like overkill" (-22dmg *coup de grace* Troll-M).
Giles 25/42 - Protection, Heroism (--50min), Spiritual Weapon (4/5), Flames of the Faithful (2/5), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 - Bastionx2, Divine Shield (6/50), Faith (5/10)
Miguel 40/41 - Courage (4/15), 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - -1G, Heroism (--), 28 bullets
Troll-M: DEAD
Troll-F: Unconscious
For good measure, Giles finished what he started with a decisive thrust down through the female's heart (-28dmg, -12fire *coup de grace* Troll-F). Though she was still glowing with divine light, Kyrie felt the change as her most familiar protection ceased functioning for both the trolls.
Giles 25/42 - Protection, Heroism (--50min), Spiritual Weapon (5/5), Flames of the Faithful (3/5), 16 arrows, 20 bolts
Kyrie 55/55 - Bastionx2, Divine Shield (6/50), Faith (5/10)
Miguel 40/41 - Courage (4/15), 18 arrows
Zeran 42/42 - -1G, Heroism (--), 28 bullets
Troll-M: DEAD
Troll-F: DEAD
(So thanks to a bunch of coup de graces (coups de grace?) and a few lucky rolls, not one of the attacks thrown this round did not crit. I have to admit, I was worried the trolls would have been a bigger threat than they were, given your few options for dealing fire damage. Of course, I also didn't expect one of the trolls to be taken for her entire health bar, so maybe that was a factor.)
(All in all, I think this is a good measure of your increasing ability. It's no shambling mound rematch, but once long ago we would have cowered in fear from just one of these monsters. This is called ‘moving up in the ranks')
Spells:
Giles 0/2
Miguel 0/2
Posted on 2015-12-14 at 20:02:14.
Edited on 2018-02-20 at 15:12:20 by Sibelius Eos Owm
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