Turtles and Pathfinder
Sunday, May 23, was World Turtle Day. I started writing this entry then, but the exact day is not important because I mostly celebrated this event last week with a gift to my pet turtle, Peter. I replaced the filter on his aquarium with a new filter twice as large as the previous. The old one had worn out enough that I had attached a supplemental pump to it to keep it running. Furthermore, Peter has grown enough that it was time for an upgrade. Again.
Ironically, the World Turtle Day suggestions recommend against keeping turtles as pets, because that leads to stealing wild turtles from their habitat, because reptiles often carry Salmonella bacteria, and because reptiles are more difficult pets to tend than most people suppose. Peter was store-raised and after over a dozen years without signs of Salmonella, I think we can declare him uninfected. I do have trouble keeping his tank clean, because he keeps growing. In a few decades he will be trampling over Tokyo, the ambition of all giant reptiles.
Saturday, Frostmuffin finished the Pathfinder module she was running at the Family Game Store. I play a character in that game. We had the big boss battle and we lost. The party was smaller and lower level than the module intended, and the boss fight was designed as almost more than a proper party could handle, so we were badly outclassed. The adventure ended on a plot-twist cliffhanger instead of the clean break intended for summer hiatus.
We need a place to record the details for when the adventure starts anew in September, and my journal here seems a good place.
To avoid spoiling the details for anyone out searching the web on this module, I am going to avoid mentioning the names and locations from the module. The boss was a female wizard of a nonhuman species that gave her +9 natural armor and some repeatable magical abilities, which were the major factor in us being outclassed. And she had sent three minions, magically charmed to fight to the death, to delay us while she cast buff spells on herself. She was alone, invisible, magically armored, spell resistent, hasted, and flying.
Our party consisted of:
Corvan, 5th-level half-elf bard wizard, played by Aaron;
Crystalline, 5th-level dwarven fighter, played by Kelly;
Abu, 5th-level gnomish ranger, played by me;
Tierdl, 5th-level half-elf rogue, usually played by Greg, lent to me;
Finch, 4th-level half-orc cleric, played by Kit;
Volioker, 4th-level dwarven expert/rogue, usually an NPC, played by Kelly.
Greg could not attend Saturday's game, so he had left his character sheet to be played by one of the other players. His rogue was one of the key people in figuring out the mystery, and he did not want an important character to bow out at the last minute. Aaron and Kelly had missed last week's game, so their characters came in fresh. On the other hand, Kit's character Finch had used up most of his spells already.
The party entered the room and encountered a Silence spell. We searched the room, found no-one, but found that the silence did not reach to the back of the room. Corvan cast a spell to see invisible objects and spotted the boss up in the rafters. Tierdl threw a tangle bag toward her but guessed the wrong location. Abu cast Dancing Lights to try to find her, but also missed her. The boss lady used her Medusa Mask's once-per-day ability to try to turn Corvan to stone and failed. That made her visible.
Corvan scored a hit with a Scorching Ray. Crystalline taunted her by rummaging through her property and threatening to destroy a valuable scroll. That made her angry enough to drop down and engage in melee combat. She attacked Corvan first, making three attacks per turn. The others attacked her and discovered that she was almost untouchable. Only Corvan's spells, which were ranged touch attacks rather than normal attacks, could bypass her armor. Finch started healing Corvan with his wand of Cure Light Wounds, and selflessly stepped between Corvan and the adversary.
The boss switched to attacking Crystalline, taking out half her hit points in one round. Crystalline got a strike on her. Abu got a strike on her. Tierdal missed. Corvan dealt major damage to her with another Scorching Ray. Finch decided to heal Crystalline, but did not like presenting the boss with an attack of opportunity, so he stepped aside to do that.
Seeing the opening, the boss stepped forward and dealt three blows to Corvan. All hit and the third was a critical hit. After two blows he was down to one hit point. The third blow would have splattered pieces of him across the back wall, but Frostmuffin did not want to kill a player character due to extreme bad luck, so she declared that Corvan was instead down to -14 hit points, the lowest he could be and still live under the Pathfinder rules (negative Constitution score is fatal).
Tierdl, Crystalline, and Volioker missed again. Abu rushed over to Corvan to attempt to stabilize him with a healing check and failed. Finch stabilized him with the wand of Cure Light Wounds. The boss was too busy laughing to attempt attacks of opportunity against the pair. Instead, since stepping forward had taken her out of the Silence zone, she cast Sleep on Crystalline and Tierdl, dropping them. That left Abu, Finch, and Volioker standing.
I declared that I was making a diplomacy roll for Abu. Frostmuffin started to respond that trying to improve a character's attitude during melee was ineffective, but I said, "I am not trying to improve attitude. Abu is finding good terms to negotiate for surrender." Frostmuffin declared that Abu had to come up with a good line.
Maybe Abu was stalling for time, since surrendering to a boss who just charmed three of her best minions and sent them to their deaths merely for her convenience was not a good idea. He started with, "You are familiar with the Runelord of Greed. We know the secrets of the Runelord of Wrath. We could trade information." He rolled a 15 on Diplomacy.
The boss responded with interest. But first she wanted Abu to tie up Finch as a sign of surrender. Abu tried to pretend to tie up Finch, but the boss spotted the trick. And Finch took the opportunity to heal Corvan once more. The boss cast Charm on Finch. Kit rolled a 1 on Finch's will save. The boss ordered Finch to tie up Abu.
Abu explained that Corvan was a scholar of ancient Thasselonian studying the runelords. The boss responded, "Then what do I need the rest of you for?" She speculated aloud on rebuilding her cult with party members and said, "Of course, this cleric will have to change the god he worships."
At that, Frostmuffin gave Finch another will save. He made it, exclaiming, "Gorum!", the name of his god. The boss re-Charmed him before he could do anything else.
Meanwhile, Volioker was behind the boss in the silence zone. He woke up Tierdl without being noticed. Tierdl snuck out of the room to get the city guard for help. Volioker almost departed too, but he decided he must attempt to wake up Crystalline first, despite her being outside the silence zone. He was noticed doing that. Abu distracted the boss by taunting her with hints of false information (good bluff check) about Pseudo being a mastermind who had fooled Nualla, one of the boss's potential sources of information.
Volioker ran for it, hoping Crystalline would follow. Instead, Crystalline attacked the boss while still prone on the floor. She missed. The boss ordered Finch to disarm her. Finch cast Shatter on her battle-axe, but the spell failed to break it. The boss Charmed Crystalline.
Finch's last healing on Corvan had gotten him up to zero hit points, enough to be conscious. Very slowly, Corvan had reached inside his robe for his own Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds, and make a successful Sleight of Hand check to heal himself without being noticed. Then he cast invisibility on himself and scampered out of his location.
The boss ordered Finch to guard the door. Finch summoned water to make a puddle to detect Corvan's footsteps and stood in the doorway. The boss started searching for the invisible wizard by walking around the room. She had plenty of movement and encountered him after seven steps. She grappled him and he cast Shocking Grasp in her face, the electricity enhanced by her gold-plated mask. She cast Charm on him. He made a successful Will save. He also made a successful Bluff check and pretended to be charmed.
Then the boss tried to Charm Abu. Abu made his Will save, but was awful at bluffing that it worked, so the boss tried again. Abu made his save again, and this time, since his feet were not tied, he ran for it. Due to his Longstrider spell he could outrun the rest of the party and the boss fumbled when she tried to give chase. Must have slipped on Finch's puddle. Abu hid.
Corvan made some lies about how the Runelord of Wrath was up north drawing power from the rune wells and working to extend her grasp southward to other rune wells. This sounded convincing to the boss. She decided that her next murder, of the mayor himself, would best be accomplished by Crystalline, a known hero. This hideout was compromised, so she shapechanged to human form and cast dimension door to depart unseen with her three new minions.
Half an hour later, Tierdl and Volioker returned with some paladins and stumbled over Abu, who had failed repeated attempts to untie himself. They found the room empty. Abu plans on talking to the boss's courier ravens to learn of other hideouts.
Ironically, the World Turtle Day suggestions recommend against keeping turtles as pets, because that leads to stealing wild turtles from their habitat, because reptiles often carry Salmonella bacteria, and because reptiles are more difficult pets to tend than most people suppose. Peter was store-raised and after over a dozen years without signs of Salmonella, I think we can declare him uninfected. I do have trouble keeping his tank clean, because he keeps growing. In a few decades he will be trampling over Tokyo, the ambition of all giant reptiles.
Saturday, Frostmuffin finished the Pathfinder module she was running at the Family Game Store. I play a character in that game. We had the big boss battle and we lost. The party was smaller and lower level than the module intended, and the boss fight was designed as almost more than a proper party could handle, so we were badly outclassed. The adventure ended on a plot-twist cliffhanger instead of the clean break intended for summer hiatus.
We need a place to record the details for when the adventure starts anew in September, and my journal here seems a good place.
To avoid spoiling the details for anyone out searching the web on this module, I am going to avoid mentioning the names and locations from the module. The boss was a female wizard of a nonhuman species that gave her +9 natural armor and some repeatable magical abilities, which were the major factor in us being outclassed. And she had sent three minions, magically charmed to fight to the death, to delay us while she cast buff spells on herself. She was alone, invisible, magically armored, spell resistent, hasted, and flying.
Our party consisted of:
Corvan, 5th-level half-elf bard wizard, played by Aaron;
Crystalline, 5th-level dwarven fighter, played by Kelly;
Abu, 5th-level gnomish ranger, played by me;
Tierdl, 5th-level half-elf rogue, usually played by Greg, lent to me;
Finch, 4th-level half-orc cleric, played by Kit;
Volioker, 4th-level dwarven expert/rogue, usually an NPC, played by Kelly.
Greg could not attend Saturday's game, so he had left his character sheet to be played by one of the other players. His rogue was one of the key people in figuring out the mystery, and he did not want an important character to bow out at the last minute. Aaron and Kelly had missed last week's game, so their characters came in fresh. On the other hand, Kit's character Finch had used up most of his spells already.
The party entered the room and encountered a Silence spell. We searched the room, found no-one, but found that the silence did not reach to the back of the room. Corvan cast a spell to see invisible objects and spotted the boss up in the rafters. Tierdl threw a tangle bag toward her but guessed the wrong location. Abu cast Dancing Lights to try to find her, but also missed her. The boss lady used her Medusa Mask's once-per-day ability to try to turn Corvan to stone and failed. That made her visible.
Corvan scored a hit with a Scorching Ray. Crystalline taunted her by rummaging through her property and threatening to destroy a valuable scroll. That made her angry enough to drop down and engage in melee combat. She attacked Corvan first, making three attacks per turn. The others attacked her and discovered that she was almost untouchable. Only Corvan's spells, which were ranged touch attacks rather than normal attacks, could bypass her armor. Finch started healing Corvan with his wand of Cure Light Wounds, and selflessly stepped between Corvan and the adversary.
The boss switched to attacking Crystalline, taking out half her hit points in one round. Crystalline got a strike on her. Abu got a strike on her. Tierdal missed. Corvan dealt major damage to her with another Scorching Ray. Finch decided to heal Crystalline, but did not like presenting the boss with an attack of opportunity, so he stepped aside to do that.
Seeing the opening, the boss stepped forward and dealt three blows to Corvan. All hit and the third was a critical hit. After two blows he was down to one hit point. The third blow would have splattered pieces of him across the back wall, but Frostmuffin did not want to kill a player character due to extreme bad luck, so she declared that Corvan was instead down to -14 hit points, the lowest he could be and still live under the Pathfinder rules (negative Constitution score is fatal).
Tierdl, Crystalline, and Volioker missed again. Abu rushed over to Corvan to attempt to stabilize him with a healing check and failed. Finch stabilized him with the wand of Cure Light Wounds. The boss was too busy laughing to attempt attacks of opportunity against the pair. Instead, since stepping forward had taken her out of the Silence zone, she cast Sleep on Crystalline and Tierdl, dropping them. That left Abu, Finch, and Volioker standing.
I declared that I was making a diplomacy roll for Abu. Frostmuffin started to respond that trying to improve a character's attitude during melee was ineffective, but I said, "I am not trying to improve attitude. Abu is finding good terms to negotiate for surrender." Frostmuffin declared that Abu had to come up with a good line.
Maybe Abu was stalling for time, since surrendering to a boss who just charmed three of her best minions and sent them to their deaths merely for her convenience was not a good idea. He started with, "You are familiar with the Runelord of Greed. We know the secrets of the Runelord of Wrath. We could trade information." He rolled a 15 on Diplomacy.
The boss responded with interest. But first she wanted Abu to tie up Finch as a sign of surrender. Abu tried to pretend to tie up Finch, but the boss spotted the trick. And Finch took the opportunity to heal Corvan once more. The boss cast Charm on Finch. Kit rolled a 1 on Finch's will save. The boss ordered Finch to tie up Abu.
Abu explained that Corvan was a scholar of ancient Thasselonian studying the runelords. The boss responded, "Then what do I need the rest of you for?" She speculated aloud on rebuilding her cult with party members and said, "Of course, this cleric will have to change the god he worships."
At that, Frostmuffin gave Finch another will save. He made it, exclaiming, "Gorum!", the name of his god. The boss re-Charmed him before he could do anything else.
Meanwhile, Volioker was behind the boss in the silence zone. He woke up Tierdl without being noticed. Tierdl snuck out of the room to get the city guard for help. Volioker almost departed too, but he decided he must attempt to wake up Crystalline first, despite her being outside the silence zone. He was noticed doing that. Abu distracted the boss by taunting her with hints of false information (good bluff check) about Pseudo being a mastermind who had fooled Nualla, one of the boss's potential sources of information.
Volioker ran for it, hoping Crystalline would follow. Instead, Crystalline attacked the boss while still prone on the floor. She missed. The boss ordered Finch to disarm her. Finch cast Shatter on her battle-axe, but the spell failed to break it. The boss Charmed Crystalline.
Finch's last healing on Corvan had gotten him up to zero hit points, enough to be conscious. Very slowly, Corvan had reached inside his robe for his own Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds, and make a successful Sleight of Hand check to heal himself without being noticed. Then he cast invisibility on himself and scampered out of his location.
The boss ordered Finch to guard the door. Finch summoned water to make a puddle to detect Corvan's footsteps and stood in the doorway. The boss started searching for the invisible wizard by walking around the room. She had plenty of movement and encountered him after seven steps. She grappled him and he cast Shocking Grasp in her face, the electricity enhanced by her gold-plated mask. She cast Charm on him. He made a successful Will save. He also made a successful Bluff check and pretended to be charmed.
Then the boss tried to Charm Abu. Abu made his Will save, but was awful at bluffing that it worked, so the boss tried again. Abu made his save again, and this time, since his feet were not tied, he ran for it. Due to his Longstrider spell he could outrun the rest of the party and the boss fumbled when she tried to give chase. Must have slipped on Finch's puddle. Abu hid.
Corvan made some lies about how the Runelord of Wrath was up north drawing power from the rune wells and working to extend her grasp southward to other rune wells. This sounded convincing to the boss. She decided that her next murder, of the mayor himself, would best be accomplished by Crystalline, a known hero. This hideout was compromised, so she shapechanged to human form and cast dimension door to depart unseen with her three new minions.
Half an hour later, Tierdl and Volioker returned with some paladins and stumbled over Abu, who had failed repeated attempts to untie himself. They found the room empty. Abu plans on talking to the boss's courier ravens to learn of other hideouts.