Thank You Ben!

Well these past two sessions didn't QUITE go the way expected. But I can say, Group B dynamic has significantly changed thanks to me deciding to spice things up a bit.

Group A failed in the sense I only had three players and two agreed they felt they couldn't continue onward without either the half elf cleric, the half orc magus, or the human alchemist. So that day was kind of waste and I'm miffed by the fact that ONE of those guys missed it to get nookie. (Note I'm not against nookie. I'm not against spending time with your girl. I am against lying to your DM by saying your sick, but telling the same people in the group you're not going and then they telling me the truth.)

Anyway so nothing interesting or exciting happened with Group A. (Who will be short a player as Ben/the elven ranger is dating an optometrist and thus is spending the weekend with her. Like I said, I'm not mad, I accept it and I'm cool with him doing it. Since I knew he wasn't lying to me.) We'll see how it goes come Feburary 5th.

Conversely, this past Sunday with Group B...I can honestly say I kind of had it in for them. Mostly because I kept reading about the unsteady bridges and/or chance of them falling 200ft to their deaths. (More on that in a second.) Naturally while I was looking stuff over, I was like "I'm not sure just a huge Air Elemental will be a challenge enough for them, even if it only lasts 11 rounds...cause I doubt it will make it to round 5 given some of the damage output of the PCs." So I changed to it a Great Air Elemental. More HP, better Whirlwind SA (meaning it could pick up PCs AND effectively toss them over the bridge!)

Then there was the trapped bridge. Now this trap, unlike the summon huge air elemental trap, was set up by someone OTHER than the owner. It was made by the cultists of the Whispering Way. All you need to know is they're death obsessed undead lovers that enjoy a strong following in and around Ustalav. They also enjoy some support from Ugathoa, the goddess of undeath, disease, and gluttony. Now what had me irked was the fact the trap would have summoned...a single Erinyes. That's not the kind of fiend she's associated with. That and the fact I just felt a single Erinyes wasn't good enough to justify a waste of a spell that a death cultist would use, made me go with something else.

Instead, I had it summon two Leukodaemons. (Leukodaemon Entry) This to me, made more sense.

So now I was prepared for Group B.

First up was crossing the bridge connecting the gatehouse to the main house/manse. They had no trouble (or very little) with the Troll hound and its Troll handler. Then came guardian of the bridge, a dog shaped flesh golem. Since I had a PC with a strong connection to the owner (Katarina/Sarah's dhampir sorcerer/oracle being his aunt or great aunt due to her damphir lack of aging.) I had her roll me some Charisma checks to get it to believe it was its creator along with allowing the PCs to pass. Then came the locked and magically trapped iron door into the house. Naturally they set it off AND in pops the Greater Air Elemental. It did manage to throw Sari (Amanda's Suli-Jann dragon blooded sorcerer), Vickus (Michael rage chemist) and Videl (our Changeling ranger with three archetypes.) All survived. (Damn..) The monk Drake (William) ran into the house, followed by Katarina, then ended up fighting the a large animated object/construct. Meanwhile Vidal and the rest hung on for dear life while a few tried to hurt the elemental until it vanished from being summoned.

After a few minor encounters in the manse, the PCs moved to the Alchemist wing, which had been blown up in a previous explosion. There they fought three rust monsters (not much of a fight for 6 6th level characters, even in metal armor.) Then came...the bridge. Unlike the other two bridges (both of which had been built of stone and while having no railings, still were pretty darn sturdy.) this was a simple rope bridge with a few sodden planks to keep it together. It required a DC 15 Acrobatics to cross safely. The Monk...went first. And immediately was set upon by the summoned Leukodemons. They managed to kill him in 5 rounds though not with the contagion effects. Katarina died shortly before that due to their breath weapon effect AND her using her life link too much. Videl died semi-valiantly after attempting a jump/acrobatics check to try to grapple the Leukodaemon that was flying in the air on the bridge that connected the Alchemy wing with the Manse. She failed to grapple, fell onto the bridge, lost her grip and fell to her death via the falls below. 150 feet as opposed to 200 feet...

Anyway, the others managed to survive thanks to my good graces (plus the fact Mickey's parasite keeps him alive until JUST the right moment. ) and the Leukodaemons vanished in 11 rounds. The remaining three managed to get across the wooden bridge/rope bridge to the Library/Museum wing, had a few fights, but ultimately survived.

Now I have to settle back, enjoy the fact I have only THREE surviving PCs to fight a horde of many more monsters AND see how it goes.

Yeah getting mad about the whole dating thing is pointless. It would juts make the problem worse. The player lied about it probably because he feared your reaction about it. If you act all offended about it, it'll just be a confirmation to him that indeed, it was best to lie about it. So keep cool, keep gaming, and all's good.

Quote from: Benoist;510491Yeah getting mad about the whole dating thing is pointless. It would juts make the problem worse. The player lied about it probably because he feared your reaction about it. If you act all offended about it, it'll just be a confirmation to him that indeed, it was best to lie about it. So keep cool, keep gaming, and all's good.

Yeah I'm not mad. Especially now that I will concoct my revenge via the fact I'm introducing a devil possessed bastard sword made of gold with some nice gems on it to make it more appealing.

Quote from: Nightfall;510495Yeah I'm not mad. Especially now that I will concoct my revenge via the fact I'm introducing a devil possessed bastard sword made of gold with some nice gems on it to make it more appealing.

"Getting your revenge" in-game for something the guy did out of the game? That's lame, dude.

Don't do that. It's terrible DMing.

Quote from: Benoist;510496"Getting your revenge" in-game for something the guy did out of the game? That's lame, dude.

Don't do that. It's terrible DMing.

I was mostly being sarcastic. And besides the half orc magus already has a semi-cursed sword being a black blade. Anyway I'm not going to actively punish him, no. I just want to toss in that because I feel like "Eh. I've not been a real rat bastard DM in a while..."

Moving on...

I'm seriously looking forward to introducing the newbies to a devil possessed bastard sword BECAUSE I think it would be fun.

I don't do a lot, but I do try to have fun with the PCs. That's the goal.

Also I've decided that the rope bridge encounter for Group A will not include TWO Leuko-demons. One maybe, or else two Erinyes. But one just doesn't seem to cut it.

Well it's with a heavy heart I must fold my favorite Group, Group A.

Due to the fact that Zach, (who missed last session because of his desire to hang out with his girl) [AGAIN! Not against that. Just wish he had been up front about it], kind of didn't inform me that he was moving his WH40k campaigns to Sundays, meant that he had to drop out.

This led immediately to Josh and Laura dropping out as well. (Though the only reason even knew about Zach's move was monitoring Facebook for postings for our FLGS.)

So now while I did get one new player, it wouldn't be enough to keep Group B from wanting to play all the time. Nor did I particular want to go shopping for new players. (At least 2-3 more since our other Mike has become a no-show.)

So I ran the last session with our new player, Scott, and with James. It wasn't memorable. It was just me rushing things through with two players and two NPCs (a Hound Archon 5th level Paladin and his Lantern Archon associate) up to the point the rest of the PCs in Group B were at.

Now I just dunno what to do. I mean I'll still run Group B, and it will probably run alright. But I was REALLY enjoying testing stuff out on both groups, and thus getting the right kind of feel for DMing. Now I just have to wing it.

Oh well.

Quote from: Nightfall;512572Well it's with a heavy heart I must fold my favorite Group, Group A.

Due to the fact that Zach, (who missed last session because of his desire to hang out with his girl) [AGAIN! Not against that. Just wish he had been up front about it], kind of didn't inform me that he was moving his WH40k campaigns to Sundays, meant that he had to drop out.

This led immediately to Josh and Laura dropping out as well. (Though the only reason even knew about Zach's move was monitoring Facebook for postings for our FLGS.)

So now while I did get one new player, it wouldn't be enough to keep Group B from wanting to play all the time. Nor did I particular want to go shopping for new players. (At least 2-3 more since our other Mike has become a no-show.)

So I ran the last session with our new player, Scott, and with James. It wasn't memorable. It was just me rushing things through with two players and two NPCs (a Hound Archon 5th level Paladin and his Lantern Archon associate) up to the point the rest of the PCs in Group B were at.

Now I just dunno what to do. I mean I'll still run Group B, and it will probably run alright. But I was REALLY enjoying testing stuff out on both groups, and thus getting the right kind of feel for DMing. Now I just have to wing it.

Oh well.

That really sucks especially if you want things to go further.  I wanted to hear how they dealt with certain boss monsters...

Ancient,

Well I still might get to dealing with boss monsters sure. But not with Group A any more. Group A is gone. Group B is now and forever, all that is. It really bites and I'll admit to be VERY annoyed and frustrated.

But it is what it is. I can't make people play and I certainly can't force them (as much as I want to) to not do things they choose to do. That's life. Pathfinder RPG/D&D is a game. (Even if I do put in more than a few hours of prep some times.)

Also yeah I did. I had plans for a couple of the characters to tie them closer to the wider story. But unfortunately, it's never going to happen now.

Quote from: Nightfall;512599Ancient,

Well I still might get to dealing with boss monsters sure. But not with Group A any more. Group A is gone. Group B is now and forever, all that is. It really bites and I'll admit to be VERY annoyed and frustrated.

But it is what it is. I can't make people play and I certainly can't force them (as much as I want to) to not do things they choose to do. That's life. Pathfinder RPG/D&D is a game. (Even if I do put in more than a few hours of prep some times.)

Also yeah I did. I had plans for a couple of the characters to tie them closer to the wider story. But unfortunately, it's never going to happen now.

Too bad you do not live over here in the Seattle/Tacoma area...   I current have 2 PF groups and 1 CoC group and we play once a week.  I have another pF group but we took a break after finishing Second Darkness and waiting for Skulls and Shackles to come out...

Quote from: Ancientgamer1970;512604Too bad you do not live over here in the Seattle/Tacoma area...   I current have 2 PF groups and 1 CoC group and we play once a week.  I have another pF group but we took a break after finishing Second Darkness and waiting for Skulls and Shackles to come out...

yeah I wouldn't mind having them try their hand at Carrion Crown while waiting for Skull and Shackles. I think they'd enjoy it. Still, Morgantown does have SOME gamers.

So here we are! One big group instead of two different groups. I'll admit to missing some of the characters from Group A but at least Group B is starting off semi-fresh.

Due to inclement weather conditions, Amanda (whose character is Sari, the draconic sorcerer) was unable to attend. Also due to work and homework, Ben (who plays Mickey who is afflicted by a parasite from beyond the stars!), didn't attend.

So we started off with just Mike (as I call him Crazy Mike) portraying the ONLY currently surviving member of the original group, Vikicus, the halfling alchemist (who also is going Master Chymist), William's new character, a human female druid (Menhir Druid) by the name of Calvina (yes William's character does a have Tiger name Hobbs), and a female human summoner (Sarah's) by the name of Tora. Her Eidolon is Tatania who looks like a Harpy.

So we start out with Vickus trying to get the bodies of Drake (William's dead character) and Katarina (Sarah's dead character) back to give them a proper burial. It is at that point that our newest addition, Scott, comes in with his drow Hellknight. (I hadn't expected him to show up that early because much like James, he attends church services at 10:30 like most good Christians.)

Let me say this, I didn't QUITE expect to get such a strong reaction from the rest of the party. But hey, what's wrong with a little character conflicts! So since he was there, I introduced him AND Sukril (James') character. They managed to do alright, and we moved towards introducing the other new characters AFTER I had erhm...disposed of Mickey and Sari. (Mickey via the parasite. Sari by passing out because of going into shock.)

So then along comes Tora and Calvina who are with a traveling band of Scarni who I not so subtly hint MIGHT be werewolves! (Which will tie in well with Chapter 3!) They stop by Schloss Caromac, find the dead trolls and the other PCs. We spend some time with that and getting to know each character. Then in comes James with his character. (Since I was playing Sukril for him.) We get started on the climb UP to the the four towers. Thanks to some clever maneuvers on the part of the new PCs (first with the wild shaping by the druid to find out the door was flooded; which was quickly followed by the Summoner having her Eidolon fly everyone up to the bridge that connected to another tower. They then proceeded to the tower where... They fought the guardian!

Now in the book I admit, they didn't have it at CR 9. But honestly? A flesh golem girallon with the advanced template only once...didn't seem like that much of a challenge, even for a CR 8. So I added the template again. (You CAN do that folks!) I also increased the DR once. (From 5/admantine to 10/admantine) This made it seem more powerful than it was. However thanks to Hobbs and some well placed fire spells (which even though they don't affect the actual creature, they do SLOW it!) ended up with it being grappled AND only doing one attack a round. So...yeah. There went my hopes.

That being said, I honestly didn't think it would kill a PC...except for maybe the Alchemist! But eh. (I might go easy on him since he did buy me lunch!)

Anyway, so they defeated the Girallon Flesh Golem. They move up and find Count Alpon Caramoc's Homunculus. Unfortunately it has no mouth, so verbal communication was out. However it did try to mime it's way to them. Finally the alchemist pulled out some paper and pen. This allowed to tell it that it's Master was trapped, that the Aberrant Promethean was upstairs, and the best way to defeat was to summon the Beast of Lepidstadt (CR 11 < CR 13 folks!) via the Bondslave Thrall which was atop the tower.

Naturally they learned all about the Aberrant Promethean, along with how to work the Bondslave Thrall. They managed to get the alchemist to activate it and then summoned the best.

Unfortunately we didn't get to the fight BECAUSE my mom had me come home so I could help her with a dinner party. So we didn't get there.

HOWEVER, in hindsight, it's probably for the best since it would allow the two that missed the entire adventure to POSSIBLY make it next Sunday.

So with all that, I feel we've gotten our new group off to a good start. We'll see how it goes from there.

It's that time again folks!

So as you can see from the last post, we were pretty much going to be one fight away from finishing the chapter and moving on to chapter 3, Broken Moon.

Of course the best laid plans of DMs, mice and other things go awry. Especially when the PCs get it into their heads to do something you don't expect.

But more on that later!

Now came the battle to end all battles! The fight between the PCs and the Aberrant Promethean! (with a little help from the Beast of Lepidstadt!)

Unfortunately once again outside events called real life interfered with my ability to run this game. Not only did Ben once again due to the work get called away, Amanda didn't make it (though to be fair to her, she does have a kid whom she shares custody with), and the biggest (and kind of the most disappointing) surprise, JAMES didn't make it.

So there I was, almost playing for time, while we got stuff ready. Fortunately, due to a rather large Magic the Gathering Tournament, we spent most of the hour cleaning up the store and then getting ready.

So that killed off a hour. We started off with the PCs devising a plan. They managed to get Tora to stay with the machine to call the Beast. (Though in hindsight, I wish Ben had been there since he knew how to run a Barbarian slightly better than Sarah.) (Especially one with rage powers and Vital Strike.)

Anyway it wasn't a particular brutal fight for the creature at first. The PCs were only doing slight to moderate damage at the time, while he kept hurting or nearly dropping them with his 4d6+11 slam attacks (2) (Being huge helps folks!)

It wasn't until the Alchemist realized "Hey he's got a low TOUCH ac!!" that things went in their favor. Some bombs, and down went Frasier!

(I was kind of sad but at least he almost took out half the party!)

Anyway they then managed to release (with the aid of the Beast) Count Alphon Caromac who informed them of what occurred in his castle.

It was then the druid, who after talking to the drow about being a drow, decided to take some initiative. (Being raised by elves who know what drow are and being in a world were drows are more myths and legends than facts helped that.)

After a heated argument between them, which followed an argument between the cleric/Sukril (played by me in place of James), the druidess asked the count if he could arrange some oils to use in a ritual. She decided she was going to reincarnate him.

Of course in the back of my mind, I had been worried they might do something rash with Mickey...but I didn't think they'd go out and KILL him to do it.

Of course I was wrong. So after a little hemming and hawing on my part (and of course I had little recourse since I didn't want to be the dick DM that said no just to say no for plot reasons.) (Even if it wasn't an actual PART of the plot!), I decided to let this play out.

With a little creative use the rules, I had them cure the toenails and other clippings to allow the PCs to do the reincarnate spell. Before they could cast the spell, they had destroy Mickey's original body.

This led me to have what I had planned to be a fully grown Spawn of Yog Sothoth to appear at a later time (to coincide with their encounter with another Spawn) to be a less mature spawn to call for its "father".

Father answered with a vengeance, and inflicted 4d6 Wisdom damage AND thus rendered most of the party comatose. Yog basically picked up his kid and left this plane. Sukril had stayed away (I decided.) but the druid and the Hellknight all managed to only sustain...16 points of Wisdom damage. This meant Tora the Summoner, Vickius the alchemist and Count Alphon Caromac to suffer an insanity effect. Alphon suffered from agoraphobia (mostly as it relates to the open sky.) Tora became an amnesiac. Vickius suffered from a split personality disorder that caused him to become a female NG personality named Cynthis.

Anyway they spend the rest of the 4/5 days treating them and basically we ended there.

So while not much got done, Mickey is now parasite free (they think!) (muhhhaaaa!!) and now a half elf. The rest of the party is slowly healing up. So now we'll see how it goes come next sunday.

By Crom, I hope Ben can make it THIS time!

Well again, my best laid plans don't go exactly the way I expect. (I keep wondering about players, especially ones that keep missing games, as well.) (more on that later.)

Before end of last week, I was contacted by a former player, Rob, who had played in our game previously. However due to work commitments he had to drop out. Now thankfully, he's back. Unfortunately, I didn't have room, especially now that I was running basically 7 players in a game.

So what does that mean? It means I'm back to running TWO groups! I'm kind of happy with that, since it will basically help with a 'reboot' for me. Plus it gives me a chance to see what I did wrong with Group B, if anything.

Speaking of group B, I had quite the packed house as I had 6 players, (Scott's Drow Hellknight still ranks as my favorite, even if the other PCs want him dead.) We had our other Mike (human Alchemist) show up. So naturally that gave me time to set things up.

I had them go into the Shudderwood where I took the advice from Paizo's messageboard. There instead of randomly meeting Rhazio (head of the Prince's Wolves, a clan/tribe of werewolves) being assaulted and nearly eaten by Ettercaps, be saved by the PCs. The PCs got to know him slightly along with finding the source of the Ettercap's strange behavoir, a creature called...a  Weaverworm!

The Weaverworm encounter I might want to work on again slightly, but otherwise I was fairly happy with its ability to captivate and then attack the fascinated PCs. It was also awesome watching William's Druidess try to get her tiger to follow her commands. (Handle Animal checks help but it still a charm effect!) Anyway the fight wasn't that memorable until Scott's drow Hellknight got infected by the Weaverworm's paralytic nails. This meant he had to start making saves every round or be paralyzed for that round. This also lead the druidess almost killing him.

In any case, they then found a dead body up a tree. The druidess (since she didn't bother roll for Perception checks OR wonder about draps), set off a tripwire trap and got hit with all 5 of the cross bow bolts (not seriously enough to kill her though) They then ran into the other NPC, Duristin, who I play up as being kind of snobbish but at the same time, a guy that likes to think he's a hunter.

In any case, they get to the lodge, have some time to kill. It's about this time that Mike, (I guess in a fit of boredom), runs off into the woods and gets himself killed by a Quickwood. This is also when I find out he didn't level up his character to 7th. Sheesh. Anyway long story short, he leveled to 7th, but took the negative levels associated with reincarnate. (They really like using that spell...) They also start arguing about whether they should hunt the Devil in Grey, or just find the cultists.

In any case we pretty much stopped there (other than me filling in their knowledge about the werewolves, their tribes and such via Delgros, the Huntsman of the Lodge.)

I am hoping/thinking maybe I might need to introduce the Vickrius sooner rather than later... That or just have the former Lord of Sturndiae come up and talk with them. We'll see.

That's pretty much it for now! Next week, my new Group A!