Cosmic Hunters (OOC)

[remetagross]

Okay posting today. Here's to hoping for some Displacement failure...

[Geeksthenewsexy]

CE? That stuff is nonlethal! Also, escort missions are Evil themselves; fighting them is what a Godd guy does and doing so while keeping the world at large safe from wild magic bards is the Lawful thing to do. Clearly, your character should have become Lawful Good.

Well... the DM deemed that poison-induced unconsciousness did not count as 'rest', so I kept gas-lighting the bard into thinking his exhaustion was from over-using his vocal chords (since I kept 'accidentally' using his instruments as firewood), and paying locals to boo him any time he performed, eventually convincing him to give up life as a bard. Apparently crushing someone's life-long dreams and robbing them of their greatest joy in life was considered 'a malicious act of premeditated evil'. Worth it.

[Metastachydium]

Well... the DM deemed that poison-induced unconsciousness did not count as 'rest', so I kept gas-lighting the bard into thinking his exhaustion was from over-using his vocal chords (since I kept 'accidentally' using his instruments as firewood), and paying locals to boo him any time he performed, eventually convincing him to give up life as a bard. Apparently crushing someone's life-long dreams and robbing them of their greatest joy in life was considered 'a malicious act of premeditated evil'. Worth it.

Well, I'm pretty sure he could have crushed his life-long dreams and lose all joys in his life through getting himself stupidly killed. That should count as a mitigating circumstance! But hey, as long as a GM doesn't mind CE players… Well, there's fun to be had with those.

Okay posting today. Here's to hoping for some Displacement failure...

Kill it dead!

[Metastachydium]

A quick Fort save: (1d20+21)[24]

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Happy New Year!!!!

[remetagross]

Thanks, Geeks! Happy new year to you too, and to all the mates

[Metastachydium]

Happy new year, folks!

[Metastachydium]

A critical threat! Let's see: (1d20+26)[32] for (1d6+20)[22] magical cold iron piercing and (1d4)[1] force; miss chance (higher's better): (1d100)[69].

[remetagross]

Neat ! We need to offset its regeneration a little bit here. And we're having Myriad back into the fray for that :)

About that sphere. I was of half a mind to store it in Ux' Haversack, but given how cautious O2 is around it, it might be better to keep it in a precarious place, that is, Ereshki's claws. What do you think ?

[Metastachydium]

Neat ! We need to offset its regeneration a little bit here. And we're having Myriad back into the fray for that :)

Hell yeah!

About that sphere. I was of half a mind to store it in Ux' Haversack, but given how cautious O2 is around it, it might be better to keep it in a precarious place, that is, Ereshki's claws. What do you think ?

I think the first thing to figure out might be whether Ereshki is a bat or a statue of a bat right now. With that out of the way, caution on the Spider's part is something I'd file as further evidence for Teru being soultrapped in the orb – if he is, shattering the thing would free a high end spellcaster who's probably not in love with the Spider and its late friends.

Edit: …which is not to say that we should break it blindly, mind you, just that while as long as it stays away from the Spider we're good, it breaking is probably not against our best interests.

[remetagross]

Fair point, I was completely oblivious to the possibility of that ball being the container of Teru's trapped soul.

Here comes the save.
Fort DC 23: (1d20+23)[39]

Also, chaincomplekax, here is a question. Since the melee damage from O2 will be taken by Ux Utanar. Does that mean he also takes the ability drain instead of Ereshki ?

[chaincomplex]

Hmm, I'm not actually sure re: the Shield Ally and Improved Shield Ally class features. Last I read this feature I interpreted it as splitting the ability drain, but the feature explicitly calls out damage. What do you guys think?

[remetagross]

I think it depends on the wording of O2's ability. If it says "XXX attack deals damage and ability drain", then I'd say the damage goes to Ux Utanar and the ability drain to Ereshki. If it says "XXX attacks deals damage, and any creature thus damaged also takes ability drain", then everything goes to Ux Utanar.

[remetagross]

Oh oh, a critical threat. Thanks to the Riding Boots, the critical multiplier of any lance Ux Utanar wields goes up from x3 to x4. Let's hope the roll will be confirmed.

Another attack roll: (1d20+29)[40]. In case it's confirmed, the extra damage is going to be: (12d8+72)[120]

[chaincomplex]

So for future reference I think I will tend to interpret additional effects of attacks as split onto Ux. It makes sense physically at least. While I see the RAW distinction you're drawing, I suspect such a difference wasn't intended.

Also I ignored Myriad's and Delja's attacks (sorry lol) because I saw that Ux's would finish the fight on its own. That was a great charge and showcases how much Ux has been hampered in movement so far.

Edit. I need a drink after how long it took to go through this """"dungeon"""". I think I will give XP soonish because I'm willing to open up retraining/epic features.

[remetagross]

Fair enough, I'll note the Str drain on Ux then.

Man, how satisfying is it when your Knight PC ends the fight with a critical hit on a lance charge ? :D Hurray for Bahamut !

[Metastachydium]

VICTORY!

So for future reference I think I will tend to interpret additional effects of attacks as split onto Ux. It makes sense physically at least. While I see the RAW distinction you're drawing, I suspect such a difference wasn't intended.

Also I ignored Myriad's and Delja's attacks (sorry lol) because I saw that Ux's would finish the fight on its own. That was a great charge and showcases how much Ux has been hampered in movement so far.

No problem! I loved that 160+ damage critical skewering of death, and expected that it will make our poke-poking moot.

Edit. I need a drink after how long it took to go through this """"dungeon"""". I think I will give XP soonish because I'm willing to open up retraining/epic features.

Cool! (And cool not-dungeon, by the way! (Also, a question I've been saving all along: what were those tentacle slug aberrations?))

Man, how satisfying is it when your Knight PC ends the fight with a critical hit on a lance charge ? :D

Extra points awarded for elegance indeed!

[chaincomplex]

The creatures you fought were the Sibriex with some additional abilities, and two back-ported Pathfinder monsters with some abilities changed up, namely the Chernobue and then the Thulgant. Some of the changed abilities were deliberate, others were because I, uh, forgot to apply them and decided to continue not applying them for consistency.

The reason why you were fighting backported Pathfinder monsters was because I misremembered what obyrith types existed in D&D, and when I didn't find the ones I expected for the kind of fight I needed, I looked for the closest thing in Pathfinder, namely qlippoths.

[remetagross]

Clever. Though I roughly know the various baatezu and tanar'ri around here, I know squat about obyrith, let alone PF ones. That kept the surprise.

Okay, healing time, mates ? Still some ability drain juice somewhere ? Also, how do we figure out what to do with the Book of Vile Outlook ?

[Metastachydium]

Heh. I didn't expect PF stuff either! Nicely done and thanks for the explanation.

As for healing, D. still has the Rod and L. Restoration stuff, but I'll have to check if the former helps with drain; the latter, sadly, doesn't.

[remetagross]

I hope it will. I can't take two fights like this.

[Metastachydium]

Pilot said there are no more hostile on board before the crew embarked on the final ultimate obyrith hunt, so I wouldn't worry about that. Which is a good thing because I've just checked the MIC and apparently the Rod/Orb only work on damage. (We should really pick up that divine casting cohort, in other words, but even Delja's 18000 XP away from her next feat at 18th.)

[remetagross]

So our goal was to find Teru for the Society of Sensation, right ? That's done. Now, do we free him now ? Or back in Sigil ? Or we hand over the unbroken orb ? I'm not too fond of the last option.

[Metastachydium]

Or we hand over the unbroken orb ? I'm not too fond of the last option.

Well, as you might've seen IC, the little calculating gears in Delja's little calculating head would agree. (She's not sure how she feels about throwing him to Myriad either, but we know how hard it is to say no to that damn changeling.)

[remetagross]

Things are taking a very interesting turn.

But first, @chaincomplex.Your adventure is a blast so far. Thank you very much for the enjoyment I'm having with my Ux Utanar
However, you mentioned at the very start of this game that you were in for a short game, in order to get to grips with 3.5 again. With that in mind, does this mean our game is nearing an end?
If it is, fine by me: that's what I've knowingly signed for. But then, that means it would be pointless to make plans for a new, grand adventure for the three of us.
If not, then we might be able to plan a little more ahead... I'm currently seeing a couple possible directions for us, depending on how much longer this adventure can possibly last.

1. A few weeks of game : Ux Utanar would like to find a satisfying end to the mission of finding Master Teru, possibly with some sort of judgement or punishment passed upon him before he's released.
2. About as much as we've already played : finding a way to free Pilot is definitely a motivational goal for a LG Knight. Plus, the dude's genuinely charming.
3. Indefinite ? Learn how to pilot that thing (maybe resurrecting Sunnsdottir ?) and becoming mother***ing star trekkers
   
   And Metastachydium, Geeks, what's your take ?

[chaincomplex]

So, *coughs*, I said a short game because I didn't understand the pace of play-by-post combat. What I had planned was:

1. Meeting (or not) with Teru.
2. Dealing (or not) with the Book of Vile Darkness as a sort of introductory format for the rest of the game.
3. Indefinitely repeating short planar adventures with different but related themes, until some point where I or you feel the format's getting bored.
4. Ending sequence (could be quick or an entire adventure depending on PCs' actions, and of course our tolerance for even more game) loosely tying all the prior adventures together.

You can expect something like 3, but it really was meant to be quick and we aren't even through the first leg yet. I just underestimated how long combat would take, which is also partly my fault because I spammed annoying-to-kill mooks.

[Metastachydium]

Don't worry about it! Stuff with many actors onstage is always something of a slog in this format, and Ux Utanar's player's not the only one here who's having much fun. I'm very happy to hear there are further legs in store.

As for how to proceed with the Teru thing: for Delja this is still mostly a demented form of exercise (with people whose company she enjoys more than she'll admit) to help her crawl out of an early onset mid-life crisis. Having Teru on the crew's good side and garnering the endless gratitude of the Sensates aligns with her interests (and she voiced that), but she's not married to that plan if the others wish to free Pilot (whom she's not averse to helping at all either) instead.

[Geeksthenewsexy]

I would like to add my two coppers and say that so far, this is the best play-by-post adventure I have ever played in. Hands-down, no hesitation.
@chaincomplex is the GOAT for DMing pbp games as far as I am concerned. Sign me up for any/all your pbp games - especially this one for as long as you desire to run it!

[remetagross]

Well, then I'm fine with starting by seeing the missing legs of the ongoing adventure, for starters :D

@Geeks, your idea of swapping Teru and Pilot is genius. I'm looking forward to hearing Pilot's answer in order to know if and how exactly that can be done!

[Geeksthenewsexy]

Well, then I'm fine with starting by seeing the missing legs of the ongoing adventure, for starters :D

@Geeks, your idea of swapping Teru and Pilot is genius. I'm looking forward to hearing Pilot's answer in order to know if and how exactly that can be done!

Thanks! :)

We should also check all the rooms once we've figured out what's what. We have dead bodies to deal with, and hopefully, some loot to find. I know that Myriad, for one, plans on buying some endless wands of Prestidigitation at the very first opportunity. Almost exclusively for the 'Clean' function. The group needs it, and so does the 'ship'.

Myriad is also down 9 points of Wisdom, down 2 points of Charisma, and down 1 point of Dex from that fight she needs to recover, and several cool books to study from the library before the ship. That fight was brutal! And awesome. 8-)