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Does that actually work? I was under the impression most Cthulhoid BS is immune to tommy guns.
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Nov 19, 2014 07:23
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Night10194 posted:Does that actually work? I was under the impression most Cthulhoid BS is immune to tommy guns. Deep Ones aren't, and many just take 1 point of damage per hit. That's like 30 points per drum magazine.
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Nov 19, 2014 08:03
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Though Deep Ones are kind of the chump jobbers of the CoC world. Unless you're in the water. Don't be in the water with Deep Ones.
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Nov 19, 2014 08:07
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Night10194 posted:Does that actually work? I was under the impression most Cthulhoid BS is immune to tommy guns. Cthulhu was (temporarily) stopped by a boat. Wilbur Whateley was killed by a dog. The Mi-Go in "Whisperer" were easily kept at bay with dogs and a shotgun. Lovecraftian things aren't always immune to mundane weapons.
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Nov 19, 2014 09:10
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Rannos22 posted:Cthulhu was (temporarily) stopped by a boat. Wilbur Whateley was killed by a dog. The Mi-Go in "Whisperer" were easily kept at bay with dogs and a shotgun. Lovecraftian things aren't always immune to mundane weapons. They are only immune when the GM wants them to be. You brought a tommy gun and a shot gun each? Have an immortal toad thats going to kill you all.
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Nov 19, 2014 13:50
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Continuing the story of the Order of Magnitude.... So, for the next session I decide to do something a bit experimental. I describe Jack, Nolan and Glorin sitting around a table around mid-afternoon making plans on how to get to Sharn. Suddenly, Magnus is thrown bodily through the window of the inn and lands on the table, smashing it to bits. I then rewind about an hour earlier in the day and focus on Magnus, from here on everything that happens is entirely up to the player's will. I don't rail-road him into the events I just described at all. With Magnus' player, I'm certain I don't have to. The morning starts for Magnus when he gets a message from a Sivis post-runner from the smith who helped fix him up the day before. The message is brief but mentions that the smith has come across something that he thinks Magnus would be interested in. Magnus heads over to the blacksmith's only to find the place initially seems empty...but then the exits are cut off by several of the weird, warped-looking warforged from the other day dressed in heavy, concealing cloaks. Before he gets ready to fight his way out a warforged he recognizes steps out from their ranks. The warforged is called Stonefist, a famous warforged hero of the Last War and one of the few warforged to be granted officer rank. His name comes from his right arm which was lost in battle and replaced with a bound earth elemental which he can shape into a hand or a weapon as he needs. He served Cyre during the war and he was never seen after the Day of Mourning. Well, Magnus starts fanboying a bit, but Stonefist quickly shuts him down by telling him that he's here because he's looking for his "brother" a warforged who was last seen being dragged by Magnus into this very smithy. Unable to really deny what happened Magnus confesses to sell the other warforged's corpse for scrap metal. This, obviously, enrages stonefist who spends a bit of time smacking Magnus around the room. Wisely Magnus chooses not to fight back and just lets Stonefist vent. Unwisely he offers to split the profits with Stonefist. Beatings continue. Before knocking Magnus out completely Stonefist demands to know where the book and amulet his brother was sent to retrieve is. Magnus admits that its with his team (specifically Nolan). This leads to Stonefist and his crew of messed-up Warforged dragging Magnus to the inn and hurling him through the window, as a prelude to "aggressive negotiations". Nolan, Glorin and Jack all spring to their feet, ready to fight. Magnus is still (barely) animate and manages to tell Nolan what Stonefist is after as he and his warforged stride into the bar. Nolan's the kind of player who likes to be really good at fighting but always tries to talk things out first. He grabs the book and dashes to the inn's fireplace, holding it above the flames. Stonefist and his men stop dead. The two engage in a tense stand-off. Nolan demands to know what they want the book for and Stonefist, grudgingly, shares that the book contains information on the creation of the warforged and he and the other warforged want it in order to secure the survival of their race. With the Treaty of Thronehold, the creation of new warforged is illegal, dooming the race to slow, but inevitable, extinction. Nolan turns out to be sympathetic to his cause and extracts an oath that if he gives Stonefist the book he'll leave without any further violence, and he'll leave payment for the damage to the building. Stonefist eventually agrees and Nolan tosses him the book. True to his word, Stonefist leaves some Cyrian coins to pay for the damage and he and his men leave.
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Nov 19, 2014 13:55
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oriongates posted:Continuing the story of the Order of Magnitude.... Sounds like a solid game all around. More PCs should be tossed through windows.
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Nov 19, 2014 16:59
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I like it. You read your player well, and despite my own lingering grogginess about warforged I think you've got an intriguing story going on there. Well done. 
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Nov 19, 2014 20:39
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Continuing the Order of Magnitude.... So the party manages to scrape up enough cash for lightning rail transportation to Sharn. Glorin and Nolan manage to sign up as temp security for the more expensive cars, getting themselves price cut for "coach" class tickets. Jack decides he wants to get in on that action...but being a sorcerer he's not very buff and his only direct offensive spell is currently burning hands and it doesn't take much smarts to realize that's a bad combination with enclosed boxes full of flammable people. So, instead he just decides that he'll use his impressively high intimidate skill to simply convince the people hiring security guards that he is so dangerous and competent that they don't actually need to see him demonstrate how dangerous and competent he is. So he's hired as well. Magnus meanwhile pays a pittance for riding in "steerage" class. In the previous adventure Jack hadn't really gotten to do much so I decide to focus on him a bit. First, I have his ill-gotten position as a guard come back to bite him a little. He's asked to deal with Throthgar the Cleaver: a barbarian adventurer who recently struck it rich on an expedition and is enjoying the high-class cars, especially the bar. Well, he's gotten to the "furniture breaking" stage of his drunkeness and the other passengers want something done about it. As the guard on this car its Jack's job to deal with this 7 foot tall muscle-elemental. Obviously having no means of actually fighting Throthgar, Jack instead gets out his healers kit and mixes some painkillers and sedatives into a glass of strong alcohol and brings the guy a free drink. Shortly afterwards he's out like a light. Jack has some other security officers drop him off on a bench at the next stop. The next incident is the attempted assassination of a well-to-do halfling on the train. The assassin stabs his victim with a dagger and attempts to flee (before being chased down and subdued by Nolan). Jack, being a healer, attempts to treat the wound but his cure spells seem to just make it work. He makes a great diagnosis roll and realizes that the halfling was infected with a rare fungal spore from Xendrik. The spores grow inside the human body, spreading virulently and quickly and usually killing in under an hour. Magical healing will affect the spores as well as the victim, actually causing them to grow faster. This was an encounter specifically designed to make use of Jack's surgery abilities since the player was a little disappointment at how rarely they've been needed so far. I tell him that the easiest and most reliable method is amputation of the guy's arm, but with difficulty it might be possible to extract the fungus and save the limb. Jack opts for simply amputating the arm and then using his dragonmark to heal the wound. This choice will become significant later. Finally upon arriving in Sharn the team sign up with the Clifftop adventurer's guild who gives them a little "hazing" mission for new recruits. They're sent on a scavenger hunt into the Sharn sewers, finding a couple of glowing magical "flags" that the guild dumps into the sewers. It's relatively safe, but unpleasant, work that weeds out those without the will to get their hands dirty. However, while exploring the sewers they stumble across an extremely old secret door, which they only discover because Magnus managed to recognize some scratches in the stone as the same design on the book they gave to Stonefist: an extremely antiquated version of House Cannith's seal. Well, they crack that right open, bypass some traps and some animated guardians and come across a sealed up safe which Magnus managed to bust open. Inside are some old manuscripts and two, identical weird tablets that seems to be made of adamantine carved with runes in ancient Giant. One is much newer and seems to be a copy of the older. Upon trying to leave to leave with their booty when a team of the "warpforged" show up, this time led by Stonefist's polar opposite a warforged named Cleaver. Both Stonefist and Cleaver are followers of the Lord of Blades. Stonefist follows him because he's come to the sad conclusion that the LoB is the best hope the warforged race has to survive and he tries to moderate LoB's genocidal tendencies and serves as a voice of reason and restraint. Cleaver is a spike-covered lunatic who just hates humans and wants to kill them. Well, it didn't take much for the Order to realize that these guys probably came here using the information in the book that Nolan gave them and so they probably work for Stonefist. Nolan tries to talk things out and even hands over one of the tablets as a goodwill gesture, but although he's reasonable and fair he tends to take on a bit of a "preachy" tone with his negotiations and being told what to do and looked down on by humans is kind of Cleaver's "trigger". Violence ensues. Fortunately the Order manages to win (although Cleaver escapes with one of the two tablets) and they make it out, explore the sewers and get the "flags" they needed in the first place. Also, it was the birthday of Magnus' player, so I had him dragged under the water by a giant albino sewer gator which ended up having a +2 Mace in its belly. Magnus also skinned it and made himself a nice suit. 
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Nov 20, 2014 15:43
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The Bejeweled +2 Scepter of Ronaldo MacDonnah
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Nov 20, 2014 16:47
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I guess I became the "that guy" of the campaign, derailing not only the adventure path but the name of the campaign. Yes, the Colorado Freebooters are banned from Colorado. Why? Well, Last Time we got in bad with the Bulldogs gang. After setting up a gold mine (and finding evidence someone had taken the secret treasure), we headed back to Boulder. There, Dash Drummond and Crash Kaboom were called to the Mayor's estate for an important meeting. We were left in the meeting chamber with someone we hadn't met. It was a gentleman who was upset we had stolen goods from him, stolen a gold mine from him, beat up one of his guys in a "protected" barber shop, stolen a plane from him... To be fair, these were almost all to people under his protection. Dash sighed and, as he began to cut a check, asked the guy his name. He said "Cherry Juice". Dash asked again. The guy said "if we're done here..." about five times, before Dash slid over the check. It was made out for $0 and gently caress You cents. Crash fired at the man (not wounding him) and Dash grabbed him as a human shield. At that point, the mayor's guard and a bunch of flathead thugs burst in. Crash shot out a window. Dash (who had intended to, at least, beat the man down publicly) threw him down the length of the negotiating table and escaped back to their car. Next session could get violent.
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Nov 22, 2014 18:41
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I love playing with new players. You get the most hilarious moments. GM: Hey, Level 4 Cleric, roll a Will save.  54!Entire table:  Cue several minutes of confusion before her boyfriend took a look at her character sheet. "Sweetie, you don't add +5 for each level."
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Nov 22, 2014 23:17
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Just started a 5E D&D game last night with some friends and we're having a blast so far. I rolled a Dwarf Warlock who killed half the goblins we came up against in a single shot of indifference. The highlights of the session were the Halfling Sorcerer creating a Minor Illusion of a pile of gold (complete with angelic chorus and a beam of light from the heavens) to district the lookouts, and the Tiefling Monk using martial arts in every encounter to bring him "closer to the cosmic harmony, hyaaaaaaaah!" This is going to be fun.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:01
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Captain_Person posted:...the Halfling Sorcerer creating a Minor Illusion of a pile of gold (complete with angelic chorus and a beam of light from the heavens) to district the lookouts... Minor Illusion can't make both an image and sound unless you're a wizard specializing in the illusion school. He could have just cast it twice though I guess.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:17
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That's the sort of plan that is allowed to bend rules.
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Dec 1, 2014 21:31
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A friend invited me to the 13th Age game he's running with the organised play adventures for his university games club. We start on Thursday, so far the only characters I know of are my living scarecrow chaos mage, and another guy's telepathic pig commander. So things are shaping up promisingly. In another news, in the regular game that I DM, a player recently critical-hit roundhouse kicked a giant spider off a bridge, to land with a thud where the rest of the party was battling below, unaware that there even was a spider. Just as he rolled the crit, the random background music we had quietly playing hit the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony no.9 leading to everyone acting out their reactions to the spider falling in slow motion. It was pretty fun.
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Dec 2, 2014 04:35
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Roach Warehouse posted:In another news, in the regular game that I DM, a player recently critical-hit roundhouse kicked a giant spider off a bridge, to land with a thud where the rest of the party was battling below, unaware that there even was a spider. Just as he rolled the crit, the random background music we had quietly playing hit the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony no.9 leading to everyone acting out their reactions to the spider falling in slow motion. It was pretty fun. What, like "Spider, spider, it's a spider Giant spider from above!"
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Dec 2, 2014 23:49
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Lallander posted:Minor Illusion can't make both an image and sound unless you're a wizard specializing in the illusion school. He could have just cast it twice though I guess. goatface posted:That's the sort of plan that is allowed to bend rules. This. In most cases in my games I let illusionists get away with a lot more with their spells, because I liked encouraging players to be clever instead of shooty. I always thought that illusionists got a raw deal: At level 5, a magic user is casting fireball that torches small towns. The illusionist finally gets an illusion spell with sound, smell and heat.
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Dec 3, 2014 00:23
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It's funny. My GM has nothing against caster supremacy, and actively encourages people toward epic prestige classes that manipulate metamagic abilities, but the moment you try to do something clever with a spell he's got the PHB open to check its effects. Sneaky stunts with magic items and skills are fine, but magic apparently has Rules.
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Dec 3, 2014 01:15
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In the Unknown Armies campaign I've been running for a while the party dipsomancer (a wizard who gets more powerful the more drunk they are) finally decided to cast Party Like Hell. Party Like Hell is a spell which summons a demon. It specifically does not provide any means of control over the demon or any method of getting rid of it. It's basically a big button to press when you want a situation to be more chaotic than it already was. The casualty count is already in the double figures.
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Dec 3, 2014 01:16
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Exculpatrix posted:In the Unknown Armies campaign I've been running for a while the party dipsomancer (a wizard who gets more powerful the more drunk they are) finally decided to cast Party Like Hell. You know how the dipsomancer's quest must end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-1LRos45Jk
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Dec 3, 2014 01:39
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I think it calls for a fiddle duel, personally.
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Dec 3, 2014 02:55
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Oh man, I haven't been posting my game in a while? Creating a new race The party met again at another robot (golem) making facility their old nemesis the mage Solomon. He had a giant robot who they beat and used a device by a captured bad guy from before to take control, and basically gave them free will. the Half-orc who talks to guns took them all to their own little place. A party member asked me if this means they formed their own icon. Too awesome an idea to not do. Sort of Touchable They manage to track down a guy who looks like the man in charge (though careful enough that's no proof). He's a gnome named Firespark. He lives at the top of a hotel and the innkeeper without looking in the book insists there's no fire spark living there, and two goons come down and tell them to scram. (Yes basically reenacting part of the untouchables. a player asks if their going to catch them on tax evasion ). One of the goons says he'll take care of it and leads them all outside (except the goblin who for some reasons decides to get a room and goes upstairs). The goon takes them around the corner, and removes his mask. "About that beer I owe ya."  It was a NPC who they had met on a train about 7 sessions ago, and I've been waiting those 7 sessions to do this (and it'd been killing me holding it back). It was really fun to do that reveal. It turns out there is a accountant guy who lives on a part of town who they use to convince them to get an audience with the boss (by giving him a potion they took from a snakeoil salesman back on a train, that the dwarf had forgotten had nearly killed one his party members*). They convince the boss there's a cave with the stone he's been looking for and their sent with one of the firespark's goons to get it. *as far as he knew, the goblin rolled really good at his bluff at pretending to die The dwarf takes a nap and narrates how he sees his mother face away from him in a field. when he goes up to her she turns and it's the half-orc. "hi, I'm jackengill" and wakes screaming. This cracked me up. That worked... They go to where they say the cave is, and find a cave (they knew there were caves there, just not what was inside it) with the goblin outside who starts to plant tnt. I can't help but quip that it's not a TPK if one survives. They end up signaling the goblin who lights it, and then panics and throws it inside the cave.  The party manages to get away safe but kill the goon. Circus They head back, and end up at some strange circus where each party member has to face their own fears. They also meet a kolbold who's a sort of snakeoils seller (a new party member). This was a ton of fun to run. It included the half-orc freaking out when he sees one of his gun in half-orc form and then he can't talk to his guns anymore (bascily reduced to basics, and ended up crying in a corner, though I scaled this battle down intentionally and he got his powers back after praying hard.). It ended with them fighting a large white dragon (after having to think of the goblin who's nightmare this was in order to pass through a wall to get to him). Kill my father After leaving the circus, instead of returning back, the Dwarf decides since their in the neighborhood he wants to kill his homicidal father (he'd already twice sent bounty hunters after him, and he beat a spectre version in the circus). They end up beating him up. Dwarf: "I hold back the swing and say 'aaah!'. Take 3 miss damage." GM: "he's down." Dwarf:  Turns out he had just enough HP to be KO'd. I allowed a retcon that didn't happen though. In the same session the goblin sent a telegram to the mob boss: "Dear mob boss.We are having fun hanging with your toadie. We made smores under the stars. We are ner the cave. XOXOXO Love, Nigel". I never know what to expect form my party, and it's been real fun rolling with what they go with. I really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow at all. Foolster41 fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 07:56
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Exculpatrix posted:In the Unknown Armies campaign I've been running for a while the party dipsomancer (a wizard who gets more powerful the more drunk they are) finally decided to cast Party Like Hell. In my head, the demon has a magical boombox that keeps playing "Party Party Party", "Party All the Time", "1999" and "Party Hard"
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Dec 3, 2014 15:44
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I'm currently GMing a (heavily modified) D&D 3.5 campaign. One of our characters is Jack, a troll monk Drunk Master whose achievements to date include punching a dragon to death and suplexing a demon through 2 floors of an inn. In the last session, the party was helping out with the siege of an abandoned fortress that had been taken over and hastily repaired. They were supposed to infiltrate the stronghold ahead of the main army and take out key defenders to make the attack easier. They make it to the main keep (mostly) undetected, but once inside they get spotted right away. They fight their way to the keep's central courtyard, when soldiers start firing crossbows at them from the upper floors. While the rest of the party is rescuing prisoners from the dungeons, Jack is chucking rocks and chunks of wall at the crossbowmen, making a few nice holes here and there, when suddenly the wizard they'd come to take out pops out of a hole in the 4th floor and casts a fireball at them. The party's ranger fires off a few arrows into the wizard, but doesn't quite take him down, and he ducks back into cover. Unable to see him, it seems that the rest of the party can do nothing about the wizard, and they are too hurt to be able to take a second fireball, so they prepare to retreat. Jack is, predictably, having none of it. He takes a long draught of whiskey, grabs the biggest boulder he can find then loving leaps up to the hole where the fireball had come from, hangs on to the edge and slam-dunks the awestruck wizard with the boulder. For the rest of the fight the soundtrack was changed to the Space Jam OST. mediocre dad okay fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 16:19
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CzarChasm posted:In my head, the demon has a magical boombox that keeps playing "Party Party Party", "Party All the Time", "1999" and "Party Hard" Well, now I know how we're starting the next session.
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Dec 3, 2014 20:26
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Dec 4, 2014 21:16
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Okay, a bit more Order of Magnitude stories: So after finding the odd adamantine tablet the PCs have more or less completed a very extended version of the Forgotten Forge adventure from the Eberron core book. Theoretically the next in line would be Shadows of the Last War, but I'm not quite ready to throw them into the Mournlands just yet and I want to give them a while to stew on what they've found so far so I decide to skip ahead a bit and use the Whispers of the Vampire's Blade. It technically doesn't have anything to do with the long-term "macguffin quest" that the other adventures involve but drat I'm glad I decided to run it anyway because its probably the funniest adventure ever, at least with my group involved. So, after being recruited by Clifftop the group is around 6th level or so and (given eberron's "low level NPC" setting) that makes them some of the baddest asses in the group. Clifftop's head is a paladin who has retired from active adventuring but a former friend from the Dark Lanterns contacts him to try and find some powerful, multi-talented and discreet adventurers who can handle a delicate matter for the nation. Well, the Order of Magnitude was at least 2 out of 3. So, the Order shows up to the meeting with the Dark Lantern who is a rather a elderly man tending a garden. The fellow is a little dubious of the Order's abilities and so he has a test for them. The meeting is in a large, indoor garden and the gnome has released a Dire Ape into one of the groves and the Order must capture it alive in order to get the job. There's some discussion as to the best way to handle this since Nolan is the only member of the team with any skill at non-lethal combat (being a monk). Well, they hatch a cunning, looney-toons-as-hell, plan. First they've managed to get a few potions from their recent adventures, one of which is a Alter Self potion which Nolan quaffs and, guided by Magnus's Knowledge (Nature) skill, manages to assume a form that has a fairly strong resemblance to a medium sized female ape. Jack then proceeds to Enlarge Nolan making him just about the right size for a dainty dire ape-tress. Nolan proceeds to ace his unskilled disguise check and lure the ape out of the trees at which point Magnus (who has a feat that lets him sacrifice HP for electric damage to his fists) unleashes a (literally) shocking nut-punch from behind and then, when the ape turns on him Nolan lets loose with a flurry of non-lethal Stunning Fists. It's not long before the ape is completely unconscious. This test has done absolutely nothing to engender confidence in the old man who's looking to hire them...but he's short on time and technically they passed, so he lays out the deal: An agent of the Lanterns by the name of Lucan disappeared for two days then reappeared attacking one of the Dark Lanterns own high-security vaults. He displayed never-before seen abilities: the ability to walk on walls, ignore damage and perform some kind of powerful mind control and broke into the vault, stealing a weapon captured during the Last War called the Soul Blade. The Soul Blade is a Karnn weapon entrusted only to high-ranking officers and its been sealed up ever since it was taken. Now Lucan has it and he was last seen escaping via carriage with his sister (a powerful sorceress). A search of his quarters recovered some half-destroyed notes indicating he may be bound for Zilargo's capital Trollanport, seeking something called "Krell". The Lanterns don't know what this means (although they really should: Neya Ir'Krell is Aundair's diplomat to the city, but then again I didn't write this adventure). They want him stopped before he can seek sanctuary in another country and possibly spill tons of state secrets. They'll pay well for the return of Lucan's body and the sword and very well if he can be brought back alive. They'll also supply magebred horses to try and allow the PCs to catch up with him. The party immediately accepts and heads out after Lucan. Lucan has almost a whole day ahead of them and is pushing his horses very hard so the initial lead is great. The Order's Magebred horses are faster though and that means they'll eventually overtake him after several days of hard riding. Still, a lot of not much happens on the fist day. After making camp Magnus takes the watch for the night so everyone can rest...and something occurs to him. He doesn't need to rest and can, being immune to subdual damage, run indefinitely. His run is still not as fast as a magebred horse's jog...but he can keep it up 24 hours a day. Meaning he can cover over 300 miles in a day compared to a horse's 60 or so. By the way, this is when it struck me just how terrifying a fighting force made up solely of warforged could be. I filed this information away for future conflicts with the lord of blades. So, he decides to leave a note telling the rest of his team that he'll be going on ahead and he'll meet them down the road at some point and he just takes off. Well, given his amazing travel time he manages to catch up with the carriage in the early evening. Lucan's sister, Grilsha, is manning the reins but she and the horses are catching a quick rest on the side of the road when Magnus spots them. Trying to be sneaky he creeps up on the carriage to try and figure out what might be going on with Lucan (who is nowhere in sight, presumably in the carriage itself). Here's the thing though (which you've probably figured out from the name of the adventure and the powers Lucan possessed), Lucan is a vampire. He was investigating a vampire living underneath Sharn but was unfortunately captured and turned. Now under the vampire's control Lucan was forced to attack the Dark Lantern's vault. In the process he grabs the Soul Blade, which is actually a sentient magical weapon...and technically it does seem like being dominated by an intelligent item is never established as a mind-affecting ability. Of course, obviously it is but I don't really care...I never liked the idea of intelligent undead being globally immune to mental influence. Just never made sense to me. Anyway, Lucan is thoroughly dominated by the Soul Blade whose overriding goal is to be returned to Karnn, which overrides Lucan's enforced loyalty to his vampire master. Knowing he couldn't survive such a journey on his own Lucan is forced to recruit his sister. She is aware he is a vampire but believes that he is traveling to Karnn to seek a cure of some kind. Well, Magnus has no idea and while his mediocre stealth roll is enough to avoid notice from Grilsha it doesn't beat Lucan's insanely good Perception score. It's daylight so Lucan can't leave the carriage but does summon some wolves from the forest to attack Magnus and orders Grilsha to drive on. Magnus is heavily outnumbered but manages to cast Stone Construct on himself before the wolves attack. The DR is enough that he's immune to injury (barring a very unlikely critical hit) but the wolves constantly trip him over and over again. Rather than play out the whole fight as an exercise in seeing who gets lucky first I just declare that once Lucan's out of sight his control over the wolves ends and they flee back into the woods. Well, Magnus still doesn't know what's going on (as far as he's concerned he just got the wrong end of a random encounter) so he sets off again. It's full nighttime by the time he catches up to the carriage again and Grilsha has made camp (Lucan could travel all night but the horses can't). Magnus keeps his distance and manages to avoid notice and rather than confronting Lucan and his sister on his own he decides to try some subtlety. He composes a note and leaves stuck in an obvious place where it couldn't be missed when Lucan and Grilsha head out again. It reads: "I know about your secret. I want to talk. Meet me at noon 10 miles down the road." Magnus then heads 10 miles down the road and just waits. Needless to say, setting up a noon-time meeting with a vampire is hardly going to go over well. Magnus just has to watch as the carriage drives past him in a cloud of dust. So he sets off after it again. Meanwhile the rest of the Order has been plodding along still a couple of days behind Magnus and contemplating what they'll do to him once they catch up. After reading the note Lucan pushes his horses extra hard and switches out for fresh ones at a nearby inn, so Magnus doesn't manage to catch up until around midnight. Again he comes across Grilsha snoozing by a campfire with Lucan nowhere in sight. He starts to compose another note, but flubs his stealth roll and Lucan emerges from the carriage carrying the Soul Blade. Magnus makes an attempt at diplomacy but this falls flat when Lucan starts snarling and twitching (wrestling unsuccessfully with the Soul Blade) and launches himself at Magnus. By an amazing roll Magnus actually wins initiative and decides he's going to go "all or nothing". Like I mentioned before he has a Feat that lets him sacrifice hp for adding electric damage to his punches (1d4 damage per 1 hp sacrificed). Now, for some reason both of us missed the fact that you can't exceed your BAB in sacrificed HP, which I am thankful for. Magnus poured all but one hit point into this attack adding around +40d4 to his slam. He also spends all of his action points on rerolls until he (just barely) manages to penetrate Lucan's impressive AC. Magnus rushes forward and lightning punches Lucan with everything he's got, unloading enough damage to kill him several times over...except as a vampire Lucan can't be killed from just HP damage. He dissolves into mist and vanishes back into the carriage. There's just enough time for things to click with Magnus and realize that Lucan is undead...and then Grilsha shoots him with a crossbow, inflicting 4 damage and taking him to -3. Fortunately the two leave Magnus alive in a heap by the side of the road and dash for the border with Zilargo. About a day and a half later the rest of the Order catches up and, after some debate, decide that yes, they should repair him and find out what happened. Magnus fills them in on Lucan's true nature and agrees to stick with the rest of the group from here on out.
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Dec 6, 2014 11:35
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Last time in my Crimson Skies Campaign, the Gallivanters were escaping the Mayor of Free Boulder and his mafia henchmen. (This was because the head of said mafia didn't know how to take a bribe). Out of the Gate Our crew (Dash, Christine "Crash" Kaboom, and the mechanical genius Jean-Luc) were joined by a new pirate, Baron Gustav von Garson. The smuggler king knew that things were going down due to his vast web of informants, so he readied the airship to take off. Dash and Christine, still in his pink cadillac, started with a FP Compel ("You guys are at the airfield, still being chased.") Which was fine, except Zeppelins don't have on-ramps. So two of our party were driving at 70 miles per hour, trying to escape pursuit and get on a 26mph grand zeppelin. Enter the Sky Hook! Jean Luc showed off his latest Weird Invention...an air-to-ground tow cable! He expertly lowered it down, and Dash clambered to hook the semi-magnetic behemoth to the caddy. Christine fired her tommygun to create covering fire, and Dash barely avoided a sideswipe as they lifted into the air. Baron Gustav 'helped out' by leaving the hangar bay at full speed and shooting at the runway fracas, kicking up a cloud of dirt. --- Enter the Tesla Shield! Christine and Dash eventually made it into the hangar bay as Gustav finished off the ground forces. It was then that they realized that Dash's personal filmmaker, Stanwick, had been in the back seat the entire time. Stanwick was bone-white, and as Dash flipped directly from his car to his plane("Same set of keys!"), he was only able to film Dash's exit. During the battle that followed, Christine manned the flak cannons, and Baron teamed up with Dash to take out a large number of airfield security. The payday pilots were no match for skilled aerial aces, with one even crashing its left-wing into the skyhook. Jean Luc decided to show off his latest invention...a portable electric field generator! Exit the Tesla Shield! He instructed Dash to lure pilots into it, which Dash did, sending the last two enemy agents into it. Unfortunately, this set most of the zeppelin on fire. In order to put it out, the group hatched a stupid plan[---], executed perfectly[---]. Dash ordered the captain (beating the latter's Great(+3) common sense) to fly directly at the airfield's water tower. Christine, the mechanical gremlin, found the exact most fragile strut. Gustav's job was to fire at it, and blow it up the second before the zeppelin would hit it, dousing the entire ship. Gustav bore down on his rockets. ...They wouldn't launch. LUCKILY, he had a redundant weapon system, and managed to blow up the water tower right on time! The gang slowly, smokily escaped Boulder, off to hide their zeppelin and plan the next steps.
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Dec 6, 2014 19:53
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We had a pretty hilarious chain of events in our last night's 4th edition D&D campaign. Guy playing a Shifter Druid told us last session that the die he uses is cursed, that it really hates players (but not GMs - when he's GMing, the die owns, when not, welp). Anyway, we charged into this throne room that was supposed to have a hidden passage there, and some guards objected to our behaviour. Now, the fight starts okay, my Dragonborn Bard melts a few minions in a puddle of acid, Human Fighter keeps big guys busy and Gnome Rogue does Gnome Rogue things, and then our Druid shifts into another form and charges a dude (or uses something called Pounce anyway). He rolls pretty low, failing to hit. When a couple of crossbowmen arrive as reinforcements, he tries to Pounce one of these as well. And fails horribly, rolling a 1, and since we use crit fails, he falls prone at the end of the charge. Next turn, after the dude has walked away from the Druid, the Druid pounces again. Another 1. On your back you go. Then the crossbowmen uses a power that basically nails him to the floor, but save ends it. He only makes the save after everything in the room is dead besides us. Also fun fact, almost every roll he rolled after being nailed to the floor was a 1. Including the saves. The crossbowman eventually goes "welp. I don't think I really need to shoot that guy anymore", eventually dying horribly to either the Rogue or the Fighter while his companion gets cleaved to pieces by the Bard. He hit an enemy with only one attack during the whole combat. And he attacked almost every turn in a combat that lasted maybe a little over ten rounds. His average roll was somewhere along the lines of five or something - at some point he kept a running tally of the average die roll, and the lowest it got was 2 on a d20.
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Dec 7, 2014 19:24
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At that point I'd be inclined to believe that your guy simply has a funny gimmick and some good english with that particular die, and I'm a-okay with that. Granted, that's probably because I love it when any game system turns into an avalanche of cascading failures.
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Dec 8, 2014 01:44
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SpiritOfLenin posted:We had a pretty hilarious chain of events in our last night's 4th edition D&D campaign. Guy playing a Shifter Druid told us last session that the die he uses is cursed, that it really hates players (but not GMs - when he's GMing, the die owns, when not, welp). Anyway, we charged into this throne room that was supposed to have a hidden passage there, and some guards objected to our behaviour. Now, the fight starts okay, my Dragonborn Bard melts a few minions in a puddle of acid, Human Fighter keeps big guys busy and Gnome Rogue does Gnome Rogue things, and then our Druid shifts into another form and charges a dude (or uses something called Pounce anyway). He rolls pretty low, failing to hit. When a couple of crossbowmen arrive as reinforcements, he tries to Pounce one of these as well. And fails horribly, rolling a 1, and since we use crit fails, he falls prone at the end of the charge. Next turn, after the dude has walked away from the Druid, the Druid pounces again. Another 1. On your back you go. Then the crossbowmen uses a power that basically nails him to the floor, but save ends it. Dice aren't an exact science. I have some dice that quite frankly I expect to get better results than others, and I'm by no means superstitious about it, I think it has to do with how the die was made. I also have a GM that has a particular d20 that just generally doesn't roll beneath 17, it's difficult to explain and really loving annoying when you are trying to play defender.
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Dec 8, 2014 06:38
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:Dice aren't an exact science. I have some dice that quite frankly I expect to get better results than others, and I'm by no means superstitious about it, I think it has to do with how the die was made. I also have a GM that has a particular d20 that just generally doesn't roll beneath 17, it's difficult to explain and really loving annoying when you are trying to play defender.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:05
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You can buy super-grade, every-angle-perfect, perfectly-even-weight-distribution dice, but it's not worth it. Just buy a pound of them and use random ones.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:11
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If you're really concerned about dice being flawed enough to screw up the randomness of rolls, just use an electronic dice roller with a random number generator.
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Dec 8, 2014 17:19
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Just make sure it's coded well, for a period of months my group used a roller that had a fixed seed. It would put out the same series of numbers every time, which we only found out when we accidentally had two of them in the channel and were rolling multiple dice to "get the 1s out".
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Dec 8, 2014 18:10
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Or you could say "gently caress it" and use that MechE degree you got.
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Dec 8, 2014 18:24
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SpiritOfLenin posted:We had a pretty hilarious chain of events in our last night's 4th edition D&D campaign. Guy playing a Shifter Druid told us last session that the die he uses is cursed, that it really hates players (but not GMs - when he's GMing, the die owns, when not, welp). Anyway, we charged into this throne room that was supposed to have a hidden passage there, and some guards objected to our behaviour. Now, the fight starts okay, my Dragonborn Bard melts a few minions in a puddle of acid, Human Fighter keeps big guys busy and Gnome Rogue does Gnome Rogue things, and then our Druid shifts into another form and charges a dude (or uses something called Pounce anyway). He rolls pretty low, failing to hit. When a couple of crossbowmen arrive as reinforcements, he tries to Pounce one of these as well. And fails horribly, rolling a 1, and since we use crit fails, he falls prone at the end of the charge. Next turn, after the dude has walked away from the Druid, the Druid pounces again. Another 1. On your back you go. Then the crossbowmen uses a power that basically nails him to the floor, but save ends it. That dice is loving loaded. He should throw it away.
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Dec 8, 2014 19:17
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I don't understand why anyone would keep that die around when you can just use an electronic dice roller, there are plenty of good ones out there.
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Dec 8, 2014 19:27
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Really, if you want to hear a guy sperg out about dice for 20 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhpYJzCcSw (and I say sperg lovingly, as its actually kinda interesting)
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Dec 8, 2014 19:33
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