/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>191228
I know you won't do it, but just so there's no confusion and that I can say that it's been said explicitly: the deaths of the colts will cause Silver to reach villain arc levels of anger that will likely result in the deaths of every single living and undead creature he can find. So...best that Gloomy keeps that talisman safe.

And also just so there's no confusion thinking that I'm saying you can't roleplay as Gloomy having fun with the colts, I am very happy to see Gloomy interact with the colts. Just as long as everyone's kept safe and alive, everything's good.

>>191234
Oh, yeah, don't worry. I wouldn't actually just kill off your character's friends. I was just roleplaying to add some mystique to demonstrate Posey's obsessive and protective tendencies towards her own colt. That's the reason I didn't bring the potentially-useful disguised aquatic ghast on this mission

Also, while the Talisman was something I found for Gloomy's equipment, I have neglected to write down the source material (DR #3??), caster level, or maximum range of the item it's based on, so it's up to GM if it actually works or not. Perhaps he might prefer to surprise Posey with her precious little lamb having been kidnapped when she was absent at some point.

>>191235
And as for me, it'll be handy to have it watch over the household during the duration of this mission, just in case any unfortunate gangsters decide to try to get revenge on Silver while he's away.

>>191236
Well, Posey could instead order it to kill anyone who invades the household instead in the event of an emergency, if she cared to maintain a relationship with Silver (which she does).
It is currently disguised as a living (albeit wet) stallion dressed in unmarked military attire, with a rapier at its side.
>One cannot just march a ghoul into the Duke's Court. But as the fumes issuing from the cocoon surround the creature, the form of the ghoul is replaced with that of a stately courtier armed with a rapier. Of course, it will have to keep its mouth shut.
Spell Compendium has the best flavor text for spells. It did nerf a lot of splat spells though, for the better.

>>191237
It honestly would be super helpful, because Silver may or may not have wasted (on accident) an entire business operation led by a low-tier Waterfront Gang boss.

Can we just knock out the prisoners so we can leave now?

>>191248
>you generally can't intimidate dominated adversaries
This is untrue. Nothing about domination shields the creature from additional mind-effecting attacks, such as fear or morale effects. Otherwise players would just dominate their allies in combat to make the Fighters and Rogues immune to debilitating effects.
This must be something different.

I theorize that The Traveller functions as a form of possession, functionally replacing the target's mind with the mind of The Traveller. It may also be conferring its own immunities to its thralls, such as with a Ghostly Visage (Posey's preferred familiar choice at lvl 7).

Are there any other things that need to be addressed before we progress to the missing airponies?

>>191293
We just need to finish getting the possessed ponies ready to move, and Silver needs to blow the airship's engines, and then we're ready to go.

Right now we're not playing because GM pone is on a vacation trip.

>>191294
>We just need to finish getting the possessed ponies ready to move
Didn't we already do that?
>Right now we're not playing because GM pone is on a vacation trip.
Okay.

Do we have any plans for how we want to invade the Kostroma?

>>191307
The original plan was to have Cavaliere and some others infiltrate topside while the rest of the party enters belowdecks. I don't think that is a good idea anymore.

>>191308
Yeah, it didn't work out last time. Plus, Cavalier doesn't have Darkstalker, and it seems as though The Traveller has some means of Extrasensory perception (possibly Mindsight, in which case Stealth is just fucked). That might mean we can only go in guns blazing, perhaps with Monstro carrying the non-fliers onto the deck.
Perhaps if we could make some checks, we could find ways to subvert or distract The Traveller's sensory abilities. If The Traveller uses Telepathic Mindsight, it may be distracted by any creatures with sapient intelligence scores. Sadly, all of Posey's summons are mindless creatures, who would be invisible to mindsight. The Traveller has also been shown to manifest summons right on top of us wherever we are on the island, and we have yet to witness any maximum range or uses/day of its summoning/metacreative abilities... It would be preferable for us to get as close as we can to the Kostroma without alerting it, because if it truly has no maximum uses/range, then we cannot beat it in a battle of attrition, and approaching it head on might end up with a charge of the light brigade scenario.
The Traveller has shown the ability to manifest creatures similar to Ettins (I assume): CR 6 creatures with 10 hit dice, that would be fight for the entire party. Since there may not be a limit to it's summoning abilities, we should avoid engaging with its summons and push though to the source. If Monstro carries the nonfliers onto the deck, Posey may be able to melt a hole through the deck of the Kostroma by Summoning her Amoebic Crawlers, carving a path directly towards where The Traveller is stowed.
A ship is basically a dungeon in its own right. If we know where the Traveller is stowed, we can make a beeline towards that area. Let's ask the Commissar if he knows.
Maybe I should make some Arcana checks to see if we can even know what The Traveller is, and how it's abilities work.

Also, to Silver, you said you wanted the crew of the Kostroma to be your followers, so did you consider making a leadership check to make the Stalliongraders around here your followers right now? So long as they're not above lvl 1, you may be able to take them under your command with a Leadership check. It would be useful later.

My Sunday game got cancelled.
Any chance we could reach the other airponies and/or the Kostroma today?

Weird feat for undead horses
>Airy Gallop
>Type: Special
>Source: Dragon Annual 5
>You can run wherever your rider wishes - whether there's ground beneath you or not!
>Prerequisite: Con -
>Benefit: Mounts with the Airy Gallop feat have the ability to gallop over chasms, run "downhill" from a sheer cliff to the ground below, or even be convinced to gallop "uphill" into the air itself.
>To achieve these unbelievable tasks, the mount's rider must make a successful Ride check (DC 15) at the beginning of the action, and every 10 minutes thereafter with a cumulative -2 circumstance penalty to each successive check. Mounts cannot stand still while performing an Airy Gallop; if forced to move slower than a run or stop, they immediately fall.
It's not a particularly good feat for anything but a minion, because it relies on having a rider make a check instead of the creature with a feat, but it was silly enough to share.
An undead/construct pony with a familiar riding on their back could potentially make use of it, as 10 minutes of effective flight is potentially useful, but there are better feats to pick from. It's a feat better for the rider than it is the horse (as intended).

>>191427
... What?

>>191427
Are you GM traveling?

>>191430
GM has a tripcode...

Oh, I see, it's just the same nigger complaining on behalf of GM about a game in which he is not even a player, once again.

>>191521 →
It's not that we don't appreciate the dialogue, but we have also been waiting to find the airponies for a very long time, so we do want to keep the story moving. It's a balancing act of priorities and suspense. I can sympathize because I have barely been able to start chapter two of my own campaign after months of planning.
This was an interesting way of introducing the villain's motivations though.

At the expense of indulging the nigger's ramblings, does GM or any player (actual players) actually have an issue with how I have been playing these past few weeks/months? Have I been annoying? Has my "posturing" been a major issue to the other players? Posey, my character, is supposed to be a very vain individual with delusions of grandeur and a desperation to prove herself to the world, which is why I make her "posture" in-character, but if it's actually just annoying and unfunny to the other players (actual, real players) I'll stop or try another approach. Just give me some feedback and I'll try a bit. I have a hard enough time communicating in-person, so if what I do is annoying, please just tell me.
>>191521 →
GM seemed a bit disappointed with how the dialogue was received, and that makes me feel sad because as a GM I know what it's like to spend days writing content just for players to not engage with said content the way I planned them to, or worse, ignore it entirely. If I come off as impatient, unappreciative or too eager to move the story forward, I apologize for that.
>>191529 →
GM, I do not want to derail your plans: I want to participate in them, because I really like this adventure and I want to see how it concludes; so if there's anything I can do, or stop doing, to be a better player.

So far, nobody but the non-player who constantly complains has complained, so I want the actual players' feedback.

>>191534
I don't think you've been annoying or unfunny

Btw, pertaining to Kira's topic about Riding, the Skilled City Dweller variant allows any class with the Ride Skill (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, etc) to swap it out for Tumble in urban adventures. This certainly constitutes as an urban campaign, and horse-shaped characters are unlikely to be riding other creatures, especially if they themselves can fly. Tumble is a good skill that allows for tactical movement without risking attacks of opportunity, and is worth ranking if you're a lightly-armored Dex character. Having 5 ranks in Tumble also gives you bonus AC when fighting defensively.
Just a thing to consider when leveling/rebuilding, with GM approval of course.

Why are you doing 53 damage at level 6 without expending usables? Either there need to be multiple monsters, which I suppose is possible but I didn’t think to do, it needs to have an obscene hp limit, or there needs to be some kind of jank in order for the monster to survive until its first attack. The entire point was to show what the attack was I don’t care what happens after that. Yes yes yes, just poof in order monster, add 50 hp to the sheet, or make up a rule on the spot so some planned attack fails, but the whole thing is just…. Lame

>>191572
Tbh, Monstro did most of the work. Posey would have not even been able to reach the enemy without Monstro, and would have had to rely on her longbow for damage.
I didn't think of it at first because Posey hasn't been doing very much damage at all this adventure, but the CR 4-5 advanced Bone Lurker is a real heavy hitter, so I understand your frustration, especially since it came from an item that emulated a class feature I don't get until 4 levels from now.

Perhaps we could say and say that the bomb that Monstro carries is too fragile to have him recklessly charge into melee going forward, and roleplay it by having another character scold Posey for being such a reckless gloryhound while carrying such a volatile payload, and/or that he cannot also grapple while carrying the bomb. That would basically delegate him for taking swipes at whatever comes near him, instead of charging monsters head on.

>>191572
>or there needs to be some kind of jank in order for the monster to survive until its first attack. The entire point was to show what the attack was I don’t care what happens after that
Well, considering that there is dense fog all around us, it's plausible that monsters summoned outside our line of sight could attack us unexpectedly and have surprise rounds, which would allow them to demonstrate their attacks.

>>191577
I publicly posted Monstro's stats months ago: how was that dishonest? This is the first (and possibly only) time I used him in combat: Maybe it was a better time to demonstrate this now, instead of during an important boss fight?
I sacrificed up my Dreads to save Kira and Cavalier because GM expressed dissatisfaction with how I used them in combat, and I can be persuaded to give up Monstro too if it's too disruptive in combat (like using it to kamikaze the GRU ship, if we can use the harpoon to kill the Traveller).

Tbh, I am running into the same issue in my Sunday game, because the Druid minmaxed his goat by tearing it to sell its soul to Baphomet, so now its an Ubercharger to with Abyss Bound Soul that kills half of everything in one hit. I am Familiar with characters that have heavy-hitting minions, so if there's anything GM wants me to amend I will comply.
If you wants, he could even say that the bone lurker carrying the bomb has its one "arm" occupied, so that it cannot attack while carrying it.

Oh, I just replied to bait.
>>191572
I am sorry, GM. Can we work out a solution?

>>191580
I think I am just going to leave it, and the monster will either show up later or it won’t.

That was *not* a random encounter to challenge the party. It existed basically only to correct the impression that Light Water was entirely along for the ride and had no ability to direct the Traveller, which was a mistake of the preceding dialogue segment that was so severe I felt it needed correction. It also reminds the party that the Traveller has the capacity to harass the party at little cost whenever it wants. Also it shows the Traveller, and to a lesser extent, Light Water, to have the capacity to be vindictive and petty. It was to attack Posey specifically because Posey specifically was making no effort to engage in dialogue with Light Water, and promising to be nothing but a hinderance to his plans, unlike the other two who could at least in theory come around, and therefore not really be profitable to attack. The monster was supposed to have a vague but not specific idea of where Posey was, and thus not get a sunrise roll. I was actually worried that its attack might deal too much damage for an encounter that had an exclusively narrative purpose. Maybe it should have been flying in a pair patrolling over the hillside? If it had not been seen, that would have contradicted the claim that the fog was receding. Again, I didn’t want the damage of two of them for a superfluous encounter. I really didn’t think two were necessary. All I wanted was to correct an earlier mistake in dialogue. Initially it was going to be a hellhound or similar creature. But then posey got on the whale thing and a hellhound wouldn’t work. So I thought if just abandoning the idea, but then was encouraged to replace it with a new, flying creature, since flying enemies were intended from the start when Brie kept fucking promising to cheese every encounter by flying away from enemies. So I thought, sure, maybe the players will like this one. Who knows. Idea 2 was shelved because it didn’t make sense in context. So I was hoping this monster would be introduced, and specifically its attack. And that didn’t happen…

Yes, I’m sure the whale things stats were posted at some point in the past, I assume half a year ago when I was on my way to the Paris airport at 5 AM and I was ranting and raving about other aspects of the same monster. I was distracted. In any case, no, I have not gone through actuarial tables to try to figure out how to balance things very precisely (it wasn’t intended to be a real encounter. It was to serve a narrative purpose. That’s a it was.) No, I do not actually know what Monstro can and cannot do. That attack was completely new to me. I don’t know what it can do. Trying to figure that shit out is uninteresting and not at all compelling to me. I just don’t care about the math of what kind of new shit has popped into the equation. All I think is “eh, better add more enemies” and either the party will be wiped out or it won’t get off a single attack, with no real in between. The math behind encounter design is just so much less interesting to me than literally everything else that goes into the game, like description, set up, plausibility, themes, characterization - literally everything else.

I don’t care. Everything with the game has been frustrating me this last week

>>191584
Well, I can only say that I am sorry to spoil your encounter. I think it did serve most of its narrative purposes though, in demonstrating Light Water's pettiness and active participation and the Traveller's ability to harass us at any time. Its description was so vivid that I thought it was something incredibly dangerous and so I went all out in attacking it; the symbolism of a bird-like seraphim creature was interesting, because I interpreted it to be like a distorted manifestation of Light Water's anger .
If you want, you can summon monsters to specifically attack Posey anytime you wish. I don't mind feeling targeted. Posey has been taunting the Traveller to attack her specifically this whole adventure.
>>191587
What is your fucking problem?

>>191584
I'm going to just elect not to use Monstro in combat and delegate him only to defending the bomb, so he doesn't affect the party's damage-per-round.
I won't even ride Monstro anymore. Monstro is a creature not meant for riding, and I just remembered the penalty for the fact that Posey doesn't have a saddle, so that's a -10 penalty to ride checks, which means taking 10 Posey can't even stay on top of him in combat unless she rolls high (like she did before).

So how's this, I won't attack with Monstro (unless it's to defend the bomb), and I won't ride it in combat either either (although I would like it to carry me aboard the ship). Is that a satisfying course of action?

>>191572
>Why are you doing 53 damage at level 6 without expending usables?
I know it's besides the point, but I did actually use a consumable for that: I used up the last of my scroll and its material components; and I can never cast Animate Dead again until I either level up or acquire another scroll.

Speaking of consumables, I have been trying to conserve my spell slots for emergencies, but does anybody have any requests for spells in the following encounters?
My spell list is here:
https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/magic/spells/classSpellLists/dreadNecromancerSpells.html
I also have a handful of spells from my Apprentice and Cerebrosis, plus Kelgore's Grave Mist.

I can't do blasting AoE/range, I can't buff (save for Death Ward and Hide From Undead), I can't heal non-undead, and I can't battlefield control; but I can do debuffs and support with summons. If anybody wants summons for support or their enemy debuffed, just ask me.

How are we on healing resources? I think we're out of potions and most of our cure spells at this point, so I'll try to use myself and my summons as HP sponges from this point onwards so that the martial characters will have HP left to take the Kostroma.

Posey after she learns how to raise the dead

>>191644
Interesting proposal. I'll note it for when Posey opens up her shop.

Should we convince Kira to eat Light Water alive after we defeat him and the Traveler? Lamias do believe in soul imbibement where the soul of a creature that's eaten alive and whole becomes part of the lamia, which would serve as a fairly ironic death for the hippogriff.

>>191681
It would be grossly out of character for Kira to ever agree to it, even if the entire party unanimously wanted it somehow. The good-aligned party members would not.

>>191682
crosses arms and flicks tongue
Party pooper...

Even if it potentially results in Kira becoming stronger?

>>191684
I cannot tell you what you can and can't do with your characters. It's just not in-character for Kira with how she has acted so far.

>>191681
>Should we convince Kira
If you want to do it, just say so. Or just do it without asking. Don't go asking us to "convince" your character to do weird stuff for no reason.
>Lamias do believe in soul imbibement where the soul of a creature that's eaten alive and whole becomes part of the lamia, which would serve as a fairly ironic death for the hippogriff.
Idk how that really helps the rest of us.
I was considering exsanguinating him, like I consider for most humanoid enemies, but I didn't want the other players to see Posey as a monster (yet); if that isn't an issue for you, go ahead and do it. I won't stop you.
I do kind of want his head for necromantic purposes though. I think I can get info from his skull with Speak With Dead, but it might not really be necessary. His feathers and claws could be valuable as spell components, but again, probably not necessary.
>>191684
If gaining power from eating people is on the table in this game, I absolutely want in on it. Posey are the flesh off of Luminous's bones just so that she could rapidly recover enough flesh to keep herself beautiful.
I was considering asking for favors from the newly-ghoulish Kaftar priest to join me for "dinner dates", where we could repeatedly cast Corpse Rejuvenation on humanoid corpses before eating them, so that over time we may become Fleshvigor undead. It wouldn't do very much for Posey mechanically aside from a minor Str bonus, but it would give her naturally rosey cheeks and make her closer to a living creature, which is nice. Worth pursuing in a milestone game. The main point is to monitor behavioral sink within the Kaftar Clergy, as I stand to benefit from them practicing necromancy and worshipping demons.
When I gained sufficient power, I had hoped to use Graveborn Warrior to create Blood Hulks abominations with birthright bloodlines as bonus feats, so that I could consume their hearts to reabsorb their powers into myself in a grotesque cannibalism ritual.
At some point, when I take over Equestria, I'm going to want to summon Titanic demons to crush cities for it. The easiest way to do this would be to prepare a massive feast for demons like Dalmosh, and the easiest way to prepare such a feast would be to slaughter a few hundred ponies (or similarly sized creatures) and reanimate them as zombies and order them to baptize themselves in wine and roast themselves for the feast (I can calculate their net gp value for the ritual component based on their weight in flesh) before presenting themselves to the demon. It would require a massive desecrated iron pot though and summoning Titanic uncontrolled demons once per month is a tactic that's guaranteed to blow up in my face unless I'm more powerful than them, so that's more of a higher level ambition.

But I am glad that I am not the only one with such ambitions. Welcome to the club, Kira.

>>191689
>Kira already had the "Prey" conversation with Brie
I don't think she did. Or at least, I don't remember it

>>191684
If you're that concerned about breaking character, at a later level I could lesser planar bind a demonic tapeworm and infect you with it. I was going to do it anyway and breed them in the sewers to distribute to living party members. The Gutworm increases its host's Constitution score and the ability to rage like a Barbarian, but it also causes hunger related debuffs if not properly fed and like all fiendish Symbionts it has a chance of compelling its host to commit evil acts (which may eventually result in alignment change). It could lead to some interesting roleplaying moments.
I won't get access to those spells for a while though, so I can't help just yet.

>>191690
It was the conversation about how where when you target prey and 'you' know you can gets, and you should gets, then gets gets gets