Next Week - More Dragon's Demand

We will continue with The Dragon's Demand next week. You should have a 5th level version of your character ready as you should level up during the exploration of Tula Belhaim's tomb. You will receive the next PFS chronicle when you complete the exploration of the tomb.

So as not to forget her, you have earned a companion for the rest of the adventure; Maffei, the shea rogue. Here is her stat block. She is currently suffering from 3 negative levels. I will let you guys play her with the caveat that I might overrule actions that seem out of character. She is grateful to the party but has not yet formed any strong bonds. She can fill the role of rogue since Steve will likely miss most of the rest of this adventure.

Hunclay's Spellbooks

(25)1^st

Alarm, Ant Haul, Burning Hands, Cause Fear, Comprehend Languages, Crafter’s Fortune, Decompose Corpse, Ear-Piercing Scream, Endure Elements, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Identify, Interrogation, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from Chaos, Protection from Evil, Protection from Law, Ray of Enfeeblement, Restore Corpse, Shield, Shocking Grasp, Summon Minor Monster, Summon Monster I, Touch of the Sea

(22)2^nd

Arcane Lock, Blindness/Deafness, Burning Gaze, Command Undead, Create Pit, Darkness, Darkvision, Daze Monster, Dust of Twilight, Elemental Speech, False Life, Fire Breath, Knock, Make Whole, Mirror Image, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray, See Invisible, Spectral Hand, Spider Climb, Summon Monster II, Summon Swarm

(17)3^rd

Blood Biography, Daylight, Dispel Magic, Draconic Reservoir, Fireball, Haste, Hold Person, Invisibility Sphere, Lightning Bolt, Magic Circle Against Evil, Magic Circle Against Law, Pain Strike, Protection from Energy, Secret Page, Summon Monster III, Tongues, Vampiric Touch

(13)4^th

Animate Dead, Arcane Eye, Black Tentacles, Dimensional Anchor, Dragon’s Breath, Enervation, Fear, Firefall, Fire Trap, Mnemonic Enhancer, Remove Curse, Summon Monster IV, Wall of Ice

(11)5^th

Break Enchantment, Cone of Cold, Dismissal, Fabricate, Hold Monster, Lesser Planar Binding, Life Bubble, Sending, Summon Monster V, Symbol of Pain, Wall of Light

Tonight

We are not expecting Steve for the next 4 weeks. Is there anyone else that will not be there tonight?

The Dragon's Demand Continues Next Week

We accomplished enough last night for the characters to gain a level. You should be 4th level for our next session. Each character earned a share of the agreed 5000 gp payment - 714 gp, 2 sp and 8 cp.

The Wand of Lightning Bolt with 3 charges was not included in the auction lots. The party may keep this.

The cataloged items will be sold at auction in 1 month's time. I plan to assume that you have downtime until then unless you want to seek out further adventure while you wait. The PCs will able to bid on items. The baroness was so pleased with the party's work that she further agrees to pay up to half of the price of any items won up to a total of 7500 gp.

AUCTION LOTS

Lot 1  - Exotic birds (5 songbirds) - Starting Bid: 50 gp

Lot 2 - Kitchen lot (silverware and expensive dinnerware) - Starting Bid: 100 gp

Lot 3 - Parlor lot (globe of Golarion cradled in a polished mahogany stand, sextants, astrolabes, and paintings of unearthly landscapes) - Starting Bid: 300 gp

Lot 4 - Dining room lot (long oak table, ornately carved oak chairs. 4 large, framed painting of desert landscapes) - Starting Bid: 200 gp

Lot 5 - Library lot (600+ books) - Starting Bid: 400 gp

Lot 6 - Stuffed grizzly bear - Starting Bid: 60 gp

Lot 7 - Book of extended summoning - Starting Bid: 550 gp

Lot 8 - Flesh golem manual - Starting Bid: 2,000 gp

Lot 9 - Manual of war - Starting Bid: 1,500 gp

Lot 10 - Assorted potions (5 potions - oil of keen edge, potion of undetectable alignment, potion of protection from acid and potion of protection from fire) - Starting Bid: 660 gp

Lot 11 - Assorted scrolls (4 scrolls - a scroll of campfire wall, a scroll of excruciating deformation, a scroll of haunting mists, and a scroll of magic circle against chaos) - Starting Bid: 255 gp

Lot 12 - Hunclay’s spellbooks (6 spell books - All 0 level, 25 1st-level, 22 2nd-level, 17 3rd-level, 13 4th-level, and 11 5th-level spells) - Starting Bid: 4,000 gp

Lot 13 - Bedroom lot (Fine clothing) - Starting Bid: 440 gp

Lot 14 - Observatory lot (50 rare star charts, an exquisite platinum astrolabe, six rare astronomy tomes and two handheld telescopes) - Starting Bid: 1,000 gp

Lot 15 - Storage lot (wine and spell components) - Starting Bid: 500 gp

Lot 16 - Clockwork lab lot (tools and clockwork resources) - Starting Bid: 1,000 gp

Lot 17 - Summoning journal - Starting Bid: 1,000 gp

Lot 18 - Rare book lot (darkwood case, 4 astronomy tomes and a copy of Secrets of the Dreaming Dark) - Starting Bid: 1,100 gp

Lot 19 - Dust of Darkness (3 bags) - Starting Bid: 450 gp

Lot 20 - Mithral scroll tube (scroll of permanency) - Starting Bid: 300 gp

Lot 21 - Manor home and lands - Starting Bid: 2,500 gp

The auction will work as follows:

Step 1: The auctioneer names the relevant lot and states the opening bid.

Step 2: Determine which bidders other than the PCs are interested on the item.

Step 3: The interested PC gets to make the first bid. All bids must be made in multiples of the listed opening bid. The PC attempts a single Bluff or Intimidate check. For each multiple by which the PC exceeds the opening bid, the PC gains a +2 bonus on the check. Allies cannot aid another on this check. Any competing bidder whose outbid DC is equal to or lower than the result of this check is driven off. If the PC’s bid equals or exceeds the listed winning bid, all the NPC bidders immediately concede. If any NPC bidders remain, proceed to Step 4; if not, proceed to Step 5.

Step 4: The competing bidders place their bids, causing the current bid for the lot to increase by an amount equal to the lot’s starting bid. Control returns to the bidding PC—return to Step 3 if the PC wishes to make a new bid. If not, a remaining NPC bidder wins the lot.

Step 5: Once the PC has outbid the other bidders or bids above the lot’s winning bid, she wins the lot and must pay the final price. Proceed to the next lot.

The Dragon's Demand - Where We Left Off

I was rereading the adventure and determined that we have already started into Chapter 2.

The party was hired by Lady Origena to investigate the wizard, Hunclay's, manor house and make sure that it is safe for clerks to catalog his belongings. These are to be sold at auction and the proceeds are to be sent to his only living relative, a cousin in Yanmass.

The party is being paid a flat 5000 GP fee to perform this task. Per the contract that you have signed, you are not supposed to take anything and are supposed to leave Hunclay’s property as undamaged as possible. If you manage to learn anything about any strange objects or magic items found within, you have instructions to leave notes near the objects for the clerks to read once exploration of the manor is complete.

To date you have explore the main floor, the second floor and the observatory. Only the cellar remains unexplored. You found a servant named Mathezic barricaded in his room. He was afraid and once he learned that his master was dead, he told about his employment of the kobolds. I am a bit fuzzy on what else you may have learned. If necessary we can re-play that encounter to make sure we are all clear on what you learned.

You have disabled or set off several traps including a create pit trap, a bear summoning bearskin rug and a shocking chair attached to the telescope in the observatory. You also had a combat with a homunculus in the observatory.

I can give a room by room recap at the start of the game to refresh everyone's memories.

Next Week - The Dragon's Demand

I plan to continue running the Dragon's Demand next week. I would like to knock this out before Gen Con if possible.

Where we left off, we were about to start the 2nd piece of the adventure. We are playing in campaign mode but assigning credit to PFS characters. The following are the characters that folks assigned credit to for the first part:

Bruce - 8566-13 Alowishious VanFasticore
Dave - 14340-13 Zandru Stukov
Randy - 14370-8 ???
David - 18517-16 Vicky Nelson
Kelly - 18518-8 Louisa May Alcot
Alan - 18524-6 Trance
Steve - 14366-6 Reaper (will need to assign parts 2 and 3 to a different character)

I do not recall the actual characters that everyone was playing. Please try to locate them before next week. Whatever you are playing, the characters should be 3rd level.

Spell-like Abilities

Per our discussion from Last Tuesday, here is what the Core Rulebook has to say about spell-like abilities.

The upshot, they provoke attacks of opportunity, cannot be counterspelled and do not have components of any kind.

CRB p. 186

Using a spell-like ability works like casting a spell in that it requires concentration and provokes attacks of opportunity. Spell-like abilities can be disrupted. If your concentration is broken, the attempt to use the ability fails, but the attempt counts as if you had used the ability. The casting time of a spell-like ability is 1 standard action, unless the ability description notes otherwise.

Using a Spell-Like Ability on the Defensive: You may attempt to use a spell-like ability on the defensive, just as with casting a spell. If the concentration check (DC 15 + double the spell’s level) fails, you can’t use the ability, but the attempt counts as if you had used the ability.

CRB p. 221

Spell-Like Abilities: Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability’s use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.

A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.

Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.

If a character class grants a spell-like ability that is not based on an actual spell, the ability’s effective spell level is equal to the highest-level class spell the character can cast, and is cast at the class level the ability is gained.

CRB p. 554

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): Spell-like abilities, as the name implies, are magical abilities that are very much like spells. Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field). Spell-like abilities can be dispelled, but they cannot be counterspelled or used to counterspell.

Terrrain Crate Kickstarter

I backed this at the 3 crate level: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/terraincrate-plastic-affordable-fantasy-terrain/description

Does anyone wish to pay for any add-ons? I will likely be getting the Sci-fi stuff, the torture camber and the Dark Wizard's Tower as add-ons. (I already have the Dungeon Saga pieces.) The product seems to be reasonably priced for what you get. It will just take a year to get.

Next Week

What do folks want to play next week? Let's assume PFS. What tier; 1-5, 3-7, 5-9, 7-11? Regular or Core?

I know that we will not have Dave for sure. Is anyone else planning to miss the session?

Quest for my 5th Star

Last night's scenario marked my 150th table credit for PFS. That is the first requirement for becoming a 5-star GM. The other is to run 10 specials. So far I have 1 under my belt. That means I need 9 more.

I have 5 of the specials that I can run. The problem is that some/most of you have already played them.

I would like to propose that we play the following in Core (once we have appropriate characters):

6-98 Serpent's Rise - tier 6-8 (played with 7th level pregen - 6 player max)
7-98 Serpents' Ire - tier 7-9 (played with 8th level pregen - 6 player max)

Ruins of Bonekeep - Level One: The Silent Grave - Tier 3-7
Ruins of Bonekeep - Level Two: Maze of the Mind Slave - Tier 3-7
Ruins of Bonekeep - Level Three: The Wakening Tomb - Tier 5-9

The Bonekeep scenarios can be tough but the party does have the option to "tap out" early if they want. They also have a potential for greater rewards.

This does not quite get me there but it would get me considerably closer.

Next Week - PFS #8-13 - What Sleeps in Stone

Next week I will plan to run PFS #8-13 - What Sleeps in Stone. This is Tier 7-11.

The character choices for those player we expect are:

Bruce - Samurai 8, Ninja 9, Magus 9, Inquisitor 11, Gunslinger 7

Dave - Cavalier 8, Ranger (2)/Fighter (5), Figther (4)/Bard (2)/Dragon Disciple (4). Oracle 10, Sorcerer 7

David - Fighter(8)/Ranger(1)/Barbarian(1), Alchemist 9, Oracle 7, Summoner 8

Kelly - Barbarian (1)/Sorcerer (6), Paladin (8)/Bard (1)

Alan - Cleric 11, Summoner 8, Ranger/Rogue 7, Paladin 7

Randy - Cavalier 9, Skald 8

Based upon the character mix, it looks like we can play either sub-tier. 

Paizo PFS Player Survey

Please take a few minutes to complete the PFS player survey located in the following post: http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5ljry?OPC-Log-3-Desnus-4717

After you complete the survey, you will get a link to a boon. It is good for a replay (similar to GM Star replays) of an adventure you have previously played or received GM credit for.

Tuesday 5/16

I have a job out of state and I may not be back til the following Wednesday.  It's unlikely that I'll be there on the 16th.  If I do get back before Wednesday, I may Skype in... but maybe not.

Dont plan on Dave!