TIME'S CHAMPIONS: Finale OOC thread

[beowuuf]

Lol, I might double post with you, just to warn you!

[beowuuf]

Lol, nm, post up, so you can post away! Feel free to edit for any reactions to it too!

[beowuuf]

I thought it might be useful to summarise exactly how effective you guys are right now and what still needs to be done, possibly:

The state of the finale:
- Garax (temporarily?) neutralised. Not fighting. Back on Dargat's side?
- Dargat - free and looking to start attacking people (or help Gholst)
- Passin - seems to have chosen the blackskull side (maybe, is he just lashing out? Has striking Petal put him at the point of no return, or will it be a wake up call?)
- Theron - intellectually loaded up with the knowledge he needs, but emotionally not buying it yet. Doens't help Kardnadee is Gholst's hostage
- Gholst - temporaily neutralised, holding Theron back but not able to do much more.
- Dolo - dead (yippe!)
- Lolth - put in check (temporarily?)- unknown if her connection to the grak-graks around means she can still, with her focus shattered, still slowly tryto push through, However, not an immediate threat.
- remainign blackskulls (two not fully comprehending what is occuring, Drommal locked in combat with Guree/UUmack). The two blackskull soldiers may be an annoyance or real problem when you come to do more with Theron/Gholst. Drommal is mostlikely to be defeated, but at what cost if you leave Uumack to do it? And what if Drommal decided to flee for reinforcements instead of fightign to the death...
- mummies - one very wounded by Aurek, one still healthy, both losing their benefits of Dolo/Lolth's presence, whcih is a good and bad thing.
- soulstone - last peice confirmed found, method for securing it kinda sorted out. Jsut a case of gettingit at the right time without being caught/stopped

Anyway, so to summarise, you can assume each major part probably has one or two state shifts before it is resolved. Dolo was the easiest, you laid tons of groundwork ahead of time then cleared a space to dispose of him and halt Lolth, Of course,that's necessarily meant leaving other thigns with les attention. And the soulstone mystery is pretty much solved now, Ameena knows where everything is, as has been her single minded determination for quite a while in game Garax/Dargat is in an interesting state, technically Garax is neuitralised, but technically he isn't, and it could be you are facing a Dargat/Garax combination. You've definitely moved this on up one track of solved though. Just be careful how you go about continuing. PAssin was always going to be a swinging vote, and Westian/Aurek (and Haynuus) were always goign to have to work to pull him in. If you want to save his soul and pull in an ally, you might find now is the crucial turning point. Of course, at what const concentrating on him?

Obviously,the main thing is still Theron/Golst. With westian and Haynuus pulling the leadership's focus, you are allowing Ameena (and anyone else she can use) to work unimpeded. Whether this is sufficient, I will allow you to decide. Certainly, Theron/Gholst is moved on track onwards to a solution, but once again, it's a dangerous track and things can still go very wrong. And thigns can always regress with this particular central conflict, sticking you with a combined warlord/archmage to counter!


Anyway, I think that's it. So far so good guys. Good luck!

Also, sicne you've passed the 2 year mark, and this is the last encounter, if there is anything you would love to see/do before the very end, or anything you would like A little metagame clarification on, please feel free to ask/PM me about. Call it a *sniff* soon to be finished present! *cries*

[Ameena]

Let me see, what would I like to see/do? I would like to see Gholst's arse kicked, Theron not killed, the Grey Lord come back and find we saved the world for him (or should that be from him? )...ohh yeah, and no killing of Helm again . And preferably no killing of anyone else...speaking of which, I think someone better figure out how to make a Vi Bomb and then chuck it at Petal right about now .
As for the current situation in-game, well, you guys keep on tanking those Blackskulls and everything. I'm trying to work on Theron - if I can get Gholst dealt with then I have a plan for getting the Soulstone fixed, though that has been slightly damaged by what's just happened to Petal. Still, I can probably still do it without her, though I suppose when Ameena looks at the altar her plans might shift slightly. She still has a Vi potion on her so hopefully if Petal's still got at least 1hp left that can be put to use .

[beowuuf]

Lol, I'll take those requests under advisement, and teehee to ruining plans.


Oh, and incase it slipped passed anyone's attention, very cool of Haynuus to put a link to the last bit Passin/group confrontation if anyone wants it.

[ian_scho]

Note to Ameena - I think you had a magical fruit as well in your inventory (as Haynuus has one, Deephold as well probably) - heals 2d6 hit points and also 1d3 ability points.

[Ameena]

Hmm, got no mention of it in my list - either Ameena didn't take a fruit or I forgot to add it in.

[beowuuf]

The fruit was actually gained just when Ameena disappeared, so I think she would have been offered the fruit, but you might have forgot to add it before your trip!

[ian_scho]

Oi OhB! Got a spare sword you can throw Haynuus?

I take it our favourite half-orc would get at least two AoO from retrieving the sword + standing up from Garax and ugly green fella?

[Lord_BoNes]

What do you mean by "at least two AoO"? As I understand it, a character can only AoO once per round (no matter how many opportunities may present themselves in that time), unless they have a specific feat.
But, yes I'd guess that both Garax and Dragat would get an AoO each... and that would be quite troublesome. I'd be expecting you to take quite a bit of damage (if you survive, that is )

[beowuuf]

Indeed, exactly as LB said, though whether Garax would take the opportunity is debateable.

It would be an evil DM that would give Dargat such a feat that would allow him to AoO more than once a round. Wow. Really evil. Yup. That would be like he'd constructed and end of game boss that could try to stand against multiple opponents if he had to. Yup. Taht would be evil.

Note that such a feat doens't allow for more than AoO for the same thing, btw - so retreating passed such a person would only generate one, not two, even if moving through two squares.

[oh_brother]

Sorry Ian, no swords! But Westian will be right behind you in every sense of the words!

Beo, IC is down so I rolled on the DnD roller, got a 9 for the heal check on Petal. As you may have seen though Westian could not stay long and had to dash back to support Haynuus

[beowuuf]

Yeah, I trust you guys. I'm rolling my own dice and just notepadding the result in case I need to refer back. I assume Ameena can do the same. LB, don't you have gaming dice too? Remember, if you don't move you have two attacks. Otherwise, the d20 dice roller or other dice rollers are avaialble, or as Ian showed, you can still use the chat dice roller.

@OB: As Petal was barely beyond the 30 foot movement, I'll let Westian do the heal stuff last turn, and so yeah, you cna cast a shield around Haynuus so Ian can breath a temporary sign of relief. Well, maybe not much of one...


Speaking of Haynuus/Ian (twice!), obviously I'm waiting his further moves for the next update (sorry Ameena, need to keep you lot together now, timing is going to get critical really fast).

I might have an early night, if I do I'll update tomorrow morning/lunchtime and make available the best map I can.


I'm so terrified for you guys! I think you're going to start taking regular knocks from now onwards.

[Ameena]

I haven't been "notepadding" any of my roll results - I just roll the dice and report the results in the post in which I've made the roll, the die roll being the first number of those in brackets, followed by the skill/stat bonus and then any other bonuses penalties (eg flanking).
Ooh crap, I just remembered something - are we still supposed to be having a -2 penalty for our rolls from that thing Gholst did? 'Cause I've kind of completely forgotten it up till now, after that first post I made where I did actually remember it (ie the first post in which it was relevant).

[beowuuf]

Yes, yes you are. I've been taking it in to account in the background, the shock won't last all fight. Anyway, I'll check how many rounds that was tomorrow. I'm trying to do a post before I fall unconscious, already tons to do in the background so I'm not adding another thing right now!

And I've been notepadding it because I roll many more dice than you for many more people so therefore have far more chance of confusion. Plus I like to be able to recheck rolls to make sure I've never screwed you guys over.

[Ameena]

Lol fair enough .

[beowuuf]

Post up, so much for early bed! Glad Ian posted before I headed off, and I got to smack Haynuus a lot aswell so it's all good

[Ameena]

Well, I think you'll get to smack (or at least, burn and generally nuke the fuck out of) me next go, so I'm sure you'll have even more fun in your horrible, nasty, sadistic GM way .

[oh_brother]

Beo, technical question. Does a shield spell stack with itself? So next round the Um shield is +1, if I add an ON shield will it be +4?

[beowuuf]

Indeed, they can stack to a limit of +9

[oh_brother]

Just posted. Damn, maybe that would have been a better idea. Maybe when Westian gets the inevitable ass-kicking from Dargat I can move back and work on shield spells.

[beowuuf]

The good point is also that the timing is still a drain of only +1 per round, not +1 per spell cast per round

[ian_scho]

Should Haynuus go for the Orc or the Human warrior headed towards Petal?

[ian_scho]

If he's standing next to Dagrat then it'll be the ORc!

[oh_brother]

I thought that dropping the potion was an action? If not, Westian will fire up an ON YA IR shield.

Can Petal fly out of Garax's range?

Uumack is in a bad way and probably would appreciate some healing if I can get to him.

[beowuuf]

Nah, free action to drop things, I'm no monster

Petal could fly out of Garax's range, but will she be fast enough? How injured is she?

And yup, time for some hard choices....do you keep people up or do you keep the pressure up with who you have alive. Do you split your assaults against two powerful foes or try to concentrate one then the other?

[ian_scho]

Uck, Petal is pretty surrounded....

Then Deephold is going to get a panning shortly....

I think it'd better be an attack from Haynuus against Dargat's back though... Oh if only Ameena was here

I'll post now

[beowuuf]

How do you leave a cool roleplaying group in suspense? I'll tell you tomorrow :p


Weird sleep catching up with me, but I have early starts for the next two days of the weekend. So hopefully you'll forgive me for resolving everything tomorrow morning instead


Since it's been asked once or twice, a quick rule of thumb for types of actions:

If it feels like the sort of action you'd do before doing something cool (drink potion, pick something up, etc) it's a move equivalent action. And it will probably drawa an AoO
If it seems like a huge action where the camera would pan in for a close-up and there would be a beat before it gets resolves, it's a standard action (so any attacks, plus any big skill checks, etc)
If it seems to be a lot of actions at once, it's probably a full-round action (Charging and hitting, multiple attacks with same weapopn/offhand, whirlwind attack, etc, kneeling down and slitting someone's throat)

Usually attacks and many standard actuions don't draw AoO's because you are concentrating o nthe battle, and many move equivalent do because you aren#t concentrating on the battle. Ranged shooting elsewhere and slicing someone in battle who is helpless are exceptions to not geteneratign an AoO from an attack.


Hope that helps you generalise. And since everyone seems to be playing so cautiously and respectfully to the rules instead of trying to push their luck, I have no hesitation in allowing for a 'rule of cool' in this final battle, I don't want a five foot step or an inventory judgling exercise to be the difference between cool heroism and tragic failure. Especially not if there is some lingering doubt about the exact minutiae of some of the combat rules. It should be down to you own actions, choices, and evil DMs and evil dice! So don't see it as going soft if I occasionally give you the benefit of the doubet in a an action that sounds like it should narratively work, but is harder to map to the standard/move action dynamic. Especiallty since 4th edition added a minor action specifically because it was easy to lose you move action doing something pretty minor like swig a drink

[ian_scho]

Oh noes, Deephold is in deeeep!

Haynuus has 21 HP and is ready to go into kombat again with a floppy sandal in his hand.

Question for the DM. Can Haynuus, stand up, eat a fantastic fruit, pick up the king's weapon (or something better).

We're about to get flanked and I think someone ought to have a 'great' suggestion as to what to do with the mummies while Haynuus does all of the above. Maybe spend a round 'turning' them between Westian and Aurek?

Hmmm maybe it's Petal's turn to turn the tables again!

[Ameena]

I think you'll probably have to yell for her IC since she's on autopilot right now...though mind that she doesn't lob a fireball and catch us all in the AE .