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The Sideshow S3|17: Where You From, You Rexy Thing?

Jason recaps the events from Three Ring Adventure S3|17: They Have a Cave Troll.

Welcome back to Roll For Combat, Serious People’s Edition. The fart jokes and cabbage-related humor get put back on the shelf for another day, as our heroes head off to the second of the three aeon towers, the Liferoot Stone. The world – or this corner of it – isn’t going to save itself.

One thing I was thinking about, more in relation to last week, but it kinda spilled over into this week, is how our two shows handle humor. It’s certainly not as binary as one show being “the funny show” and the one show being “the serious show”; both shows have their moments, and all the individual people in both shows are clever and can crack a joke when called on to do so. I think if there’s something that sets the shows apart, it’s that the Circus crew will really COMMIT to a bit and run with it for a good chunk of an episode. Over in Edgewatch, we’ll drop a few bon mots, a movie reference or two, and then get back to our business. We don’t get in the weeds as often because we want to kick in the next door and fight the next bad guy. Here… you want 20 minutes of cabbages, you got 20 minutes of cabbages.

I was also thinking about the overall story pacing this week, and in particular, how the towers have sped up a little bit. The first aeon tower was an ordeal that lasted 3 or 4 episodes and had multiple rooms and levels to it. So I’d been thinking the other towers would be similarly drawn out and we’d be dealing with one tower per chapter of the adventure path. But the last tower only took parts of two sessions, and at least at initial external examination, it looks like this tower may also be a shorter affair – since some of the tower crumbled, there’s just not that much to explore. So I guess I’ve found the shorter tower segments to be a LITTLE surprising, though not really… once three towers were packed together on the same island mere miles apart, I guess I did expect the pace to pick up somewhat. I guess that just means we have more content on the back end after all the towers have been sorted out.

On the approach, the team did some scouting and noticed that among other things, there were a lot of broken statues in the area. So the first question is whether that’s just ambiance or whether that’s meant to imply there’s something worse than golems out there. There’s a little back-and-forth on whether to start with the golems, the xulgaths, or bypass both and just drop right into the tower avoiding both, but the team decides – in what will later become a prescient and ironic decision — to minimize the risk of bleeding encounters by taking on the golem first since they specifically brought tools for that purpose.

The combat appears to be unfolding in a fairly straightforward fashion. And then there’s one huge… gargantuan if you want to get technical… twist. Our team went into battle expecting golems, brought all the tools to deal with those, and then somehow the xulgaths managed to hide a T-Rex somewhere on the battlefield. So halfway through a fairly by-the-book fight, things pretty much went sideways for our heroes.

On the bright side, the decanter of endless water did turn out to be just as good as advertised against the golem, as it’s a once-per-round cast of hydraulic push. Granted, that’s only a first level spell, but when one uses the damage type the golem is weak to, that ends up not mattering because it generates an additional spike of damage – 5d10 in this case. At that point, the base damage from the spell is almost gravy. As a secondary consideration, it’s also nice because it’s only a single-action attack, whereas casting the spell would be a two-action move. The only downside is it requires both hands to operate, so a GM who really wanted to micro-manage somatic components could argue that Hap can’t cast any other spells while operating it.

The less-bright side… that’s the T-Rex (and the other accompanying xulgaths, I suppose – they’re not that strong, but they still have to be dealt with at the end of the day). If you want to get technical, our scaly friend is 50 feet LONG, not 50 feet tall, but that’s not really the point: the point is it’s a nasty customer. The 20-foot reach, in particular, is something that could make for a miserable encounter, though you’ll be happy to hear that at least they don’t also get attacks of opportunity. Also, at the risk of MAYBE spoilering future content, the T-Rex also has an ability where it can swallow a person whole. So it’s possible we’ve got that to look forward to.

So even before Vanessa said it, the moment Alhara charged, I assumed she was going to try and trip it, and sure enough I was right. Except… impromptu rulebook refresher… she can’t actually do that as there is a size limit to tripping – the creature has to be no bigger than two size classes higher. So for Alhara, that means Huge is OK, Gargantuan (which the T-Rex is) is not. So OK… no trip. (Also, it’s a good argument against building a trip build based on a Small ancestry, because then you’d top out at Large.)

The real question is where did the T-Rex even come from? The team did do a recon of the area and didn’t see anything like that. The quick answer would be that it was inside the tower, but are the doors big enough to fit a creature that big? Steve joked/hinted that maybe they had a pet cache too, but that seems a little game-breaking if that’s the case.

So as we come to the end of the episode, there’s both good and bad news. The good is that the golem is hurting; the bad news is that so is Darius (in particular), having been the recipient of multiple crits as the fight unfolded. I still think it’s a winnable fight, but it’s certainly not going to be the divide-and-conquer cakewalk they were hoping for, and there’s still the interior of the tower yet to come.

Buuuut we’ll get into all of that next week. As always, feel free to drop by our Discord channel or other social media and let us know what you think of the show. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.

Three Ring Adventure S3|17: They Have a Cave Troll

This is it, it’s the moment you have all been waiting for (including the players). It’s time to fight THE dinosaur you all know and love!

Roll For Combat, Three Ring Adventure Podcast is a playthrough of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, Extinction Curse, and the third book, Life’s Long Shadows.

Don’t forget to join our Discord channel, where you can play games, talk with the cast, and hang out with other fans of the show!

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The Bird’s Eye View S3|07: Chalky: The Quicker Fixer-Upper

Jason recaps the events from Agents of Edgewatch S3|07: Back to School.

We start this week with some overall news from the RFC Mothership, as Mark Seifter is now officially part of Team RFC. It’s a weird sensation because it certainly feels like big news – like a seismic shift from “a podcast whose GM decided to put a book together for grins” to “an actual RPG content creator that happens to also do a podcast”. That FEELS exciting to me on a visceral level. On the other hand, the honest truth is that the publishing side of the RFC/Battlezoo house is Steve’s baby and we (the players) don’t interact much with it. He’ll run an idea past us every once in a while to see what we think of it or show us a cool piece of artwork, but that’s about it. So it’s cool and I’m curious to see what cool places this takes RFC as a whole. But day to day, it doesn’t really change anything for what we do… unless Mark is also about to become the fifth member of the Edgewatch and Steve hasn’t told us yet.

The other (out-of-game) thing that excites me this week is we’re finally bringing my home game back out of mothballs in 2022. We’d pretty much been shut down during the pandemic, and we didn’t bother taking it online because part of the appeal was getting together in person. But the group text chat started showing signs of life around New Year’s, and we’re going to have a new Session Zero in a week or two. The only bad news is it’s no longer the “Dads and Kids” game because the kids have had two years to develop their own interests and decide their parents are weirdos. I think we’re gonna keep one party-controlled NPC in case a kid wants to drop in for a session, but otherwise… que sera, sera.

So on to this week’s episode, as we continue our infiltration of the Diobel Sweeper lair, which prominently features another golem encounter.

The first thing I’ll note is that the Three-Ring show just hit THEIR alchemical golem encounter a few weeks ago, so I was having some amusing flashbacks when they were doing battle. I believe the “you need to use sonic damage” was muttered with the same tone that Al Powell observed, “they’re shooting at the lights” at Nakatomi Tower.

Of course, the wrinkle of our encounter was that our golem, Chalky, was designed for heals and buffing rather than offense. And that posed quite an interesting dynamic. I’ve been thinking, but even dating back to First Edition, it’s actually REALLY rare for enemies to have a true party healer mechanic that matches the way players heal. You’ll see creatures with fast healing pretty regularly, there will be the occasional one-shot life-drain type ability that takes hit points from the players and gives it to the enemy, but it’s pretty rare that real tactical healing is an option. I don’t know if that’s because it makes the math difficult or makes too much work for the GM, but you just don’t see it too often. So it was kind of refreshing. Annoying… but refreshing.

The good news is that the minions are pretty low-level and kind of brittle, so the ones that can’t make it over to Chalky for healing either go down quickly or decide to get the hell out of Dodge. (Especially the ones that would have to run THROUGH the cloudkill to get to Chalky.) And I didn’t really process this at the time but I noticed on re-listen that Chalky NEVER attacks. It’s not like “it mostly heals and then attacks if it’s got actions left”… it NEVER swings at us once. Considering how bad alchemical golems pummeled the Three-Ring crew, we caught a bit of a break with that one: they can hit pretty hard.

Speaking of cloudkill, you’ll notice that we had a little bit of a rules question that never gets resolved. Gomez finally gets to cast his cloud kill, right? I think it was actually the first time he’s been able to use it. The description of the spell says it “moves 10 feet away from the caster” each round. So is that 10 feet away from where the caster currently is or 10 feet away from the point of emanation? Could the caster (slowly) chase things around the room with his cloud by repositioning himself, or is it fire-and-forget and keeps moving the same direction it was cast?

It’s probably not a huge point anyway because most NPCs are going to be able to outrun something that moves 10 feet per round. But the “fire-and-forget” interpretation where the caster can’t control it at all is almost TOO limiting because you’d fire it off, the enemies would run away in the opposite direction, and it would just drift off irrelevantly into a corner or whatever room you’re in. At that point it might as well just be a single-round burst, do damage once, and then one wouldn’t have to screw around with moving it at all.

Sorry, I realize this is a lot of effort to expend on a cloud that moves at a really slow walk. But why else does this column exist if not to dissect rules minutiae?

As the minions are starting to drop or flee, Bloody Berleth makes his first appearance at the top of the stairs. And at first glance, I thought we were going to be entering the “Shit Gets Real” phase of combat. (Additionally, I figured the golem was going to get more aggressive as part of that.) But no… for a guy whose nickname is “Bloody” Berleth, he’s both surprisingly well-dressed and polite. And he makes us an offer to come up to the office for a parlay. Now, not sure what we can get out of him at this point – the Washboard Dogs are the ones with the connections to the Skinner and the Twilight Four – but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to listen. And as a side, if we go upstairs, we’re further away from Chalky if there’s a round two to this battle. So up the stairs we go.

And as we go up… I notice something. Wait, I notice something? What do I notice? I honestly don’t remember. But I guess we’ll find out next week. As always, feel free to drop by our Discord channel or other social media and let us know what you think of the show. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.

Battlezoo Foundry VTT Release Notes

  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Year of Legends Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 3.0 – March 1, 2024
      • Released Sphinxes
    • 2.0 – February 1, 2024
      • Released Evil Eyes
    • 1.0.2 – January 5, 2024
      • Added a new version of tokens of angel headshots.
    • 1.0.1 – January 1, 2024
      • Updated the folder structure with the Journals from “Roll for Combat” to “Roll For Combat” so that multiple modules will load within the same heading.
    • 1.0 – January 1, 2024
      • Released Angels
  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Year of Legends 5E History
      • 3.0 – March 1, 2024
        • Released Sphinxes
      • 2.0 – February 1, 2024
        • Released Evil Eyes
      • 1.0.1 – January 5, 2024
        • Added a new version of tokens of angel headshots.
        • Removed some Pathfinder references.
      • 1.0 – January 1, 2024
        • Released Angels

  • World of Battlezoo: Indigo Isles Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 1.1.2 – November 19, 2023
      • Updated the table CSS
      • Updated small layout issues within the ancestries
    • 1.1.1 – October 12, 2023
      • Updated the CSS to add padding on the journal sides
    • 1.1 – October 8, 2023
      • Moved all ancestry descriptions to the journal
      • Fixed broken effect links in the roll table
      • Improved inline automation for roll table and journal versions of Old Woody
      • Set the right images and scales for all the dragons
      • Added text to several pages without text
      • Added the blurbs and images for the main tour guides to the island journals
      • Fixed measurements on all the maps
      • Set thumbnails to module copies
      • Rebuilt the adventure with the right color folders and all changes
      • Familiars have the right token names and scales
      • Fixed typos throughout
      • Resized several images to allow them to flow better
      • Add linebreaks to various captions to make the images fit better
      • Fixed the linebreaks in the dragon journals, making the sidebar look funky
      • Put tour guide blurbs on the mostly blank pages
      • Changed all the isles blurbs to end with a colon, slightly tweaked the sizes of the images
      • Moved flags into the settlement blocks
      • Fixed up the dragon pages
      • Added alt text to the images with text
    • 1.0 – October 6, 2023
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual DnD 5E History
    • 1.0 – September 18, 2023
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange and Unusual Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 1.0.2 – September 30, 2023
      • Changed tokens folder and JSON coding from “tokens” to “tokens” to fix mapping issues
    • 1.0.1 – August 19, 2023
      • Changed tokens folder from “tokens” to “Tokens” to fix mapping issues
    • 1.0 – August 18, 2023
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Jewel of the Indigo Isles DnD 5E History
    • 3.1.1 – March 25, 2024
      • Updated the CSS to work correctly with the DnD 3.0 module plug-in.

  • Battlezoo Jewel of the Indigo Isles Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 3.1.2 – March 25, 2024
      • Updated CSS to show icons in buttons more clearly.
    • 3.1.1 – October 16, 2023
      • Small text changes
      • Added the action style to the defense and army sections
    • 3.1 – October 16, 2023
      • Updated the CSS to closely match World of Battlezoo: Indigo Isles
      • Implemented Foundry v11 Windows
      • Implemented Foundry v11 Door Sounds
      • Added art and transformation effect for Indigo Stranger’s true Indigo Dragon form from World of Battlezoo: Indigo Isles
      • Added art and actor for Monbak
      • Added actors for Re’tkalis & Shalzan
      • Use a simple NPC sheet for Defense of Rumplank actors for increased usability
      • Automated Quartermaster bonus as Aura
      • Change statless NPCs to a new simple NPC sheet
      • Defense Special Resources Table moved to Part 1 import
      • Fix the link to the token ring in frontmatter
      • Corrected the level of Swinging Cutlass Trap and fixed missing reaction on placed tokens
      • Locked door to K6
    • 3.0 – September 12, 2023
      • Chapters 9-12 (Part 3) were added to the module. The entire adventure is complete!
      • Added music tracks (make sure to re-import Part 1 to get these music tracks).
      • Removed the minion trait from living proof.
    • 2.2 – August 16, 2023
      • Fixed walls on Darsus Farm
      • Make Galtzagorri Tiny size
    • 2.1 – July 11, 2023
      • Added Player’s Guide
      • Added Player’s Guide Backgrounds
      • Change Rumplank Journal default permission to observer
      • Add Effects for Magical Gumbo in Chapter 1
      • Fixed console errors when opening the journal
      • Fixed Old Woody Roll Table icon
      • Fixed Leshy Husks prototype token and aura
      • Updated several art assets to display higher resolutions
    • 2.0 – July 3, 2023
      • Chapters 5-8 (Part 2) were added to the module.
      • Verified for Foundry VTT v11.
      • Set D’marti Tixima token.
      • Pinned settlement journals on region maps.
      • Added actors for NPCs without stats.
      • Added effects for Poppy’s Blessings and Rally the Crowd in Chapter 4.
      • Added Special Resource item to G7.
    • 1.0 – May 18, 2023
      • Original public version for Foundry VTT v10.291

  • Year of Monsters Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 12.0.1 – December 8, 2023
      • Added Intelligent Weapons
    • 12.0 – December 1, 2023
      • Added Intelligent Weapons
    • 11.0 – November 1, 2023
      • Added Oni
    • 10.0 – September 1, 2023
      • Added Gremlins
    • 9.0 – September 1, 2023
      • Added Nymphs
    • 8.0 – August 1, 2023
      • Added Minotaurs
    • 7.0 – July 1, 2023
      • Added Demons
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 6.0 – June 1, 2023
      • Added Sidhe
    • 5.0 – May 1, 2023
      • Added Mimics
    • 4.0 – April 3, 2023
      • Added Dungeons Expanded
    • 3.0 – March 1, 2023
      • Added Sethnos
      • Changed cabalist to conspiracist and cabal to conspiracy in all places.
    • 2.0 – February 1, 2023
      • Added Doppelgangers
    • 1.0 – January 10, 2023
      • Original public version for Foundry VTT v10.291 (Slimes)

  • Year of Monsters DnD 5E History
    • 12.0.1 – December 8, 2023
      • Intelligent Weapons weapons updated throughout, specifically Project Avatar, Enhanced Storage, Guiding Strike, and Wall of Duplicates.
    • 12.0 – December 1, 2023
      • Added Intelligent Weapons
    • 11.0 – November 1, 2023
      • Added Oni
    • 10.0 – September 1, 2023
      • Added Gremlins
    • 9.0 – September 1, 2023
      • Added Nymphs
    • 8.0 – August 1, 2023
      • Added Minotaurs
    • 7.0 – July 1, 2023
      • Added Demons
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 6.0 – June 1, 2023
      • Added Sidhe
    • 5.0 – May 1, 2023
      • Added Mimics
    • 4.0 – April 3, 2023
      • Added Dungeons Expanded
    • 3.0 – March 1, 2023
      • Added Sethnos
      • Changed cabalist to conspiracist and cabal to conspiracy in all places.
    • 2.0 – February 1, 2023
      • Added Doppelgangers
    • 1.0 – January 10, 2023
      • Original public version for Foundry VTT v10.291 (Slimes)

  • Indigo Isles Character Guide Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 1.5 – June 28, 2023
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 1.4 – May 18, 2023
      • Fixed feats so they can be placed properly inside a character sheet.
    • 1.3 – January 10, 2023
      • Updated hosting location and JSON file.
    • 1.2 – November 23, 2022
      • Added the meleagris heritage and meleagris tokens.
      • Added instructions on how to access and use the tokens.
    • 1.1 – November 19, 2022
      • Added 5 backgrounds from the Jewel of the Indigo Isles Free Player’s Guide PF2 v2.
    • 1.0 – November 11, 2022
      • Original public version for Foundry VTT v10

  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons DnD 5E History
    • 1.2 – June 28, 2023
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 1.1 – January 10, 2023
      • Updated hosting location and JSON file.
    • 1.0.3 – Spetember 16, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0.2 – July 25, 2022
      • New Class: Dragon, Equipment: added information detailing starting equipment cost.
      • New Class: Dragon, added sidebar “Multiclassing and the Dragon”.
      • Table 2: The Dragon, add “Archetype Feature” at levels 3, 6, 10, and 14.
      • Table 2: The Dragon, change level 12 gift to “5”.
      • Gifts: Change “6th Level Gifts” to “5th Level Gifts”.
      • Change all Prerequisites from “6th level” to “5th “level”.
      • Gifts: Change “10th Level Gifts” to “9th Level Gifts”.
      • Change all Prerequisites from “10th level” to “9th “level”.
      • Gifts: Change “14th Level Gifts” to “13th Level Gifts”.
      • Change all Prerequisites from “14th level” to “13th “level”.
      • Gifts: Change “18th Level Gifts” to “19th Level Gifts”.
      • Change all Prerequisites from “18th level” to “19th “level”.
    • 1.0.1 – July 2, 2022
      • Made minimum Foundry version v9
      • Added the authors to the file
    • 1.0 – June 27, 2022
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 1.4.2 – October 10, 2023
      • Ran system migrations on all compendia. The PF2e version needed for the Pathfinder 2e module to 5.6.2.
      • Improves Dragon Breath and Deep Breath feats to detect your damage type automatically now.
    • 1.4.1 – July 3, 2023
      • Added inline automation for Dragon’s Breath.
    • 1.4 – June 28, 2023
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 1.3 – May 29, 2023
      • Added slugs to all items.
      • Fixed equipment not resizing correctly on the alter size effect.
    • 1.2 – May 18, 2023
      • Fixed feats so they can be placed properly inside a character sheet.
    • 1.1 – January 10, 2023
      • Updated hosting location and JSON file.
    • 1.0.2 – Spetember 16, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0.1 – July 2, 2022
      • Added the authors to the file
    • 1.0 – May 2, 2022
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Bestiary DnD 5E History
    • 1.3 – June 28, 2023
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 1.2 – January 10, 2023
      • Updated hosting location and JSON file.
    • 1.1 – October 25, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0.2 – July 2, 2022
      • Version update only
    • 1.0.1 – July 2, 2022
      • Added “Dungeons & Dragons 5e” to the filename
    • 1.0 – May 3, 2022
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Bestiary Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 2.5 – June 28, 2023
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v11
    • 2.4 – May 18, 2023
      • Fixed feats so they can be placed properly inside a character sheet.
      • Made small fixes to monsters to update them with Jewel of the Indigo Isles.
    • 2.3 – April 28, 2023
      • Automatic Acolyte, added Fortitude save DC 26 to Divinity Beam.
      • Updated sturdy imbuement, effect reworked completely.
    • 2.2 – March 23, 2023
      • Updated the module to handle localization throughout.
      • Updated some older formatting throughout.
      • “Refining Weapons” was listed in the “Refining Armor” section, fixed this issue.
    • 2.1 – Feburary 9, 2023
      • There was a mistake in the module.json for version 1.3, so the module was updated to 2.1 to remove the issue.
    • 1.3 – Feburary 8, 2023
      • Converting to the newest edition of the Pathfinder Foundry VTT module was breaking the abilities, resistances, immunities, and other elements of most monsters. Updated all monsters to work with the latest versions of Pathfinder and Foundry VTT.
      • Added Paralyzing Touch to Semuvig’s stat block.
      • Added several new automation to various monsters.
    • 1.2 – January 10, 2023
      • Updated hosting location and JSON file.
    • 1.1 – Spetember 25, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0.4 – April 25, 2022
      • Added to the Fling Spines on the Salt Glider the text “The salt glider makes three spines Strikes, each against a different target”.
      • Updated module name to “Battlezoo Bestiary for Pathfinder 2e by Roll For Combat”.
    • 1.0.3 – March 5, 2022
      • Added a new Macro to allow users to change the default style of the monster icons. Under the “Macro Compendium,” select the “Change Token Style” macro and then execute the macro. A pop-up will appear that will allow you to change the default icon when adding a monster to the game map from the monster pog to the original artwork. This will only affect new monsters added to the game and not prior icons.
      • Updated the text on the Sturdy Imbeument Effect.
      • Updated the image name for “mechanical_maitre-d’.webp” to remove the “‘” because of a conflict in Linux.
    • 1.0.2 – January 6, 2022
      • Updated 10 compendium definitions that still used the deprecated ‘entity’ field instead of ‘type’.
      • Updated those 10 definitions to now use ‘type’.
    • 1.0.1 – December 14, 2021
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Dungeons Pathfinder Second Edition History
    • 1.1 – May 18, 2023
      • Fixed feats so they can be placed properly inside a character sheet.
    • 1.0.2 – September 8, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0.1 – April 1, 2022
      • Original public version

  • Battlezoo Ancestries: Dungeons DnD 5E History
    • 1.0.2 – November 8, 2022
      • Updated author to Mark Seifter
      • Updated description of the module
    • 1.0.1 – September 8, 2022
      • Updated to work with Foundry VTT v10
    • 1.0 – July 3, 2022
      • Original public version

 

 

 

 

 

Agents of Edgewatch S3|07: Back to School

Somehow the Agents managed to successfully sneak into the gang’s HQ and take out the guards without setting off any alarms, but they can’t stay stealthy forever.

Roll For Combat, Agents of Edgewatch Podcast is a playthrough of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, Agents of Edgewatch, and the third book, All or Nothing.

Don’t forget to join our Discord channel, where you can play games, talk with the cast, and hang out with other fans of the show!

Become a supporter of the podcast on our Patreon page where you can help us while unlocking fun exclusive rewards for yourself!

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast. We would also love it if you would leave us a review on iTunes!

The Sideshow S3|16: I Fought the Slaw and the Slaw Won

Jason recaps the events from Three Ring Adventure S3|16: The Cabbage Patch Kids.

Happy new year and welcome back to Roll For Combat, circa 2022. We’re back from the holidays and it does appear that the Circus show is recording again: I snooped on the Discord channel for the game sessions and it looks like there was some new content posted Sunday night.

Now, did I hear correctly that Steve says I’ve got writeups on “every show ever”? I might have to hold him to that, because boy, do I have some thoughts on David Tennant Does a Podcast With… THAT JODIE WHITTAKER’S A FIRECRACKER!

Oh wait, he just meant THIS podcast. Never mind.

This week, things just get weird and loopy, but we start with a small bit of “serious” gaming, as the team is briefly accosted by another fey creature that’s investigating the death of the satyr. Now, I feel like it’s a good thing a fight didn’t break out because if this thing slapped frightened 2 and doomed 2 on them right out of the gates, it’s probably kind of a badass. However, while Ateran failed their Recall Knowledge check to understand what the creature is, they got much better results on their Diplomacy roll and managed to convince the creature they were NOT the satyr-killers and avoided a possible butt-whipping.

Let’s talk about doomed for a second; it hasn’t really come up before (or if it has, I didn’t take particular note of it). Doomed is… in a word… awful. Because what it does is it lowers the amount of dying that causes character death. So if you have doomed 2, you’d die when you hit dying 2 (except for Darius who has the feat that gives him access to dying 5: he’d last until dying 3) and literally one crit could end your game. Even worse, if you stack enough points of doomed that your dying condition reaches 0, you die instantly, even if you have hit points.

Nevertheless, Ateran talks the party (and the circus at large) out of a sticky situation, and it’s crisis averted. For the moment. It feels like this stuff is meant to boomerang back around at some future date. Maybe it ties into the goings-on with the aeon towers or the mystery of the Night Lady. But you don’t just leave mutilated corpses tied to trees and not take it anywhere story-wise. It’s just not done.

So our troupe finally arrives at Castinlee, the closest town to the next aeon tower and the site of the next circus performance. And, apparently a haven for all manner of cabbage-related shenanigans. Did NOT see that coming. That’s right Steve’s all about cabbages tonight. The only real surprise is that the people who sing Secret Tunnel and/or greet people with “flameo, hotman” every other episode didn’t make an explicit reference to Cabbage Man from ATLA. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?

When not ruminating about the cabbages, the group does manage to score a little intel on the second aeon tower. Unfortunately the intel they get is that no one really goes there because a) there’s no reason to and b) because there are (clay) golems out that way. This time, Recall Knowledge is a little kinder to the party and they know they need to do water damage to be effective.

Now, there’s all sorts of interesting conversations that come out of this. The idea is floated to just use their new Aroden power, but that’s not really an ATTACK power, it just raises the level of an existing body of water. Are golems “Wicked Witch Of The West”-levels of sensitive to it, and pouring a cup on their heads would do damage to them, or does it need to be something with a little more oomph?

Then Alhara has the idea of filling a bag of holding – designed by Cabbage Klein — with lake water and dumping it on them in one shot. That’s closer to an actual plan… especially if dropped from above like a bomb… but still only one shot, and I feel like you probably want a more consistent source you can use multiple times like an oil or a weapon rune or something. Knowing how golems work, if you hit them with their weakness damage, you get a big damage spike, so you probably want to get that multiple times if possible.

The thing that would potentially be really interesting: is inviting the aquakineticist NPC along as an option? I don’t know if Steve wants to deal with that or not (Who would run the character? Do the NPC’s even have character sheets available?) and he might be kinda squishy and not effective in combat anyway. But it could make for an interesting dynamic. And OK… if Steve were to be open to taking the NPC characters into battle every once in a while, it would provide an avenue for bringing guests on the show. We used to do that more often – in fact, it was the guiding premise of the Black Lodge show – and haven’t really done it lately. (Worth mentioning: if you’re newer to the show, Rob Trimarco made his RFC debut as an NPC in the Dead Suns Starfinder show; he and Jason Keeley played a pair of recurring space cops.)

The group finally settles on a slightly different solution: a magic item called the decanter of endless water. It’s a glass pitcher that can supply water on demand, and yes, it even has an explicit attack mode that duplicates the effects of the hydraulic push spell (in addition to modes fit for polite society). So then the problem becomes where to get one of those – on one hand, it’s actually considered a common magic item; on the other hand, it is a Level 7 item, which don’t just grow on trees.

For this, Steve supplies us with an answer in the form of Alan’s Almonds. (Personally, I would’ve gone with “Armand” because then you’re hitting repetition on the beginnings AND ends of the words, and… what the hell is happening, I’m as bad as them, aren’t I?) I think almonds were one of the crops listed in the background for the area, and yes, it’s a real-world truth that almonds require a LOT of water, so it’s even sort of realistic that almond farmers would probably want to have a magical water supply available to them. So… the logic checks out. On the other hand, Steve manages to make Alan even more obnoxious than the cabbage-loving mayor, so negotiating the right price to borrow the item becomes a bit of a chore; so much so that I’m rooting for invisible forces to burn Alan’s almond crop to the ground. I may even go a step further and shed no tears if Alan is the Night Lady’s next victim.

Though OK… now per Rob’s suggestion, I want to see what “Fuck You” looks like in elvish script. I’m sure there’s some Tolkien fan that’s already gone there. GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH, DON’T FAIL ME.

So they’ve got a source of water damage. They’ve gotten rid of all the doom effects left over from the fey that jumped out at them. The circus will need a few days to set up anyway. So it’s off to kick clay golem ass and chew cabbage-flavored bubble gum. And cabbage-flavored bubble gum hasn’t been invented yet. (Mercifully.)

Well, after a few minutes of fart jokes at the end of the episode. Sigh. I mean, Steve’s not wrong… cabbage is known for that. Just a little surprised he went for it. Or maybe I’m not. We’re going into our second year of references to the “poop dagger”, after all.

Well, after our intrepid heroes pop some Gas-X, next week we get back to fighting, unraveling mysteries, and saving this little corner of the world. As always, feel free to drop by our Discord channel or other social media and let us know what you think of the show: we were a little scarce over the holidays, but we’re all drifting back in now. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.

Three Ring Adventure S3|16: The Cabbage Patch Kids

We kick off 2022 with another episode dedicated to our favorite topic at Three Ring Adventure – food, food, and more food!

Roll For Combat, Three Ring Adventure Podcast is a playthrough of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, Extinction Curse, and the third book, Life’s Long Shadows.

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The Bird’s Eye View S3|06: You Won’t See Me

Jason recaps the events from Agents of Edgewatch S3|06: The Main-Gauche Gambit.

Welcome to the first Talking Combat of 2022. I was all prepared to make a New Year’s resolution to get back to delivering my columns on a consistent day, and then my brother came through with tickets to Monday Night Football. What’s a guy to do?

Well, there are 51 weeks left in the year. We’ll get there.

In a very minor, and probably obvious, show-note to our Patreon live listeners, I expect we’ll get back to recording live shows this coming Monday. We took a nice little break over the holidays but we’re about ready to re-convene and address some new business. Just to supply some perspective, we’re quite a ways ahead in the actual show – I think these episodes you’re listening to now are from late September or early October. I know the Circus show has tightened up the gap a little but we’re still running at a bit of a surplus.

As we return to the show, we’re beginning our infiltration (Oh who are we kidding? It’ll turn into an assault soon enough) of the Diobel Sweepers’ alchemical lab. As you may remember Maurrisa Jonne of the Washboard Dogs promised us intel on the Twilight Four if we would resolve her blood feud with the Sweepers for her (and release her brother). On one hand, I trust Maurrisa as far as I can throw her since she used to work for the Skinner; on the other hand, it’s not like the Sweepers are upstanding citizens, so taking them out is still a net reduction in the number of bad guys.

As we arrive at the compound, the first part of the operation is actually a bit of a stealth operation, as there are guards in the outer courtyard to avoid. Fortunately, the spell I’ve had in my back pocket for a few levels now – invisibility sphere – finally gets an opportunity to see the light of day. Now, the open door feels a little too obvious, like it might be a trap, but since it’s far enough away from the guards and we’re invisible, there’s no harm in opening it and seeing if there are guards inside.

I’ll just quickly reiterate the rules since we debate them for a while and settle on a few wrong answers before getting to the right one. The group can move at normal walking speeds and take non-combat actions without disrupting the spell. If you try to move faster than that, or if anyone takes aggressive action, it ends. And an aggressive action by ANYONE under the effect of the spell ends it for everyone. Also, even if you don’t attack (so even if you just buff and cast defensive spells), it still ends the spell after the first round of combat. Also, if someone steps outside the sphere, it ends the spell for them – no jumping in and out of the sphere, appearing and disappearing. It’s a one-way ticket.

Now, there was one clarification Chris was asking that didn’t really get answered: if you jump out of the sphere and attack, does that end the spell for the rest of the party? I feel like the answer ought to be no: if leaving the sphere severs the effect permanently, that means you’re just not part of the spell anymore, and that should apply both positively and negatively. So you could have your rogue fly solo and run around backstabbing people while the rest of the party continued to explore. But that would seem to imply that the remaining invisible characters would not be able to join combat at all. So if you’re gonna have one character jump out and do a side mission, you have to really commit to that 100 percent.

As we reach the first encounter, we also arrive at one of my few Second Edition pet peeves: the loss of the surprise round. Don’t get me wrong… in the new three-action world, I can totally understand why they got rid of it. After all, if you could get surprised and load up a bunch of big attacks for the entire party, that could seriously mess up an opponent before they even drew a weapon. (Flipping things around, imagine if monsters got a surprise round against the party and landed a bunch of crits before the party even knew they were in a fight. Bad times all around.) But it does seem a little silly that – as in this case – two people playing chess can (essentially) sense a fight is coming against invisible people and beat them on the draw. I know Steve gives them some minuses on initiative, but that still feels a little hollow.

Then again, it’s always worth remembering Invisibility 101: invisibility doesn’t do anything about noises, or against interactions with objects in the environment. If you open a door or knock over a lamp, THAT’S still going to be quite visible even if the character themselves are invisible. If you get lucky, the guards may think the opening door was just a gust of wind, but maybe not. Also, they’re alchemists… they know magic exists. Also, they’re still in a war with a rival gang, so they’re going to be sort of alert even while enjoying their downtime. People are capable of multi-tasking even in fantasy settings.

The first room doesn’t go too badly for us. It’s four against two, and they’re not that powerful. The real danger is that right at the end, one of the two guards yells out for backup. We’ve got the guards out in the courtyard that we know about, and who knows how many guys are deeper within the building, so this could get a little ugly. But at least early on, nobody is coming, so maybe we dodged a bullet there.

Where will it go from here? I guess we’ll find out next week. As always, feel free to drop by our Discord channel or other social media and let us know what you think of the show – we were a little scarce over the holidays, but we’re back now. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.