This job is wearing me out.
It’s 5:15 and I’m still working. Maybe 45-60 minutes till I’m done out here in the field. Then a 90min drive home. If I jump on I’ll be late getting on. However I’ve been gone for two days and probably have husband stuff to do I was planning to do at 1 today when I was supposed to get home…
Sometimes husband stuff can be fun
we hit level 4, and you need to roll for your studies again next week
I hope you get a break some time, Mak!
The party leveled up to 4 this week. If you have time this week, let me know and I can put the server up.
You also get to study to level up one of you school branches.
Oh yeah, and I/we learned that Drogoon does half the finisher precision damage on a finisher even if he misses! So he’s got a 1d6 precision damage button under his precise strike now.
I also took the liberty of scaling his Electric Arc cantrip to his caster level (i.e. character level).
Tammy-Lynn exited the campaign by dying of disease offscreen someplace. We leveled up to 4th level and I had a bit more work to do by inputting a whole new character so Eddy took over Drogoon and I believe just added a level of swashbuckler. You’ll have to do the other stuff yourself: skill feat, class feat, wizard archetype feat. And of course the school work stuff that Eddy mentioned.
Story-wise…
After clearing out the tunnels beneath the um… Arc Library (?)… we met up with Teacher Ot and Korde (sp?) and gave them our report. Ot ordered us off to (long) rest, and we met up with him in the morning to give him our full report: finding/defeating the stone guy, clearing out the tunnels, finding journals/notes/maps, finding the masks/cloaks of former students, our encounters with fey and bugs, meeting/rescuing our new fey friend Binji (sp?), etc.
Ese ran into the room all excited and told Ot/us that three new students had just arrived and were seeking entrance into the Magaambya. Why excited? 'Cause the were anadi (the spider people) and unlike most anadi who when traveling amongst non-anadi assume a human looking form, these anadi were in a hybrid spider-humanoid form. As we were greeting them (along side Teacher Ot) we were suddenly attacked by some (local?) griffons that had the heads of black birds and the hindquarters of leopards; they looked emaciated (hungry?).
One of the prospective anadi students died before we managed to defeat the griffons mainly 'cause everyone had really bad die rolls and I/Tammy-Lynn didn’t know how to cast spells properly.
After (or was it before?) the fight (while dinging to level 4), Ot told us about his concerns and provided some backstory. The stone guy - who’s real name escapes me - was a former student who didn’t embrace the Magaambyan ideals of community and helpfulness and was just interested in obtaining power. He did something bad with fey and unlike us really good boys and girls he killed them instead of taking them alive. He was censured/expelled/imprisoned? Maybe. I’ve slept since last night.
Teacher Ot still wasn’t sure why the bugs were being drawn to the school/town and wanted to consult with his own teacher - who’s name escapes me and I really should know it 'cause my new character was traveling with this guy. He’s a half-elf, I remember that much. So that guy - and my new character a half-orc/half-elf thaumaturge/bard/druid (oh yeah!) - arrived in town and we um, ran out of time.
Shadowrunner Atsu
Given name is Atsu, Shadowrunner is the clan/surname.
First time colorizing a grayscale miniature… 
@grapper I’m home and free tonight or I’ll be home again Sunday night. Then all day Monday to Wednesday morning. I still work from home most days.
Thanks for the great update I’ll get myself all set except for the training roles for classes.
What’s the state of the party’s knowledge skills? Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion, Society. Who’s got what at a reasonably useful level?
'Cause Atsu is Trained in the first four but only has 10 Int and 10 Wis, so the bonus isn’t that great. However, thaumaturges have their own class specific lore skill - Esoteric Knowledge - which she is already Expert in and can be used to Recall Knowledge on all creatures (so replaces Arcana, Nature, Occultism, Religion, and Society for that purpose), curses, and haunts. And the piece de resistance, Esoteric Knowledge is CHA-based and Atsu has 19 CHA.
Why do I ask…
Currently Atsu has this insane thaumaturge class feat:
Diverse Lore - Feat 1
Thaumaturge
Source Dark Archive pg. 42Your wandering studies mean you’ve heard rumors or theories about almost every topic… though admittedly, your sources aren’t always the most reliable. You can take a –2 penalty to your check to Recall Knowledge with Esoteric Lore to Recall Knowledge about any topic, not just the usual topics available for Esoteric Lore. Additionally, when you succeed at your check to Exploit a Vulnerability, compare the result of your Esoteric Lore check to the DC to Recall Knowledge for that creature; if that number would be a success or a critical success, you gain information as if you had succeeded at the Recall Knowledge check.
But if the party has the knowledge skills already handled, then maybe this insane thaumaturge class feat would be more useful:
Scroll Thaumaturgy - Feat 1
Thaumaturge
Source Dark Archive pg. 42Your multidisciplinary study of magic means you know how to activate the magic in scrolls with ease. You can activate scrolls of any magical tradition, using your thaumaturge class DC for the scroll’s DC, rather than a particular spell DC. If a spell is on the spell list for multiple traditions, you choose which tradition to use at the time you activate the scroll. You can draw and activate scrolls with the same hand holding an implement, much like you can for esoterica.
Scroll Thaumaturgy Leads To… Scroll Esoterica
Thoughts?
@Rando I have Arcana and Nature at Expert, 16 INT but only 10 WIS. I am not going to be very helpful with Knowledge checks in combat though because my action economy is soooooo tight. What I DO have is the ability to apply basically any damage type to my Arcane Strike since I carry so many damage cantrips. So I fully endorse someone shouting out vulnerabilities to me 
Of course I have to HIT before I can do damage…
I went ahead and switched (the two feats I mentioned earlier). Being able to cast all the spells from scrolls is too damn good. Atsu can still Recall Knowledge in combat with Esoteric Knowledge and identify weaknesses, resistances, etc, it’s just out of combat that everyone else will be the knowledge monkeys.
Edit: I switched back. The party already has Primal and Arcane spells (from scrolls) covered, and Atsu has Occult as well. Lacking access to Divine Scrolls isn’t that big a deal 'cause anything worth casting from that tradition is on the Occult or Primal list anyway. 'Cept Raise Dead… doh.
Argh…
Yesterday I (re)learned all about spell casting regarding spell components (material, verbal, somatic, focus), as well as how scrolls work, specifically casting spells from scrolls.
Trying to figure out how to hold everything in two hands and cast spells - especially three-action spells - oy vey!
Battle Lutes, and the feats Emblazon Armaments, and Verdant Weapon exist for a reason.
I don’t think Atsu can/could cast a three-action spell from a scroll unless she prepares a turn ahead to put things in her hands away and pull out the scroll. Casting a three action Heal from her druid archetype is going to require the Verdant Weapon feat - or again preparing ahead of time to put things in-hand away and take out a primal focus or leave a hand free to get items from a Material Component Pouch.
I’ve also been internally debating on whether to cheese out and get access to the best weapon in the game, or just stick with the whip.
I’ve also been having a crisis regarding which druid order to take. It doesn’t really matter 'cause I’m probably never going to take any druid Focus Spells, but the some of the feats are going to be useful. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the Flame Order anathema seems impossible to satisfy. How “useful” are the Stone Order feat Sheltering Cave or Wave Order feat Natural Swimmer going to be?
Argh.
Anyway, I’m supposed to be preppin Abom Vaults.
P.S. I’ve also been semi-seriously considering reworking Atsu into a Sorcerer w/ Druid Archetype.
For the upcoming level 5 I need everyone’s opinion again. Regarding implements of the Thaumaturge class (<-- link).
Currently Atsu has the Weapon implement, which gives her an attack of opportunity that triggers off a ton of actions/activities.
At 5th level she’ll also get the critical specialization ability (flail) of her Weapon implement (whip) which will knock opponents prone on a crit. Nice.
At 5th level she gets to pick a second implement (at initiate benefit level)
At 7th level one of those two implements (weapon or the new one) will get it’s adept benefit.
At 9th level both implements will get the intensify vulnerability ability.
At 11th level the second implement - the one not chosen at level 7 - will also get it’s adept benefit.
At 15th level she gets a third implement at initiate level (where it’ll remain forever).
At 17th level one of her two adept level implements will get it’s paragon benefit
So…
What do you think the most useful implements are for our group?
[Edit] Do not say Chalice, 'cause it sucks.
Have you looked at Chalice, I hear it’s awesome.
Yo dawg, I herd you like mirrors so I put a mirror in your chalice so you can flank while you drank.
too many choices, my brain hurts
Well I’ve started on my “replacement” character if Daemoro gets killed.
His twin brother Celebguar will show up to avenge him. Elf/Beastkin(Wolf), Fighter/Druid (Wildshape) At 5th level he would have a 50’ speed for 8 hours every day. 40’ normally. He will be built around being able to hit enemies even if I roll single digits.
If my Sunday group switches over to Strength of Thousands I will probably play him in that one.
Challenge: accepted. 
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not TRYING to die. I really just like making characters and I read something that made this particular build more viable than I had thought it would be. I could make another version without the Beastkin added in and it would work the same, but the RP flavor of the beastkin is what really sells it… along with free Druid Wildshape for this AP.
I thought about using Gnoll as the base ancestry or even orc, but Celebguar is an elf at his core so I keep drifting back to that even if it is sub-optimal other than the additional 10’ move speed.
I’ve got my Blood Lords, Kingmaker, and Agents of Edgewatch characters already made for campaigns that don’t exist…
