Hell's Rebels Adventure Path (Inactive)

Game Master TreasureFox

All of it's confusing to me.
If it's martial, then I have so many calculations to do. Flanking, power attack, rage, fighting defensively, buffs.
If it's a spellcaster, then I have to memorize all the details about each spell. I also have to pick spells out of the sea of spells available. Gahhh

I can't say anything about the future, but as long as Kethaera stays up and uses the wands, I think things will work out. If you guys have any ideas regarding loot (such as a debuffing wand), please let me know. I can't guarantee that you'll get what you want, but it's good for me to know.

I'll just buy a debuffing wand. The save DCs are low but being able to just use it over and over until it sticks may help make a difference in some combats.

I did originally come in to be a replacement healer, so that's where I focused my abilities, but having exhausted my 1st-level spells I don't raelly have anything else I can do, which is why I think a wand is the way to go for now. If it's a 1st-level spell it's just 750 gp.

Thanks I'll keep it in mind.

I'm feeling very scatterbrained today. I'm gonna try to calm down a bit. *slurps coffee*

Coffee is the great motivator!

Knock Knock, how's everyone doing?

Sorry I just have no idea what we're supposed to be looking for or where we're supposed to go.

Yeah, I'm kinda lost and feeling like we don't have the resources for this mission.

Thanks for the feedback. I think what I'll do here is montage the remaining rooms and give you guys a moment to investigate anything that catches your interest before moving on. I think we can all agree that we've been in this dungeon for far, far too long.

Sooo it looks like we are down to 3 players?

Yes Kethaera's been long gone. My plan has been to wait until you guys are done 'In Hell's Bright Shadow' which will be done once you leave this dungeon. After that, we'll discuss if we want to play 'Turn of the Torrent', what changes we want to the way we run the adventure, recruit some more players, etc.

Hey everyone. You've successfully finished In Hell's Bright Shadow, act 1 of Hell's Rebels. I first want to say thank you for being part of this journey. You have all been great to play with, and I sincerely enjoy spending time with you. An extra special thank you to Tarnagius, who has been here since day 1, late September of 2015.

I'd like to take this moment to ask: Where do we go from here? Do we continue into Turn of the Torrent, or would it be better we go our separate ways? I'd be happy to continue, but I understand if anyone wants to leave. It's been a long, hard grind to get to the end of this book, even for Bazzle and Rexandi who came in 2/3rds of the way through. I've made plenty of mistakes, and though I have some ideas in how to streamline things, it would still be a long road.

What do you guys think? I'd like to hear from each of you, please.

I'm perfectly fine with continuing the revolution, though we'll of course need another warm body or two. I feel like the pacing on the final monastery was poor, but that's the fault of the published adventure, not the DM.

I do like my character, I just like for her to have the ability to contribute. :)

Down with Thrune.

I am down.

That was disjointed.

I am all for continuing.

I think the monastery would have worked better on tabletop, so we could explore more easily and the weird way that fight went down didn't help either. We started the campaign with 5 people, right? Me, Jules, Kethaera, Pylos, that witch who's name I'm not even going to bother looking up because she bailed before we even finished the opening scene, but then we added Phillip; so that makes 2 or 3 more people? Having more players should make roleplay segments more interesting too.

I'm really glad everyone is up for continuing the adventure. I fully agree that another 2-3 more people would be good. I'd say 6 total is the absolute maximum though. If you guys have any other suggestions as to how we could have done that monastery segment better, I'm all ears. I really don't want to repeat that situation.

Rexandi do you have any ideas how I could help your character contribute? I tried to put that wand of command in there since it's on your spell sheet, but magic missile isn't.

One thing that I'm considering to help streamline this is to get rid of all non-essential combat scenarios, since combat is our biggest time sink. That being said, I'll have to be careful about empty rooms where the fight used to be.
I'm also considering heavily limiting potential side quests, so we can get straight into the main objectives.

I'd love all suggestions and constructive criticisms you can give me.

I find the minigames in Paizo APs tend to bog down pbp games too, so maybe we should consider scrapping the rebellion as a mechanical thing?

The wand of command will be very useful, just by the time we got to it we were fighting outsiders, who are immune! :)

That's a good idea, Tarnagius. We could put it in the background, where the ever-growing list of NPCs focus on it. They could form a counsel who figure out the macro, and you're the people who decide what gets done when.

Example:
- Rexus wants to rouse a protest
- Laria wants to recruit an important NPC
- Nisha wants to save prisoners
None of them can decide. You guys pick 1 and work with that character to get the job done.

Ah dang it, I forgot about that detail regarding the command spell. Any other ideas? I was considering adding Magic Missile to your witch spell list.

Oh I forgot. Does anyone have recommendations for any players that could join us? I'm going to ask the players of my Rise of the Runelords game if any of them would like to join.

If we don't get enough, I'll open up public recruitment.

I've got 2 bites so far. Both are excellent players who have been gaming with me for years and years.

Well if you say they're good, that's good enough for me.

Agreed! If one of them decides not to join in, I know a couple people.

Alright I'm gonna send them in.
I also have a 'maybe' for a 3rd. If Rexandi has a friend who gives a firm 'yes', then I'll take them instead of the 'maybe'.

Hi everyone,

DM Hell's Fox suggested I dropped a line here - I am one of the possible recruits for the game :D

I went through some soul searching for this one - I have been aching to play a Magus (could be a cookie cutter one), but I don't really know how to go about building one, and the poor amount of skill points they have along with a poor selection of skills makes me cringe.

I recently played a Warpriest, and fell completely in love with the class - strong and versatile, BUT again the skills are a VERY painful Achilles heel.

That being said, I am thinking on bringing one of my favourite concepts on board, if you guys are ok with it - a melee Bard (vanilla, no archetypes), with a two level dip on a martial class to shore up some fighting ability - initially thought on dipping Fighter, but now I am between Brawler and Slayer (love the Martial Flexibility for this character, but I'm not sure I can pass on the added skills from the Slayer).

He would have lived in Kintargo some years ago, but it was not a happy childhood nor adolescence - he got into a lot of trouble which drew him away form his hometown. After years in the military, he would be now returning home (wow... Just got a flash of John Rambo right there :D)

He is a martial character, but I hope he can bring a decent skillset to the group.

What do you all think?

(DM Hell's fox, I sent you a PM about the character)

Magi are intelligence casters anyway so assuming you have at least INT 16 you'd be getting an ok amount per level. Less than a bard or rogue, but that's kind of their thing anyway.

Two level dips for slayers can get you some cool abilities too depending on archetypes, but long-term I think the two fighter feats would actually pan out better unless you wanted to go the sneak attack route, in which case a rogue would be faster, but we have one already anyway.

In terms of skills unless Cleo's player comes through with the oracle what we really need is someone with better Knowledge: Religion/Planes and maybe a second stealth buddy for our rogue Bazzle. We had another bard who hit the knowledge niches pretty ok, and being a tactician I know my nobility pretty well, but a secondary socialite would help as well. All that makes me think mechanically what we really need is more pure bard than anything with a dip like that, but I'm not a big fan of dictating the builds of characters based on stuff like that more than is absolutely necessary anyhow. Just don't make a fighter with STR 8 and CHA 18 or something and we'll figure something out.

Also Hello! I'm the other one HellFox mentioned. I'm working with Fox on an oracle, giving some additional healing, social skills, and with armor and shield she can be a decent tank. Nearly done.

Planes! Will add. She is familiar with the cities sewers as well, growing up in the city as a street kid.

Halfling fighter with 18 Cha, 6 Str, and all the feats are social.

I'm currently working on a 'The Story So Far' document to get these guys up to speed.

If you really want more skill points, the Cunning feat gives you an extra skill point per level.

Also, the inquisitor has spells and good skill points and reasonably decent combat skills (though it is a divine caster).

A funky alternative is the sha'ir, which is an occultist archetype that gets spells from the wizard list. The default has very few choices of spells but makes up for it with resonant bonus abilities, decent combat skills, and 4 skill points. And, while the sha'ir uses the wizard spell list, they are still psychic casters, with all that entails - no spell failure from armor, no verbal or somatic components.

The usual fighting dip that I see for bards is a swashbuckler if you still want to finesse fight. Getting opportune parry and riposte + Dex to damage is pretty keen. Slayer's not a terrible dip, mostly because that class is serious business anyway.

If you want to do a Charisma-based magus there's the eldritch scion, which is a spontaneous charisma caster magus.

Anyway, yeah, we at least need someone with passing knowledge (planes), and having face skills is a plus. Beyond that, I'm mostly doing healing, Tarnagius is frontlining, and Bazzle has skirmishing + rogue stuff.

I don't allow the psychics in this game

Everything else is great advice. I actually had no idea about the Cunning feat.

Holy cheese, I might actually take that with my next general feat.

Me(John) and Fox have been messaging back and forth through out the day and I think we're done. Aster is the result. She started simply as a lunar oracle when Fox pointed out her history and abilities made her wererat like, so I dropped her level to 3 and added made her a wererat. Wereratedness isn't exactly highly respected so Aster would not be showing her true colors unless the crap is hitting the fan.

That being said if anyone objects I'll happily change her back to level 4 and be simply human again.

Oh! And thank you Rexandi, I also knew nothing of that feat but it helped try and fill out her skills.

We actually have some wererat allies already, so that's fine. Tarnagius is kind of a human supremacist by upbringing so if that makes you uncomfortable it may be an issue.

Seems a little weird, like why isn't your character lawful evil, but w/e.

Me? Basically he's not actually malevolent, he's just a prick.

The racism is less "exterminate the xenos" and more "look we don't mind them in the city, but why do they have to move into THIS neighborhood" and "I just don't understand why people can't keep to their own kind" combined with the general entitlement that comes from a relatively privileged life. I originally wrote him thinking the game was going to turn out much darker than it has turned out so far, mostly because of Kethaera (our old bard and the last original submission to leave) not wanting to do anything remotely immoral ever (I almost left the game because of that actually). He's done and is totally willing to continue to do some very nasty things, but he genuinely loves his hometown and it's uniquely egalitarian parts to it, he's just been shaped by experience, necessity and upbringing to be what most people could charitably call an "irredeemable a+#~@!!". Also, I think Fox said no evil characters.

I did say no evil characters, primarily because I don't want backstabbers and griefers in the game.
I allow lycanthropes to have free will, and since Aster didn't live her life as a wererat, but took to the surface and tried to live an honest life, I'm willing to allow alignment flexibility. I've also known John for several years now, and I trust him to play responsibly.
Wererats do come up in the adventure path, especially since I've opened the sewers to be traverse-able, so it isn't completely unfounded.
My apprehension is more in the statistics balance, but I think it should be fine. Not only is she sacrificing a level, but that -2 Cha for an Oracle should have quite the impact.

To be fair, Tarnagius, you never did scalp anyone. I'll take a look into the adventure path again and see if there are any punches from paizo that were pulled. I might be able to give a slightly darker feel to it.

Aster is good cause of meeting someone. Play cheesey friendship/love music. Maybe with care bears dancing?

Aster's mystery would cover most of her wereratness unless she shifts which she probably hasn't done in years. She'll deal with the discrimnation when it happens. Hopefully she'll gain his respect enough to counter some of it when it is revealed.

And Fox can do dark, oh my goodness, can he. Beware!

Yeah Phil was... something else.

And yeah, I've actually been reading your Runelords game and just got to the part with the baby thing and the statue and the grasping testicles before fighting Nualia. *whistles* yikes.

I loved that encounter. Never misspell anything around Fox. Ever.

Is there parts in particular we should read? I know Fox is creating a summary for us, but if there are areas a summary just won't do, please let us know.

I meant why wasn't the wererat lawful evil, not Tarn.

I don't mind "dark" content though I do get twitchy about having characters suffer horrible personal violations over which the player has no say.

Yeah Phil was... something else.

And yeah, I've actually been reading your Runelords game and just got to the part with the baby thing and the statue and the grasping testicles before fighting Nualia. *whistles* yikes.

*Bites your ankle*

The werecapybara is back!

Now you are a capybara as well.

Thanks Tarnagius, it was quite possibly the best encounter I've ever done.
No worries Rexandi, I fully understand. Players will always have a say. If however I were to end up going too far, please please please message me and we'll figure it out.
Gasptone! Has Phillip been watching us all this time??

Kintargo is haunted by the Dread Capybara, no thrunite ankle is safe! CHITTER!

I am massively confused... :)

Wait, FURNOK!!!! You LIVE!

When Furnok died, Phillip also left. Vandra/Pylos, and Ali were not far behind him either.

Phillip got bit by a werecapybara in the sewers. It was silly to begin with, but silliness ensued.

Ah! Less confused now. And I had to look up capybara, massive hamsters as a were creature, very nice :)

It's understandable. We all agree to accept players death, but one never knows how you'll handle it until it comes to be. Losing Furnok was hard on all of us, you included. He was the driving force of the group for a while there.

And you were missed, Furnok. Did you read your own funeral?! Or was that too morbid?

Massive cheeks! I stuff my cheeks with foes and gobble them up!

A touching funeral, let my inscription read 'For want of a dagger a PC was lost.'

Capybaras look cool :D

Werecapybaras however....