The Reaping Stone

Game Master Macharius

Some years ago, Azrenar, a cleric of Maramaga, Scythe-mother and Queen of Rot, petitions the king of Maerh-Varza to build a great temple to the ancient goddess. In great fury, the king seeks to put the offensive cleric and his followers to the sword and nearly succeeds. His followers' dead bodies line the roads to Maerh-Varza and the cleric Azrenar curses the king, declaring bloody vengeance.

Now channeling the power of the Reaping Stone, Azrenar has created a deadly supernatural disease, one capable of animating those who die of the horrible wasting disease. Will the spurned cleric turn Maerh-Varza into a zombie-infested metropolis or will the players find the cure in time?

The Reaping Stone is an adventure designed to take characters from 1st to 5th Levels. Baseline encounters are written for a party of six beginning at 2nd, though many encounters include information for increasing or decreasing encounter CR to adjust for party composition. Advancement will use the Medium track.

Character Creation:

This will be a 35 Character Point game, meaning that your Race Points and your Build Points must total 35 added together. So if you play a 10 point race it will be a 25 point buy, but if you play a 15 point race it will be a 20 point buy.

Starting Level 2nd Level, unless group consensus is otherwise.

Starting Stats Minimum 8 and Maximum 18 before any racial adjustments.

Race Any Pathfinder or Pathfinder-Compatible published to d20pfsrd, though Paizo/Pathfinder are preferred. Alternate Racial Traits and Favored Class bonuses are approved.

Sample Races and their Race Point Values:

Aasimar 15 RP
Changeling 9 RP
Dhampir 11RP
Drow 14 RP
Duergar 8 RP
Dwarves 11 RP
Elves 10 RP
Fetchling 17 RP
Goblin 10 RP
Gnomes 10 RP
Grippli 6 RP
Half-Elves 10 RP
Half-Orc 8 RP
Halflings 9 RP
Hobgoblin 9 RP
Human 9 RP
Ifrit 6 RP
Kobold 5 RP
Orc 8 RP
Oread 6 RP
Ratfolk 9 RP
Suli 16 RP
Svirfneblin 24 RP
Sylph 6 RP
Tengu 13 RP
Tiefling 13 RP
Undine 7 RP
Vanara 8 RP

Class, Feats, Traits Any Pathfinder or Pathfinder-Compatible published to d20pfsrd, though Paizo/Pathfinder are preferred.

I am making an effort to not say "no" to any player request, but on the other hand I do disagree with some of the Rules-As-Written: notably Standard Action summoning such as the Summoner class and some options for Druids. My proposed change for Standard Action summoning is that it summons a creature that is not bound to your will and is fully independent. Commanding the creature to aid you is an Immediate action that requires a Diplomacy or Handle Animal skill check against a starting attitude of Hostile. If you succeed, the creature acts as written in existing Pathfinder RAW.

Alignment - Full access to all alignments, though Evil/CN alignment characters need to have a reason to stick with and support the rest of the party at all times. My one real 'hard' rule: no pvp.

Hit Points Maximum at 1st Level, 1/2 dice+1/2 for each following level (ie 1d8 -> 1d4+4)

Funds If we start at 2nd Level, 1000gp. If we decide to start at 1st Level, max starting gold.

Hero Points You will begin with one a hero point, and acquire an additional point at every level advancement to a maximum balance of three. If a character's actions stand out as being particularly heroic, I will consider granting an additional hero point as a story award. Since the "best" use of Hero Points is to avoid death, expenditure of one Point leaves the character at -1 Hit Points but stable - but with a Debilitating Blow in a location to be rolled on the Called Shots variant ruleset in Ultimate Combat (lethal results will be re-rolled). Two Hero Points will avert death without permanent effects.

If you want to see what you can do with hero points, click here.

Background I would like appearance, background, and personality information on your characters. I especially encourage you to integrate your background with one or more of the others.

Rolls:

[dice=Initiative (bad guys)]1d20[/dice]
[dice=Initiative (Naraj)]1d20+2[/dice]
[dice=Initiative (Miraji)]1d20+3[/dice]
[dice=Initiative (Katie)]1d20+4[/dice]
[dice=Initiative (Rulgha)]1d20+2[/dice]

Successful Knowledge (religion) check on Maramaga!