Bacchreus's page

thanks for your efforts and you'll be glad to hear that pathfinder #48 arrived yesterday safely.

Mark

Hi all, its me again
this order (Order # 1750397) just arrived and although in my order history it says its all arriving as one package, when i opened the box pathfinder adventure path #48 was missing and on the invoice it says this was previously fulfilled. I have definitely not received pathfinder #48 and am wondering why and also if it was going to be shipped separately then my order page should reflect that. Can you please look into this.

regards
Mark Rogerson

thank you, i'll let you know if it turns up

I have been waiting patiently for this order to arrive now for quite some time. As I live in australia it normally takes at least a month to arrive and since its been more than 6 weeks I don't think its coming. I recently spoke to a friend of mine here who also subscribes and he said his order had come. It says in my history this has been shipped. Can you please help me by either finding my lost order or sending me it again.

Thanks for your help
Mark Rogerson

Well this is my attempt with apologies to George RR. Hope to see some other versions and opinions.

Storm clouds gather on the Storval, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall repent my past transgressions.
I shall live and die on my ranging.
I am the arrow in the darkness.
I am the scouter of the wilderness.
I am the fire that burns the unclean, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards Magnimar.
I pledge my life and honour to the Black Arrows, for this day and all those that follow.

I'll be yoinking this as well.

I've only just got past this point in the campaign and my Bard player will be gratified to hear theres been an encore performance called for his excellent stage presence. Tsuto will have time to drop an anonymous note in an empty cooking pot at the rusty dragon for Ameiko to find, warning her to stay away from the opera. This should forewarn my players as the aforementioned bard is developing a romantic attachment to Ameiko and he'll be present when she discovers the note. Hopefully it'll reinforce the idea that the goblins are getting outside help with connections to the town.

thanks for the great scene PWU. This should be a great addition to my game

Thanks for all your efforts Liz. I appreciate it a lot.

regards
Mark

Thanks Lillith, thats great to hear. I'm really looking forward to painting the mantises and queen ileosa. the sculpts are awesome.

<gratefully accepts cookies>:)

I just had a look in my account page and it says
These items will ship with a future subscription shipment:
• Pathfinder Miniatures: Queen Ileosa of Korvosa
Reaper Miniatures 1 @ $3.99 $0.00
• Pathfinder Miniatures: Red Mantis Assassin
Reaper Miniatures 2 @ $4.99 $0.00 ea. = $0.00

but theres no mention of the other minis that were missing.

ie:• Pathfinder Miniatures: Seltyiel, Iconic Half-Elf Eldritch Knight

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Visbaronetess Delour Aulamaxa

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Chammady Drovenge

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Eando Kline, Pathfinder

sorry to be a pain but I just want to make sure I won't be missing any.
regards
Mark

Hi all, I just received this order today and it was supposed to consist of the following.

• GameMastery Map Pack: Dungeon Chambers

• GameMastery Map Pack: Temples

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Desert

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Theater

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pathfinder Lodge

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Bandit Outpost

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pirate Island

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Forest

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Queen Ileosa of Korvosa

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Seltyiel, Iconic Half-Elf Eldritch Knight

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Visbaronetess Delour Aulamaxa

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Chammady Drovenge

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Eando Kline, Pathfinder

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Red Mantis Assassin x2

However none of the miniatures were in the package. When I placed the order it said this would be in one package and my order page reflects this too. I did receive all of the flip mats and the two map packs. Obviously this is of great concern to me as I have been desperately waiting for these minis to start painting the beautiful sculpts. Please get back to me as soon as possible so I know if they are coming in another shipment or this was an oversight and you will still have to send them.

Thank you for your time
regards
Mark

The reason that this statement, "Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness" doesn't negate the operation of the lantern completely is *because* the lantern both "sheds normal light in a 30 foot radius" (not described as an increase, therefore uneffected by this bolded text from the Darkness spell) and also "increases the light level by one step for an additional 30 feet beyond that area" (described an an increase, therefore negated by the Darkness spell). I do not disagree that the Lantern fails to produce normal lighting in an area of Darkness created by the spell, but the only text in the spell that applies to the 30 foot radius of normal light is the initial sentence "This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step", resulting in Dim light in the area of overlap.

Now we're in complete agreement.

Doskius Steele, I can agree with you on almost everything you've said except for the "no" answer in part 2 regarding non magical light sources and your conclusive summary on same.

How do you reconcile this sentence from the Darkness spell description?

This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step

with this example sentence from every light source description in equipment? (i've used hooded lantern because I'm sick of using torch)

A hooded lantern sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius

Every argument so far has pointed to this sentence from the darkness spell description to say nonmagical light doesn't work.
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness

Now to my understanding,

A) Given the equipment descriptions, the nonmagical light in question (the lantern exampled above) isn't increasing the light level because it is the light source, ie. normal light. And therefore can only be reduced as per the individual spell.

B) If the specious argument about nonmagical light not working in darkness were correct then the sun would also be extinguished in an area of magical darkness which clearly isn't the case.

The meaning I see from the sentence
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness
is that after a darkness spell has reduced the light level in a given area any attempt to increase that light level by nonmagical means will fail. As i've said before, whether that was the intent behind it I don't know but that is how it definitely reads.

Now if all the equipment entries said something like
"A hooded lantern increases the light level 2 steps up to a maximum of normal light in a 30-foot radius"
then it would solve the dilemma with nonmagical light sources completely but unfortunately it doesn't.

Also after a 100 different posts on the subject it'd be nice to hear a dev chime in to give us some idea of the intent. Or perhaps they're in as big a debate about this as we are.

I too have still been following along this thread with great interest as my party has been dealing with a shadow demon over the last two sessions. I had stopped chiming in because I found myself in almost complete agreement with BigNorseWolf.

It also feels like we've been going in circles a bit until AvalonXQ suggested there was a thread giving more clarification which I've also found here.

Now from that thread after a false start from James Jacobs we get an answer in line with what Avalon, Steel et al are proposing and I'm quite happy to change my view in line with this. There definately needs to be errata to add this 5th light level to the light source rules. Also as an aside I appologise to my party for screwing the dwarfs darkvision when it was cast in lanternlight during last nights game.

Which brings me to my original argument about nonmagical light sources present in the area before whatever dark.... spell is cast. The question was asked also in that thread as BigNorseWolf points out but it wasn't answered. heres the quote.

I do have another question though related to Darkness (& Deeper). It might be a bit tricky. They include this line, "Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness."

Does this refer to:
# All nonmagical sources of light,
# Nonmagical sources that are lit after the darkness comes into effect,
# or Nonmagical sources that are inside the area of the darkness.

The big question mark is if you have an "area of normal light", how is it lit? If it is lit only (but well) by torches and lanterns, and those do not increase the light level in an area of darkness, does that mean instead of dim light you have total darkness? What if you then light a sunrod in the area? Outside the area? Taken to an extreme, does the sun count as a nonmagical source of light?

How I run it right now is that whatever light *exists* is dimmed (or darkened). Fresh light sources in, or brought into, the darkness will not increase the illumination. Light sources without do. This gets more complicated since an area of darkness can *move*.

I really like the Pathfinder system of Darkness, but I just need a bit of clarification.

I would also like this clarified before I screw my party over again unintentionally

As an aside observance about light...

So a vampire could exist outside under the sun by casting Darkness, as it would reduce the ambient level by 1 (Bright to normal). Which a vampire can act normally normal lighting conditions.

Yes, thats certainly how i'd interpret RAW. It also means vamps could operate in a forest during daylight too. But it'd give the pc's great chances to cook their a$$es by bull rushing them into the light or blasting a hole through the forest canopy. Besides, haven't you seen Buffy tVS, its all in there ;)

http://ia700208.us.archive.org/5/items/Episode009FromShoreToSeaWithBrandonH odge/ChroniclesPFPC-EP009.mp3

I really enjoy their show and listen to every ep as soon as it drops but I'd have to agree there were definately some questionalble assertions regarding the light rules made in that one, as you've pointed out.

1) A torch raises the light level by one step.

Sorry but I can't agree with this as per the torch description

"shedding normal light in a 20-foot radius", ergo it is not raising the light level.

2) Darkness decreases the light level by one step.

I agree with you here.

3) The torch does not operate within the radius of the Darkness spell.

I can't find anywhere that says this. Can you please give me a page reference for this rule.

but the black letter conciles all these statements.

I'm afraid I don't understand what your trying to say here. Can you please rephrase to help.

@Bacchreus: The tunnel is dim light. The torch raises the light level but does not operate within the area of Darkness. Therefore the light is still dim. The Darkness spell lowers that to darkness.

So if I understand you correctly your saying that even though the torch was present before the spell was cast it gets completely ignored. I'm sorry but I can't agree with you and it doesn't mesh with RAW unless I'm missing something you can point out. My understanding is that under the spell description

This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step

With a torch shedding normal light then it stands to reason that it would decrease to dim.

The spell further says
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness

And in the example given it isn't increasing the light level. I would agree that if darkness had been cast without the presence of a torch then the prevailing light level would be dark and if a torch was then lit or brought into the area it wouldn't raise that light level. This is in accordance with the RAW. Whether or not that was the intent of the author I naturally have no idea.

Let's say you're in a tunnel with dim light.
Scenario #1:

You cast Light, raising the light level to normal. Let's say you sparked a torch at this point, even tho it wouldn't matter, as the light level's already normal. If Darkness is cast, the Light effect is dispelled, reducing the light level back to dim. As there's no magical light or darkness, the torch raises the light level back to normal within 20'.

Scenario #2:

You cast Darkness, lowering the light level to darkness. You again spark a torch - no effect. Then someone casts Light. As it's a lower level spell than Darkness there's no effect.

Scenario #3:

You're walking in said tunnel (with dim light) with a torch, granting normal light for 20'. Someone casts Darkness. The torch sheds no light, and the light level is reduced to Darkness.

If i've missed anything, point it out and i'll try my best to explain it.

Scenario #1: I agree with Loengrin as darkness cancelled the light but didn't extinguish its own effect.

Scenario #2: I agree with.

Scenario #3: I disagree with as Darkness only reduces the light one step. Since the torch was pre-existing in the area of effect the new light level would be 20'of dim light around the torch.

the fortnightly friday could work for me depending on which fortnight it is as I have my daughter every 2nd friday night.

Brisbane northside here

hi Dice Munkey, I was also at PaizoConOz 2010 and would be interested in continuing PFS games on a monthly to fortnightly schedule.

I'm located North Side in the Caboolture area and would be fine with either Ace in the city or more preferably Fast Break at Nundah if games could be arranged there. I can't guarantee blanket availability due to family and other social commitments but would endeavor to attend any session I could.

For scheduling i'd recommend Warhorn(dot)net which is the one rpga at Fast Break use and its a pretty good system.

regards
Mark R

Congratulations to all the venture captains especially the Aussie one as I can't think of a more dedicated person.

PS: I hope all these fine people get a shiny new title added to their forum names.

Hi all, I'm about to start in a campaign as a druid with a lion animal companion. It has the rake ability but no grab. I'm trying to understand how to make this work and follow the sequence of events to make it happen.

My understanding is that to rake, the lion would have to first initiate a grapple with CMB vs CMD of target and forego its normal attack as well as provoking an AOO. Then once the grapples achieved it can on the following round while maintaining the grapple inflict its bite damage and two rake claw damage. Does this sound right?

If so then wouldn't it just be smarter to move up to the opponent and bite on round 1 then full attack on round two. Thereby gaining an extra attack and not suffering an AOO?

Please help me to see what if anything I'm not following with this scenario.

I'd just like to add my thanks also to all the gm's and players and especially to stephen for organising a great event. I had a blast from start to finish and my Taldoran Duelist Fop Faren is eager for more Society action in the future, hopefully at the next PaizoconOz wherever it may be.

Hi DarkWhite,

As we're only a few days away from paizoconOZ 2010 I was just hoping you could post an update on table numbers so we can see which sessions are looking short on numbers so players can think about alternative scenarios. And to hear how things are tracking from your end. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with everyone and having a great time.

I remember reading somewhere (think it was torrents of dread) that the head zombie master is a Lich and is located at the Fangs of Zotzilaha. When a new priest wants to be elevated to zombie master he must go on a quest to the fangs for initiation.

I went with this idea in my campaign but inserted the aspect as the focus of the pilgrimage. As i'd played torrents of dread the party was eager to help this initiate to secure the Olmans help against the pirates. Worked out wonderfully with them killing the initiate and one greedy party member stealing some of the aspects treasure. they then destroyed it and drew zotzilahas gaze who then erupted the volcano. the party barely got away with their lives (sacrificing much of the treasure to do so)

Hi Darkwhite. I was wondering if you had put any thought into maybe running the shadow lodge interactive. I know this may be late notice but with the chatter on the forums about it you may find its doable with people willing to change over. i know I for one would love to have the chance to play it as I can't see it happening in Bris anytime soon with the three table requirement being a large stumbling block around here.

Thanks Ghetto for being upfront with us and not just dissappearing as many do. I'd also like to say thanks for the really enjoyable game you've run and I've had a great time playing Rulf.

If you are ever interested in starting up again or a new game please don't hesitate to contact me as I would love to play again with your excellent GMing (Rodg001 (at) tpg dot com dot au). Best of luck for the future and I hope your RL calms down to manageable stressfree levels soon.

with kind regards
Mark

Thanks for the prompt and helpfull clarification Jason. And I was not aware that you wrote those rules nor have I read the terrain Druid and seen its different phrasing so I will naturally defer to your interpretation.

As a follow up question and sorry for the threadjack but it seems in a similar vein. Jason, with the Totem transformation for Lion Shaman when you take natural weapons (bite [1d4], 2 claws [1d4]
for a Medium druid, rake, +2 CMB to grapple).

I'm trying to get my head around how you use Rake effectively without Grab. Was that an oversight or am I misunderstanding how it works.
My understanding is that without Grab you have to forego your normal attacks to initiate a grapple which will then let you rake the following round. Whereas with Grab you initiate the grapple as a free action if you hit and rake the following round. If that is the case then it seems rather pointless to use rake at all. Please help me comprehend.

I've only just come accross this thread and as I'm about to start playing an Animal Shaman Druid I found your post quite usefull. I find myself in agreement with most of what Jason has said except for the part about when a druid can wildshape. I've quoted the relevent rules section from the APG below.

Wild Shape (Su): At 6th level, a bear shaman’s wild shape
ability functions at her druid level – 2. If she takes on the
form of a bear, she instead uses her druid level + 2.

From my reading of this and the specific wording i've emphasised in bold I take it to mean that Druids still gain wild shape at 4th lvl but on reaching 6th its application changes.

good to know, i've been there and got fairly close to a drag line (by god they're big). Were you actually on it?

well, got my sessions booked in and looking forward to taking my Taldor rogue up to level 4 if the stars align. I'll finally be able to finish the Devil we know series with parts 3 and 4. booked into the first season 2 mods (before the dawn) and city of strangers series. can't wait. And so happy as my APG hardcover arrived today.

I just finished the battle for farshore at the end of TOD tonight. It was an epic fight and I used a hybrid of Battlesystem and Trafalgar rules to run the large scale stuff. Took 5 three hour sessions and ended awesomely with the baddies winning thanks to a last minute betrayal by one of the pc's who has stranded a large chunk of the party on a desert island by teleport. During the battle I had 700 pirates and used the following 2 statblocks for most of the basic guys. They are PFRPG and I also have conversions for all the main players.

Pirates (560) CR1/2
XP 200
Human warrior 2
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +1
Defense
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+3 armor, +1 shield)
hp 15 (2d10+4)
Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +0; +2 vs. enchantment and mindaffecting
effects
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee short sword +4 (1d6+1/19–20)
Ranged shortbow +2 (1d6/×3)
Statistics
Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +3 (+5 to escape grapples); CMD 13
Feats Free Spirit (see below), Weapon Focus (short sword)
Skills Craft (sculpture) +4, Diplomacy +1, Intimidate +4,
Perception +1, Profession (cook) +3
Languages Common
Gear Studded Leather, light wooden shield, shortbow with 20
arrows, short sword
Special Abilities
Feats These pirates have the Free Spirit feat, which gives a
+2 bonus on saves against enchantment and mind-affecting
effects, and +2 on Escape Artist checks and to CMB to
escape a grapple or bindings (see Pathfinder Chronicles
Campaign Setting 129).

Veteran Pirates (100) CR 2
XP 600
Human fighter 1/rogue 2
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6; Senses Perception +10
Defense
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 32 (4 HD; 1d10+2d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +1; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities bravery +1, evasion
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk Heavy Flail +6 (1d10+3/19–20)
Ranged mwk dart +5 (1d4+2)
Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6
Statistics
Str 15, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Alertness, Evasion, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (Heavy Flail)
Skills Acrobatics +7, Disguise +3, Intimidate +6, Knowledge
(piracy) +2, Perception +10, Profession (sailor) +5, Sense
Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +8
Languages Common,
SQ rogue talent (combat trick), trapfinding +1
Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds;
Other Gear masterwork chain shirt, darts (5), masterwork Heavy Flail

For the first battle I was still using 3.5 but there's no reason why you couldn't make the standard pirates the first one and just run slipknot pete as is but his CR will drop to 7. -1 for being 3.5 and -1 for PF CR is equal to character level -1 unless they are equipped as a PC (which he isn't)

Scipion: I'd also like to throw my hat in the ring as a potential player. I'd like to use a character that I'm very fond of from a defunct 2nd darkness pbp. His name is Calinder (http://paizo.com/people/Calinder) and is a Cleric of the Holy Warrior Variant from pg43 of the pathfinder campaign setting.

Of course I'm happy to change any details that may be necessary and I'll naturally reset his xp to 0. For simplicity i've cut and pasted the campaign setting details on holy warrior below.

Holy Warrior (Ex): A cleric with this ability is proficient with
her deity’s favored weapon. In addition, her base attack
bonus as a cleric equals her cleric level, and her cleric Hit Die
becomes a d10.

Class Abilities: Some clerics think of themselves more
as holy warriors than proselytizers or shepherds. For these clerics, the ability to fight trumps all other concerns. Taking the above ability
requires a cleric to give up both of her domains, including her
domain powers.

Darkwhite, well done on getting this up and running. Your providing a fantastic survice to gamers that otherwise would have been stuck with wasted trips.

I have a question regarding session D. My character is projected to be lvl 2 and one session short of level 3 at that time and I'd like to play in #51 The City of Strangers Part I Shadow Gambit (Tier 3-4) because part 2 is the next session and my character should be level 3 then. Is it fine to sign up for a tier higher than your character level ie; play up?

On another topic you ask for players availability to GM sessions. Are you just looking to fill the 5 table per session gap or are you open for more than 5 tables at a time? Also will gm's be expected to also pay the $10 per session fee.

Hey, Prankster. don't know if you've heard but with the cancellation of Gencon Australia this year DarkWhite is planning on running Paizoconoz 2010 over the same dates to run lots of pathfinder society mods in Brisbane.

heres the link: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderS ociety/grandLodge/genConOz2010BrisbaneCancelled

Also good luck on your shoot. which town btw?

Ierendi should work fine. Sasserines supposed to be some kind of isolated city state but it really doesn't need to be. It really doesn't get revisited after SWW except for teleporting parties cashing in loot. For Krakens cove you could just use one of the smaller islands (wasn't there one with white apes that springs to mind. just thought, savage white apes - cool).

my current savage tide campaign is in Mystara

while my runelords campaign is in Golarion

*Off-topic warning!*

Bacchreus - out of curiosity, did you beef up the final encounter in "Ashenport"?

I ran it as a Lovecraftian one-shot, and the last foe's abilities seemed somewhat "all-or-nothing". While I am no fan of 4e, I did note that the 4e version of "Ashenport" (available for free on-line "in" Dungeon 156) has some hench-beings in the same room as the Voice. (Probably as a result of 4e's rules for designing encounters.)

offtopic/ Anyway, I decided that if I were to run "Ashenport" again then I would re-vamp more of the encounters. (I had already re-done the fish-men as a nastier kuo-toa/Deep One [from d20 CoC] hybrid.)

yeah, I did use the 4e version as a guide and stole some ideas from that such as the last room. The voice on his lonesome would have been owned. I also used the deep one (same source) for the base monster and beefed it up. I also pushed the lovecraftian themes. /offtopic

Hi Bacchreus,

I'm organising PaizoConOz in Brisbane, Thursday 23rd - Sunday 26th September 2010, during school holiday break, in lieu of GenConOz which was canceled recently.

Did you attend GenConOz last year? Are you interested in coming to PaizoConOz this year? Are you in contact with any other local Brisbane players who might be interested in playing?

There are several interstate players flying into Brisbane for the event, but I haven't heard of any local Brisbane players until now. In fact all of the GMs for the event are interstaters. We're really interested to meet local Brisbane folk to encourage a Pathfinder community in Brisbane if one isn't already happening that we're unaware of.

I'll be making a big announcement here on the Pathfinder Society messageboards, hopefully tonight or soon after, regarding venue, games schedule, session times, costs etc.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Stephen, I certainly was at Gencon last year and would be very interested in playing at Paizoconoz this year. you can contact me privately via email Rodg001 (at) tpg dot com dot au.

I'd also be interested although I have no idea how to do the skype etc thing but have played in a few pbp's. I'm located in Brissie, 3am would also be no good for me.

During the early part of the campaign in sasserine I ran concurrently with TINH, "Pandemonium in the Veins" from Dungeon 96. My players loved their rise as Gladiators and it was a good way to bring in the Zelkarunes horns faction.

Yes, "Torrents of Dread" (L 6) on the Isle of Dread and

Come to think of it, someone in the Savage Tide sub-forum did use "Torrents of Dread" in the real Savage Tide campaign, but - because of potential kopru over-exposure - swapped out the kopru with something else in either "Torrents" or "Lightless Depths".

I also ran Torrents when the party got to the Isle. I didn't like the railroad ship crash from SWW so my party stayed afloat during that night having a close encounter with Emraag and were then forced into the bay of Mora with the eye of the howling storm circling around the village. I followed the mod pretty much as written except for leveling up the monsters.

I kept the Kopru and had them causing the storm during their summoning ritual. I used the tablet from COBI as the ritual focus which gave them access to that link to puzzle over. The kopru worked as a nice forshadowing of things to come and they now had good intro and relations with the Olmans. I also found that with them killing the villages zombiemaster it allowed me to use their obligations to make them go to the fangs of Zotzilaha easier and they were forced to take a zombiemaster initiate with them which caused all sorts of fun during that part of TOD.

I'd also changed most of SWW and bits of HTBM by using both Tammeraut's fate (Dungeon 106) and Last breaths of Ashenport (Dungeon 152). These also worked a treat, both highlighting Dagons involvement with Demogorgon.

Deelin moves up next to Haunrar, bow at the ready, intent on continuing on

Davania is the continent south of the Thanegioth Archipeligo (Isle of dread area). It was never covered very well in any of the products although the Poor Wizards Almanacs did give overviews of each state as well as a timeline. I believe it was intended to be vague mainly as a GM playground, similar to the Northern Reaches.

As for the sacrifice part... muahahahahah you could be very evil with that if you wanted to....

Not to derail the thread too much, but I certainly could use some ideas as to how to have it come back to haunt them. I was planning on bringing them back as undead servants (no idea what type) to DK Vanthus.

back on topic. to reiterate, my battle was with 3.5 and yes the lemorian would certainly struggle against warforged, my guys were far more squishy with two precision damage characters. I actually gave them 3 rounds of warning as they were fighting Olangru with the statues limbs cracking and slowly moving positions. Made it much more descriptive and menacing which I think gave them the idea to leg it.

Do you think the final encounter in the shrine is overpowered?

I do think this encounter was very tough, so I added in an option of pulling the lever to sacrifice the prisoners which caused the whole temple to collapse (long story) on top of the statue if things got too frightening for them. The most surprising thing to me was that my group actually decided this was the one fight they couldn't win and ran (blew me away as its pretty rare to see players think their characters are going to die) and killing two innocents to do it (this has yet to come back and haunt them but it will).

This was all with the 3.5 system and I've been constantly having to adjust encounters to my group mostly up but sometimes down. They were handling the 3.5 CR's quite well and the harem was no problem but once we changed to PFrpg I've had to adjust the encounters up all the time to give them a challenge. All my players are just using vanilla classes from the core book and they are loving it.

One other thing I've noticed with the campaign in general. For a piratey/swashbucklery type campaign those two classes are probably the worse choices for players with the amount of non crittable or grapply monsters through it. The first problem is almost totally solved in PF while I toned down the amount of grapplers overall, skipping the sargasso for example. Now my group feels more like they're in a pirate adventure.

Great to hear Delazar, I'm also using the Mystara setting. Sasserine I put on Davania in the swamp hex to the north of Glauqnor (PWA map 1011, sea of dread region). It's great to hear of someone else using this setting. I found this site http://pandius.com/svgetide.html incredibly usefull and great as a starting point. I've also gained bucket loads of ideas from these paizo messageboards that've made the campaign far better than i would have done otherwise. For example due to these boards I totally changed SWW and most of HTBM to throw in WotC mod Last breaths of Ashenport (dungeon 152), then I added Tamerauts fate (dungeon 106) and Torrents of Dread (dungeon 114) and they all were a great success.

My games been going for nearly 2 years fortnightly and we're at the end of Tides of Dread, about to start the battle of Farshore in a fortnight. Incidently I'll be using a modified version of the old Battle System rules blended with the new Trafalgar (Warhammer historicals) rules for the ships involved.

We're set in 1005AC just before WOTI. I've also had the Thyatians fill in the roll of the Sea Princes with a similar back story for Sasserine as written.I also kept the Crimson Fleet pretty much as written.

Scuttlecove I've decided to place on the Island furthest east in the Thanegioth Archipelago, in the bay on the southern side. My party passed the north side of the island and I had it all as 200'+ cliffs so they never even bothered stopping.

At the start of the year we changed from 3.5 to the new pathfinder rpg and its given all my players a much needed boost of interest and we haven't looked back since. We love the new PF rules.

Anyway sorry for the long winded post and I hope your game is really successful and I'm sure you'll have many fun times with a great adventure path.

P.S. If your using the Rules Cyclopedia, IMO its still the best rulebook ever written and am amazed how I still pull things from it like boarding actions or using the trade system from the gazeteers.

I think I just took 2 crits in 1 round! Ouch!!

That'd be right, always trying to upstage the rest of us. See I like to spread the crits against me over 2 rounds and get healed in between. Which reminds me, Ghetto i've lost count. Is that the 5th or 6th crit this encounter? These goblins are dynamite ;)

Hi Mitch, I'm from Brissie and I usually just get all my stuff mail order straight from Paizo. Even with postage it still works out cheaper than I can buy the stuff in stores here thanks to the great exchange rate at the moment. I'm a subscriber and the 15% off all other products helps too of course.

seconded.

I only saw this thread about two weeks ago and decided to include the games in my 4e ROTRL campaign I started on monday.

My players had an absolute ball with all the games. They were so much fun that one of my players girlfriend who was watching at the time joined into the dragon races as the ringer and the chase the pig game.

During the dragon races, one player noticed the side betting and also took a piece of that action to no avail. Another player decided he wasn't good enough at it so spent his time playing musical instruments to distract other characters (thus giving -2 on skill checks) and finally one character got so frustrated with his dragon that he sneakily slipped a dagger between its ribs and tried to pretend it was sleeping. Of course he got caught out, was banned and had to pay 5gp for a replacement. So in summary I managed to get an act of greed, envy and wrath from 1 simple game, love it.

Then the chase the pig game turned into a brawl as I allowed grabbing the pig to be a minor action so everyone started charging, bull rushing, tripping etc each other in their efforts to get the pig. I also decided that the grease would keep allowing the pig to slip out of the catchers hands and shift 2 squares till enough had been wiped off to keep hold of it (essentially after 4 successfull attempts). I also said the pen was extremely muddy with obstacles and anything faster than a move required a skill check. The aforementioned girlfriend had great fun knocking over her boyfriend in the mud repeatedly.

These light hearted moments contrasted perfectly with the flashback scenes I also played, with the party going back to the night chopper was chased down and unmasked. I had one characters background be the intended 25th victim till Casp Avertin saved him with his life. The rest of the players then took on the roles of a young Belor Hemlock, Das Korvut, Nisk Tander and Ezakien Tobyn to chase chopper back to the isle, overcoming his guard dogs before finding the results. I'd also started the flashback with the character and his younger brother admiring the comatose form of Nualia before Ezakien chased him off only to have chopper set upon them in his alley with the obvious results. (All these ideas also came from these fantastic forums, I just had to stitch it together, oh and the 4e conversion, thats also courtesy of these forums via Scott Betts excellent work)

So after all that long winded explanation Delthos I can't thank you enough for giving me so much stuff to work with and contribute to the most memorable introduction to a campaign my group has had in my 28 years of D&D.

Appologies guys, I've had massive internet connection problems and this is the first time I've been able to connect. Haven't read through all the posts yet so I'll try to catch up. Also at the moment I'm still not able to guarantee my connection till those bastards at telstra come and check my phone line properly.