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Session Five: The Whispering Cairn

We recuperated for the evening in the local pub, the 'Feral Dog', trying to keep a low profile (we were posing as archaeologists after all) and avoided a gang of toughs who were causing trouble in one corner, led by a bid scarred albino.

In the morning, we drove out to the boy's house, but found that his family had died in the Great Potato Famine. After pointing out that this happened 100 years before WW2, this was hastily amended to 'during the War', and what's worse, their graves were empty. As we investigated the rotting farmstead, we stumbled on a sounder of boars (yes, that's the term, I wiki'd it!), disturbed from eating the remains of a human arm, and they were put down after causing some grievous wounds to Cortez. When we examined the arm, we found that it bore a gang tattoo on the arm.

Confronting the gang (the Skanks) in the Feral Dog that night, we almost caused a firefight, but this was avoided by the return of our player Mikey, and his character flamboyantly used his Gush power to cause the albino's scar to re-open, terrifying the gang and all the townsfolk who watched. We were quickly able to get a name from him- Filge, a scientist who lived a couple of hours outside Dublin, who had employed them to unearth the bones for some purpose. After leaving a stack of Euro-notes to cover the 'damages', we headed back to our hotel to sleep it off (and write reports using words like "loss of deniability", "public exposure", "supernatural forces", and "swamp gas?!?!?" for some of us...). Between the public exposure and the fact that we were hunting for the bones of a little girl, dead 60 years, that some creep had had dug up, my character was getting seriously stressed. The Nazi ghouls he was just blocking out for the time being.

We reached the old observatory quickly in the morning, and after some quick climbing (to see through the windows), we ascertained that Filge seemed to be a very creepy bastard, if nothing else. Joe handed out balaclavas and we burst in the door, weapons drawn, only to discover animated skeletons firing pistols at us. Cortez was able to batter two down with a table, and Joe's rifle-butt shattered the other, and we quickly penetrated through to the dining-room, discovering a scene of horror. Though the bodies twitched slightly, none of them made a move, and we pounded our way up the stairs, hoping to preserve surprise. There, we rushed through his bedroom, and reached some kind of medical laboratory, where a man (identified as John Filge later, by checking his wallet) attacked us with some kind of magical lights, blasting through Joe's body armour. We returned fire, and he cloaked himself in invisibility, then called on some more creepy undead to attack us. We smashed our way through these, and Filge sent out a sheet of crackling flame before he was knocked cold by a rifle-butt to the head. We made sure he wouldn't be any trouble by grinding his fingers under my boot, then duct-taping his hands, feet, and mouth to take him back to the London HI branch for 'further questioning and imprisonment'.

The bones were buried in a quiet, simple ceremony by the village pastor, and after we explained that our friend Jonas had thrown a small knife ("so small, you could barely see it!") at the albino, the townsfolk seemed to accept the situation and repressed the memories.

We headed back to the Whispering Cairn and made our way up to the top level, where, true to his word, Alastair had opened the wall for us, emerging into a ring-shaped room surrounding what seemed to be a bottomless pit. In the centre, unsupported by modern architecture, was a small platform. As we approached it, two humanoid figures, seemingly clad in porcelain plate armour and wielding a pair of longswords, swirled from the air and launched an attack on us. Only desperate defense kept them from cutting Cortez to ribbons, and we finally reached the central platform, beaten and badly cut. Jonas immediately jumped into the middle, and was launched high in the air, vanishing out of sight. After some careful radio communication with 'Delta' (our team's all-purpose minion/fixit guy), we followed his example, and found ourselves in yet another tomb. This one had no body, but several mosaics depicting a battle where the person with the now-familiar glyph seemed to be disintegrated, and a trio of items- a pewter box, a pair fo long red horns, and a silver diadem. We boxed them carefully, then reported the cairn 'clean' and waited for our next mission.

Surprisingly, our immediate superior, Mister Alexander, turned up via helicopter the next day, with an unknown agent following him. We gave them the guided tour of the Cairn, and he congratulated us for a job well done before turning uss over to Miss Jessica, who greeted us with a sideways-stare and a cheery "You're all going to die!" in a lovely sweet voice. She informed us that an 'Age of Worms' was coming, and that everyone was going to die unless all of us went to Dublin the next day. We had to find out something about a cult there... it was very important.

End of Session Five
End of The Whispering Cairn

At this point, we're level 5-6, I'm not sure if the xp gain will have to slow down to keep us 'hungry', but I shall put the point to my GM.

Sorry, I'm a day (or two) late, and a dollar short, pressing 'work' business kept me. However, you do get a bonus session, since we were so bummed about missing our Rise of the Runelords session last week that we got the group together... and played AoW instead.

So, without further ado:
Session Four: The Whispering Cairn

We were joined for this session by a special investigator from the Hoffmann Institute:
Aaron al-Tothari, field agent for the Hoffmann Institute
Role: Research/Investigations
In-game: Human Smart hero 3/Mage 1 (Titan lineage: Hidden Suns- Sun tree)
My brother Michael was playing Aaron al-Tothari while he visited, a slightly paranoid Jew of Egyptian origin marooned forever from Mecca by its destruction in The Rift. He had joined the Hoffmann Institute as a way of managing his 'gifts'.

The Danger Team's forensic squad (our NPC minions) set to work on the downstairs level, which they labeled "the architect's lair", and then we tried turning the sarcophagus to face the green lantern, with disastrous results. The floor shuddered for a minute or so, then collapsed, leaving a gaping hole and a skittering noise with an acrid smell.
We fell back into fire-team positions, but didn't cope well with the geysers of shiny blue beetles that erupted from the broken shaft and swarmed us. Each of us was badly bitten and burned by some acidic secretion before we were able to scatter them with a few shotgun blasts.

We got a climbing kit together and headed down into the shaft, scouting by throwing some chemical lightsticks ahead of us. We came to another level of the ancient complex, this one filled with a bad smell. Heading left at the intersection, we came on a room built like a modern church, with rows of stone slabs laid out, and a mashed Nazi body on one of them. At the head of the room was a great big stone statue, which Gorona and Cortez teamed up to push over before it could 'animate and kill us all' (Aaron's words). Also in the room was a beetle grown to immense size, but it seemed lethargic and was easily blasted apart.

To the right branch of the intersection was a large room filled with the secretions of an entire hive of the acid beetles. We wasted no time in hurling in a quartet of Molotov Cocktails and shooting apart anything that came close to the door.

Further on, down the stairs, Gorona stripped off and dove into the black waters, trying to see if the passageway continued past the stairwell. As he returned, though, he was attacked by three sodden bodies in soaking Nazi uniforms. After a tough battle, we blasted the creatures apart, and continued on to explore the underwater room, to little avail.

Upstairs, we examined the corridor with the blue lantern, climbing slowly up the chain before reaching a small passageway set into the wall. After checking the floor carefully, we deduced that some kind of effect must have scraped something off the floor, and hastily clipped climbing-ropes to the chain and our own belts to prevent falling. Unfortunately, this was of little use against the trap set into the far end of the hallway, and we were all only saved by a lightning-quick invocation by al-Tothari, floating us to the ground lightly. He examined the lanterns and suggested that they be lit, like the mosaic earlier.
After quickly placing road-flares in each of the lanterns, the roof began to shimmer, and we tried the passageway again. It had opened! (My character was starting to feel very cranky about all of this... it just wasn't right! His friend Gorona turning into a bear... that was OK. This was.... not right.)

We came into a room with a sunken floor made up of large iron balls, with a 1m-wide plank over them leading to a blank wall. After a quick plan was made, we lowered ourselves to the floor and walked across carefully, but were ambushed by yet another pair of the Nazi ghouls. And then, we met a real-life, honest-to-God ghost, who explained that he could open the next door for us if we took his bones back to his family and had him buried. Battered, and with little other choice, we agreed.

End of Session Four

Due to a family funeral, we skipped our D&D session last week.

However, our group got together over the weekend, and we decided to play an extra session of Age of Worms, with another one to follow this Thursday.

I'll post up what we got up to later tonight, as I'm just on the way to work at the moment.

I have always been a big fan of paladins (who would'a figured?) but I have a lot of problems with the codes of honour, even as written.

For example, I'll draw on one of my (otherwise) favourite paladin books- the good old 2nd edition Complete Paladin's Handbook. The section on codes of honour in that required paladins to tell the truth all the time even when it isn't nice. For example:

Prevost, a young companion of Sir Geffen, asks about his performance on the battlefield yesterday. Sir Geffen believes that Prevost fought ineptly. "With your permission," says Sir Geffen, "I prefer not to answer."

"Please," insists Prevost. "I want to know."
Geffen looks him in the eyes. "Very well. You allowed an opponent to escape. You dropped your sword at a crucial moment. Your performance was poor."
Prevost glowers at Sir Geffen, then angrily stomps away.

OK, I understand telling the truth. I understand telling the truth when your listener doesn't want to hear it. But it says nothing about having to be a prick about it. You don't say "excuse me King Arthur, I believe your dirty harlot of a wife is cuckolding you with your favourite knight", you say "My Liege, perhaps you should look to the behaviour of your queen with the good Sir Lancelot."

Anyway, to the original question: I'm fond of the KISS approach ("keep it simple, stupid", not "spiked armour and facepaint").

* Do no evil. (this one's a biggie)
* Do your best in all you do.
* Do what you can for others before you think of yourself.

As a martial defender of the church (or of the principles of goodness, read Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy for a good example of how this differs), you must be a beacon of hope and a role model for others. If bards around the kingdom are telling tales of a paladin's disgrace (or, for a real-world example, of police corruption) it puts others off trying, and it tars all others with the same brush. Let's even go down the Rudyard Kipling path: If a paladin can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of goodness done, then theirs is the earth.

Of course, no D&D paladin is going to be totally capable of pure goodness: playing a class with a moral code is like painting a target on your forehead for the DM to aim for (and I say this as a paladin player and as a DM). It's an ideal. That's what paladins are all about. Living their ideals and motivating others to try to live the same ideals (NOT out of fear of the "smite makes right" code, but out of emulation, out of aspiration and out of respect for the paladin's difficult choice to live their ideals on the front line).

That came up in my AoW game actually. Krathanos had that very item, and I said that there was no buyer for the item (I mean, how many people need a gargantuan magic hammer). So the party was stuck with it. One of my players found that enhancement, and actually used the hammer for a while, before selling it.

Yeah, you can't get past massively oversized hammers. After all, even Buffy used one to beat up a God. If Buffy can do it, why wouldn't you?

You may be interested to read this thread.

I DM'd a game recently where my group of players found themselves in an evil version of the nightclub from Temple of Doom. They were being served by elegant Grimlocks in butler suits and the meals arrived in the animated bodies of large creatures- their bodies had been hollowed out and filled with giant brains. I did have one PC who refused to eat the brains, he explained that it was against his religion. The Grimlock waiter apologised profusely for offending the character and took the meal 'out the back' to the chef, before returning with the 'chef's special for the night- steak, served on a bed of forest salad. Unicorn steak. And he ate it.

They really did deserve it when the grimlocks tried to have the PCs for dessert...

Ooh, and my best one of all. I was playing a d20 Modern/Shadow Chasers game about 5 years ago, and we had a weekend marathon session which was truly awesome (though the sleep deprivation may have helped).

People from the PCs' high school were being found, dead, with particular organs missing. It turned out that a creature was killing these people and taking a token from them to empower his host- so the debating team captain's tongue was cut out, and this guy started being popular and charming. A basketballer's hands were torn off, and the kid could play basketball really well.

Then one of the characters couldn't find her boyfriend after he had walked home the night before. Eventually, they followed the clues and found a terrifying old shack in the woods. As the lone player went down the steps into the darkness, she fumbled around the wooden cellar for some kind of light, and she felt a table in front of her. She felt around and managed to find something on the table, bringing it up to a shaft of light from above... it was a rusty old skinning knife, sticky with congealed blood. The player (now my wife) completely freaked out, and when we walked home with the other players that night (all living in the same town) they all stuck together in a tiny circle so that nothing could get to them... they were IRL terrified. It was a great on-shot game, we've tried to get back to it a few times, but ti's never been quite the same.

I think a lot of monsters get their stats inflated beyond where they should be--just to artificially make them a tougher challenge for higher level parties. They could stay just as they are, or work even better with their descriptions, if they were closer to the baseline.

I agree with you on this, Grimcleaver. I think a lot of monsters (like Mind Flayers) get 'buffed up' in terms of HD. I understand they're meant to be 'boss monsters' with enough hp that one swing doesn't kill them, but I see them more like Star Trek- everyone is about as tough as each other (Klingons probably get a Con bonus for their lumpy foreheads) but their personalities are what make them dangerous.

So Mind Flayers have massive psionic powers? Why not just make them 1HD critters with some psionic-like abilities and Psion as their favoured class? Or is it that important to have them with 7HD so that when your fighter (finally) hacks them down, they suddenly become a massively powerful Medium Zombie, much more scary than a human one, even though the body type is about the same (human are beefier, by the pictures)?

Or am I going to get in trouble for suggesting that one of the non-SRD sacred cows- Illithids- is changed?

That is incredible! I want to go get myself some Fimo now!

It really does look like an Ulgurstasta, much scarier than "oh, it's the purple worm mini... again!"

Though after seeing the cover image for the Whispering Cairn, I was immediately tempted to buy up a dozen purple worm minis, repaint them green, and have the 'boss battle' take place like that picture.

There will be more to follow, but this is a fortnightly game, run alternately with Rise of the Runelords. If anyone has any comments, questions, or otherwise, please go right ahead!

Session Three: The Whispering Cairn

We headed into the cavernous eight-pointed chamber below and found an androgynous figure carved onto a central stone sarcophagus, with seven short corridors branching off in perfect compass directions, each with a lantern of unknown metal hanging from a long chain (which disappeared somewhere into the roof above). After some investigation, we decided to open the sarcophagus. While Paul luckily made his power check, and ducked back in time, the others were singed as some kind of oxygen-reactant chemical surged to life around the edge of the sarcophagus, opening to reveal- a shallow, empty hollow.

Chastened, we tried to turn the sarcophagus over, and ended up spinning it on some kind of central axis on the floor. We experimented with this for a while, until some strange kind of elevator opened up in the corridor with the indigo-coloured lantern, revealing a pile of crushed bones wrapped in some old brown rags. On further investigation (and using a stick to pry the moldy bones out of the cylinder before it retreated into the floor), we found that the bones were formerly human- and the rags were the remnants of an old S.S. brownshirt's uniform, complete with a swastika armband! This threw us all for a surprise, and made us reconsider our position. Clearly, this cairn had been opened more recently than we thought, but had they found what they had been looking for? Indeed, what were they looking for, and why were they looking in the Western Highlands of Ireland, of all places?

We turned the sarcophagus a few more times, and opened another elevator-cylinder, which we decided to venture down. In the room below, we were nearly overcome by a poisonous gas-trap issuing from vents in the floor, and retreated to find some way of dealing with the problem. (note: this was our first mistake).

We asked the townsfolk if they had heard anything about Nazis, or visitors during the War, and were directed to the oldest lady in the village, a lovable crone of about ninety. She told us that there had been some lovely young lads who visited during the war, a funny lot of blond chaps who left their jeep behind, which was very silly at the time, because petrol was being rationed, don't you know? And then only about half of them left after, she wasn't sure what had happened, but they all looked rather downhearted when they cleared out. And so I tied an onion to my belt, as was the fashion at the time.... we interrupted to ask if anyone knew where the jeep was, and she mentioned that it was nearby, in one of the sheds on her back field. We asked if we could search it, and she agreed. (note: this was our second mistake)

On searching the rust-ridden jeep, we found a secret compartment inside one of the doors, containing a box of ancient (WWII-era) stick hand grenades. We decided to use these to bypass the gas, possibly by damaging the mechanism. (note: for several characters, this was our final mistake). Cortez, clearly distrustful of the odd contraptions, waited outside with the doddering madam, while Paul and Danny decided to carefully remove the hand grenades from their sawdust packaging. We fumbled. Three times in a row. The shed erupted into tiny fragments, as did Paul (straight to -12 hp, the fastest PC fatality I have ever had). Danny, being faster to dodge, staggered out shredded, then collapsed in front of Cortez, who wisely picked him and the old lady up, and ran for the town doctor.

A week later, after Paul's funeral and Danny being flown home on medical retirement, the reserve force arrived. Having been briefed on the dangers, the Hoffmann Institute had called in one of their Danger Teams from Department 4. This involved introducing replacement characters, and a bunch of NPC minions who would be our camera-holders and light-getters.

Captain Joseph 'Joe' Montgomery, Danger Team Leader for the Hoffmann Institute
Role: Combat Leadership
In-game: Human Strong hero 3/Soldier 1
After Paul died, I was a little devastated, and so I knocked together a quick character concept based on the Special Forces captain from the Transformed movie- tough, combat-capable, but a 'good guy' through and through. He and his best friend Darunia have served on the Danger Team for four years together, and are nearly unbeatable together.

Lieutenant Darunia Gorona, Danger Team member for the Hoffmann Institute
Role: Close-Quarters Combat
In-game: Human Tough Hero 4 (Titan lineage: Wild Bloods- Wild Flesh tree)
Darunia is a mountain of a man, formerly from Uzbekistan, then Russia, where he served with the Spetznaz for two years. He is almost unstoppable in combat, his titan lineage manifesting to protect him from danger. However, he is a quiet, gentle soul, and smiles often. He likes 'hard men' like himself.

After the Danger Team arrived, there were some quick introductions, including trying to introduce Cortez to a pistol (he didn't grok), before the team mustered out and descended into the Whispering Cairn. They made a quick sweep through the upper level, then headed down into the gas-chamber. Of course, the gas-trap had long since deactivated, and they penetrated the corridor beyond easily, making their sweep forwards until they encountered a moldy brown lump the size of several mildewed mattresses, sucking the hat from their skins. After a quick discussion a chamber back, they decided to try burning a sample with Joe's lighter. The stuff swelled massively, and had to be hurled away. They then called for one of the Danger Team minions with a can of wire-cutting Liquid Nitrogen, and destroyed the brown mold with ease. The remaining chambers they quickly explored, then headed back up to the sarcophagus chamber.

(end of Session Three)

Session Two: The Whispering Cairn

After a few weeks of recuperation (and many many showers) the team was sent on another mission. A man named Allustan Black, living in the tiny Irish backwater town of Diamond Loch, in the Western Highlands, had found an old cairn outside of town. While this was not unnatural, the objects and carvings he had found were, and he informed the Hoffmann Institute. Cortez had to leave his maul at home, but after watching Highlander as the in-flight movie, was inspired to pick up a combat-quality katana blade in Dublin as we passed through.

After several connecting flights, and an eight-hour journey by Land Rover (the latter half on dirt roads), we arrived in Diamond Loch to find the hamlet a rough, tough place. Cortez made friends and influenced people by blowing all his Action Dice on Fortitude saves to consume incredible amounts of alcohol (including several Irish Carbomb cocktails).

In the morning, while Cortez recovered from his Advanced Elite Dire Hangover, Paul and Danny made their way on foot to the home of the reclusive Mr. Black. There, over breakfast tea, we discovered that Allustan was a former agent for the Hoffmann Institute, and had in fact retired to Diamond Loch precisely to escape this sort of wierdity. However, knowing the kinds of dangers they might face, he had arranged for a bundle of gear to be sent to him, including a brace of hunting shotguns and archaeological gear, since we would be posing as archaeologists excavating the cairn.

Thus fortified, we drove across the fields to the ominous area known by the locals as the Whispering Cairn for its disturbing sound effects, unloaded our gear, and headed inwards.

After finding (and carefully photographing) several branches off the main corridor, including one caved-in, and one containing an odd structure like a broken mirror-frame, but of unknown origin, we came on a large chamber filled with odd-shaped spiderwebs, and were attacked by a brace of immense hunting spiders, the size of a small hatchback car. Paul, holding the digital video camera (for evidence preservation) in one hand and his loaded shotgun in the other, made the Hoffmann Institute's Xmas Party/Firearms safety video as he critically fumbled his weapon, fell backwards onto his rear, and then discharged his shotgun into Danny's back (luckily failing to wound him). The spiders were overcome without anyone getting poisoned, and we spent several hours examining the bodies for signs of what could cause creatures of such tremendous size, before heading onwards down a steep, long staircase, down which we could see a faint, flickering greenish light.

(end of session two)

Session One

We started off doing the first 'Team Bravo' mission to try and get us into the 'Modern feel'. So we began by being assigned to investigate a violent attack in a warehouse nearby to town.
When we got there, we bluffed our way past the police guards ("Uh, Animal Control. We have reports of an animal attack here?") and started hunting around the warehouse. There were lots of bloody smears on the floor and two chalk outlines... each one of half a body. Eew.

On searching the warehouse more thoroughly, we found an animal collar with the name of a BioGenetics laboratory from just out of town, and a maddened survivor of the attack. We were able to calm him enough to get some information from him, and he babbled about a 'big lizard' that attacked his friend. We drove the poor fellow to the nearby hospital, where, we were sure, he could be properly taken care of, and bunked down for the night.

In the morning, we headed to the BioGenetics lab, and barged our way past the officious secretary, collar in hand. A scientist came out to soothe us, and took us into his lab to show us the projects. Apparently, the guy thought his name was Dr. J. Park, because he was breeding gene-spliced velociraptors, and locked us in the lab with one to try to cover up his work. While we battled the vicious beast, he fled to his car. Count Cortez smashed the reptile mightily with his maul, but Paul stabilized the creature and called the real Animal Control Organization while everyone piled into Danny's van and scorched away after the scientist.

After several hours on the freeway, he pulled over, and was a bit shocked to see the bloodied lot of us pile out, weapons at the ready (well, Danny had a gun, Cortez carried his maul, and Paul and Jonas both carried swords... maybe he hadn't paid his SCA fees in a while). He broke down and told us that he was trying to recapture the creatures, that they had evolved intelligent instead of just biological receptacles, and that we could help him catch them and have them properly put down. We agreed (some of us agreed that it would be better to pout him down, but saner voices intervened).

In the city sewers below, we hunted the creatures, following the Doctor's little GPS thing. It didn't work, and we got ambushed by three lots of them. The doctor went down hard, and though some frantic spending of Action Dice on Treat Injury checks stabilized him, none of thought that scar would ever really heal after being disinfected with raw sewage. The last of the raptors were finally put down, and we turned in the doctor to the police, telling them that an SCA meeting had got... 'out of hand' during a sewer trek, and a 'rival SCA gang' (you know, police go for that kind of explanation, it has buzzwords!) had attacked us.

The first session ended, and we agreed that while Modern was fun, that was, indeed, a silly place, and we would not go there.

Well, having tried to DM Age of Worms three times, TPK every single time, I decided to try my luck as a player. Yeah, I'm like that.

So my wife is currently running Age of Worms as a d20 Modern game, using elements of Urban Arcana, Dark*Matter, and the original (non-Spycraft) Dark Inheritance rules. I thought I'd post up a journal of how we've been doing, who our players/characters are, and what the heck seems to be going on.

We've finished session 3 now, so I'll spend a little while on backstory and unfolding events.

Our characters:
Paul Mithrandir, field agent for The Hoffmann Institute.
Role: Investigator
In-game: Human Dedicated hero 4 (Titan lineage: Storm Crows- Second sight tree)
Paul was my character. I was playing him a bit like Dominic Deegan, using the d20 Modern Drawbacks and Distinctions rules (found somewhere on RPGnow, I think)- he was slightly lame (no jokes...), needing a cane to walk, and required prescription glasses to see correctly, but with great potential (-1 level adjustment, which meant I gained a level for free).

Danny Splinter, field agent for the Hoffmann Institute.
Role: Wheelman/Combat Support
In-game: Rat Moreau (overt) Fast Hero 3
Danny was being played by Rowan, one of our regulars. He was a 4ft tall rat who walked around in a long coat and sunglasses, and carried a whopping big gun in the boot of his car. He was also our driver, which was why there were bricks duct-taped to the pedals.

Count Cortez, displaced Shadowkind, field agent for the Hoffmann Institute
Role: Protector
In-game: Shadowblooded Dragonblooded human Strong Hero 2 (Titan Lineage: Storm Crows- War tree)
Cortez is played by John, our resident MinMax player. Cortez was somehow flung through the Rift in Jerusalem (see the Dark Inheritance book) and ended up in the modern world, where he was recruited by the Hoffmann Institute for his strength and knowledge of Shadowkind.

Jonas Cerin, field agent for the Hoffmann Institute
Role: Medic/Investigator
In-Game: Human Dedicated hero 3 (Titan Lineage: Crimson Lords- Vitality tree)
Mikey is one of those players who only shows up every few games, but gets a few laughs every time. This time, he was playing a character who started out as a 'cleric' until he worked out he couldn't just heal people. Then he worked out that his first power from the Vitality tree, Gift of Tommuz, 'makes the target more fertile'. At that point, he gave up on roleplaying and just touched every NPC he could lay his hands on and yelled "Pop! BABY!"

I, for one, crapped myself twice when I found my name on the board, and have been drunk ever since.

Also, you're awesome!

I've been watching your PHB PSAs for a few months now, and I just noticed your name on one of the other threads.

"Man, askin' Hennet to wear a shirt is like askin' Hennet to wear... pants."

Laugh 'til I cry. Every time.

Well yes, I'm also going to have to admit I'm disappointed, and that all of the Top 32 items were so awful. [/sour grapes]

..Kidding!

Seriously, I put in a submission, I didn't come through to round 2, but congratulations to the fine folks who did. You have obviously all put in a lot of effort for these, and you deserve your positions.

Thanks also to Paizo, and to Erik, Wolfgang, and Clark for 'DMing' this competetion, it's really been great to be a part of it. Even the folks at my (day job) work were asking how I was doing it it, whether I'd heard whether I'd won yet.

Just a quick question: My Blessed Bracers. I posted these on the "losing items" thread, and the only criticism I could find of them was "bracers are armour, not a wondrous item".

I'm really hoping mine didn't get rejected because of that, because there are a few "bracer" items in the SRD wondrous items- bracers of armour, bracers of archery (lesser and greater). I could understand if it was a bit "bland", I was pretty much thinking it was a more flavourful reward than giving a low-level fighter or paladin a +1 sword but I'm just wondering.

What the heck:

Blessed Bracers
This pair of heavy vambraces is made of leather with steel plates, decorated with emblems of lawful and good deities.
Once per day, a Lawful Good wearer can shout the command words inscribed on the insides of the gauntlets in Celestial, “strike true against my foes” to imbue the wearer’s natural weapons or any melee weapons wielded with a bless weapon effect (meaning that they count as having a +1 enchantment for the purposes of striking evil creatures with damage reduction or incorporeal creatures, and that any critical threats against evil creatures are automatically confirmed to critical hits.). This ability lasts for 4 minutes.
If the wearer has the ability to smite evil, they may activate this effect by spending a smite attempt for the day (without gaining the smite bonuses).
Faint Transmutation; CL 4th; Craft Wondrous Item, bless weapon, creator must be good; Price 1,500 gp.

That "Lantern of Selective Perception"... I've been browsing through a friend's copy of Magic Item Compendium, and I'm sure there's an item in there that does something like that, I just can't place it.

Anyone else have a clue?

(somebody give me something to write on, dammit!)

What is the air speed velocity of a fiendish dire pseudonatural pigeon, African?

Yeah, thanks. Even if I don't get anywhere, this has given me the push needed to get off my butt and start writing seriously in the hopes of getting published, even if I have to publish myself.

So winner or not, I am no longer a loser... until the top 32 get posted!

YEA my work lets this website come in, but then I just read that the Noon time is PST not Eastern NUTS 3 more hours to find out if I have made it!!!!!! Oh well at least I can check out whats happening if I get more spare time. Good luck to everyone that entered and I plan to keep working on the other rounds even if I do not make it, BUT making it forces me to be on my toes and finish the work!

... You think that's bad? Spare a thought for us in Eastern Australia. We're on GMT +10, which means I'm posting this 16 hours before (or after, I can never figure out that whole "time dilation field" thing) PST exists. It's about 6:45 am on the 29th here, and I'm going nuts waiting for the results!

Ah well, good things come to those who wait. I hope.

... so why would Deverin choose them to exterminate?

You could just go for the 'bitter old ranger' route... they killed his father, and he prepared them to die. Inigo Deverin?

Now he's 'retired' again, and just runs his normal life being a stablemaster, which was his original calling until the goblins intervened.

What if it was assumed everyone had Power Attack? You just assume that anyone can telegraph an attack to make it easier to avoid, but also much more damaging. That might be cool. Especially what if the same was true of magic. The more you "charge it up" before you let it go lets people prepare for it more (giving them an easier save) but makes it +1 caster level in effect.

It might also be fun to experiment with the opposite. I want to attack as quickly and unexpectedly as possible. It does less damage, because I'm not carefully waiting and lining up as good a shot, but it's much harder to react to. That way you can add to your base to hit, but subtract from damage, minimum 1. With magic it would raise their save number but reduce the level of the effect.

I've always toyed with the idea of Power Attack not giving a penalty to attack rolls, but to initiative (and maybe to AC, I'm not sure). I've never yet managed to convince my group to go along with it, but it seems more "storylike" than "game rules", which is how I usually like it anyway.

So if you take a 15-point Power Attack, your barbarian is basically standing there letting blows rain on him for a few seconds before he carves the dragon a new one, meaning his initiative score is delayed, giving opponents a chance to kill him before he has time to get off his hit.

Similarly, if a dragon (or hill giant, or any of the other immense critters with higher BAB than a warrior who has trained fifty years for battle, just "cos they're bigger") selects to "shave 15 to 20 points" off on all its attacks, it's vulnerable, but incredibly deadly, rather than just letting its massive Strength and BAB be an excuse for taking a 20-point power attack as a matter of course on every single attack.

I'm very fond of that Dragon article about using three-dragon ante to do your character's ability scores. If only there was some way to reverse-engineer (without massive hassle) a way to 'set' the deck and 'draw' your players' fortunes...
"Ah I see, the Gold Dragon represents your spirit... that explains much"

OK, my group just fought through Thistletop level 2 (didn't get through what they named the "spikey-rune-pizza-coin-door" yet though....).

And we had a lot of problem fighting Nualia (through no fault of Watcher!'s excellent maps, printed out to scale), due to what I call the 'tactical geography' of the Thistletop dungeons.

They had gotten Orik onside, and he warned them that there was a trap in the corridor, that the previous bodyguard had "gotten messy" and so he got hired, and that if they were ever to interrupt Nualia, they had to call ahead to deactivate the trap. Our scout found the pressure plate, and they quietly dragged a table downstairs from the War Room and put it over the trapped area.

Our scout ran ahead and tried to open the door into Nualia's room quietly, but the Yeth Hound spotted him and sounded the alarm. This meant that combat started with the party quite a way away from the bad guys, with a 5-foot wide corridor and entrance into a circular room.

It took a full round of delaying for everyone to scramble backwards out of the corridor and back into the Hellcat's Hall, then the combat went back-and-forth down the narrow corridor, with Nualia retreating to heal up before our scout (very luckily) tumbled through her square and shot her through the neck with a lucky shot.

All I'm saying is, I like BBEG-fights to be a bit more party-friendly. I understand that dungeon corridors are meant to be defensively-built. If I'd though about this better, I would have changed things around a bit, maybe reduced the size of the hermit crab corridors and blow out the Observation Chamber into a big area that the whole party could participate in. As it was, I had my knight (the party's melee combatant) cowering in a corner due to tanking his will save against the Yeth hound's Bay, and one of the other players complained because she wasn't able to act in the encounter.

But there's been a lot of really cool player made tools for running a good Rise of the Runelords game.

*MP3 of Goblin Songs
*Grant Gould's awesome artwork
*The Tsuto letter (Sorry I can't recall by who, but it's popular)
*Lilith's Nualia/Tsuto artwork
*Erian_7's Swallowtail goblin raid maps
*Yeah and my maps too...

Don't foret Tamago and KaeYoss have both made special Character sheets, I'm using Tamago's ones at the moment and they look excellent.

But, stepping away from the maps for a moment.. You could consider buying the Map Folio or the Item Cards for yourself (not me). Or.. simply running the best game you possibly can.

I am actually a subscriber, the subscription is (damnit) under my wife's name, we weren't aware that it would say I was a subscriber on the boards etc. I will certainly be buying item cards (unless I win the competition) and other stuff as soon as it comes out.

If people just have a really good time playing in the Adventure Paths, that's going to happen as a natural side-effect.

Well, that's happening, and you're an integral part of it. Thanks again.

Oooh. I like the samurai hobgoblin idea. The big question I have though is "hobgoblin" just doesn't work as an asian creature name.

A nation of Oni and Bakemono on the other hand...

Perhaps the Oni (Ogre Mages) are the true ruling caste of the Bakemono (hobgoblin) nation, and they in turn oppress the Minkai (hobgoblin for "pink and weak", used in this term as a slang for "human"). Maybe they even rule openly, prompting their Bakemono Samurai to wear helmets that depict their tusked, horned faces, as a reminder of their authority and the horrors that await rebellious peasants and servants.

I had a cool idea (well, cool to me, anyway).

Hobgoblins could be from the Minkai region of Golarion, in fact they are the dominant species. They have a highly lawful society, ruled by separate castes of rulers, and are tyrannical (but protective) towards their human (Minkai) servants.

Hobgoblin samurai, in devil-face masks with katanas, greatbows, and riding horses... wouldn't that frighten our dear little Sandpoint goblins?

I've always been slightly leery of using hobgoblins myself, the whole 'goblins, but bigger' thing never quite worked for me, and I used to be an old Warhammer player, so goblins and orcs NOT being related also creeped me out.
That said, I've DMed through Red Hand of Doom (thank you, James Jacobs, for 6 months of once-weekly gaming that introduced about a dozen 14-year-olds to D&D and hooked 1/3 of them permanently) and I didn't mind their monks. I did, however, find them worshipping Tiamat (instead of Maglubiyet) strange.

Edit: Damn you Heathansson, you beat me to it!

But hey! That's all moot now! The maps are fixed. And I'm online to gather up some e-mails to send out another batch!

Thank you so very much, Watcher! As I said, if there's anything I can do...

You have been a great help to me, and I'm sure to many others as well (at least, judging by the number of replies here).

Maybe you should do a 'temporary softening' thing... if it dissolves the metal, it's gone for good, but ti gets back 1 hardness/hp each hour afterwards.

Yes, this doesn't make sense.
Yes, this defies physics.
Yes, it changes how a black pudding works.

Meh. A wizard did it.

It mentions in one of the adventures, I think Tides of Dread, that he ends up running into a Crimson Fleet ship, which picks him up and takes him back to Scuttlecove.
He hangs around making himself a nuisance there (killing people he doesn't like, making trouble, lusting for his sister... wait, those are civic duties in Scuttlecove anyway) until getting promoted to Captain of a ship by Cold Captain Wyther and being 'remade' into a Lemorian.

Then he remembers Farshore, gets his ship together, and leads the attack before getting his face ruined by the players (hopefully).

Hey man, sorry I missed your post ... not that I would have been able to make Bowral on the weekend anyway; an awesome town though, my family used to holiday there a lot when I was younger.

How did Game Day go?

Had a lot of fun, gave away minis/dice/stuff, a bit disappointing because we only had 6 players turn up, but it was great to 'get the gang together again', just like the Scoobies.

I will also add my name to the list please.
blue_eyed_paladin(at)hotmail(dot)com.

Wow, you've queued up an enthusiastic bunch of people here. Let me know if I can do anything to supply you with, I've been making player handouts like crazy, including a real Sihedron medallion, Tsuto's journal, Erylium's prayer book, and others.

Glah! Going up against Hemlock before they've had a chance to finish the Theater? That's a TPK waiting to happen! They need that XP (not to mention the adamantine glaive) or he'll just roll right over them!

But they can't get to the adamantine glaive until they ransack the House of Blue Stones (it's in area 19, in the secret compartment behind the counter).

Plus, if they've got that far, how have they not found the Wand of Unlimited Fireballs? That should clear up the problems with those lycanthropes. They're onyl meant to last the first half of the adventure anyway before one of the PCs puts silversheen in the town well. Please tell me they've thought of putting silversheen in the well, I thought that was the only real weak point of the adventure.

Good of you to ask DMs though, a lot of DMs (well, me, I really can't speak for everyone) really appreciate a player who "plays in" to the campaign, it allows for the DM to unfold some of the world knowledge to the player without flat-out just dropping it into their laps.

Also, what's up with all the 'rune' stuff, everyone knows it's the mind-flayer (oops, "brain-eating-squid-head-people") BBEGs for this adventure path, it lays out the plot of every single book on p3 of Pathfinder 1.

Plus, if you read only every third word of the "Pathfinder's Journal" section at the back, it tells you where all the cool secret treasures are.

...seriously, does no-one at all read the "online subscriber" web content?

Anyone confused? Try here.

In my game, I have a rogue who decided after session 2 that he wasn't 'fitting' how he saw his character, so he remade him as a scout, which works out better for me. I have another player who was a cleric of Gorum briefly before deciding he didn't like the concept and changing to a Spirit Shaman. I recommended he play a Varisian, mystic gypsy folk as they are, and he's now loving being one. I also have a knight from Korvosa, who's playing along the LN path (and may even try for entry into the Hellknights later, if it occurs to him).

OK KaeYoss, lemme see if I can help contribute a bit:

Players' Handbook II (icky but could be good)

Beguilers actually fit reasonably well into the Varisian 'thief-mystic' ideal. They are tricky, and live by their wits and by pulling the wool over others' eyes. They are "smooth, sly, smart, likeable, and light on [their] feet". Varisian beguilers often stay on the move, avoiding entanglements and, possibly, punishment. Their cultural acceptance and importance of this role makes them an integral and welcome part of many Varisian bands.
NOTE: This is interesting, I'd never thought about playing one of these until right now. Hmm.

Dragon Shamans come from the far north areas of Varisia, in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. They devote themselves to some of the mighty creatures that dwell there, and receive mystical powers in return. They guard the seers who interpret the ancient prophecies of the mightiest dragons from those who would misuse them.

Duskblades are the fading remnants of ancient Elven skill in mixing magic art and swordplay. These skills had only rarely passed beyond the borders of the Mierani Forest before its fall, and now, precious few Duskblades remain to combat the evils in the Elves' ancient home.

Knights, like paladins, are reasonably rare in Varisia. Many serve as lay champions of the faith for Iomedae, Abadar, Irori, and even Asmodeus, the most famous being the Hellknight Order of the Nail. While they are concerned little with 'doing good', they grimly enforce 'the law' in many places.

Maybe Volioker makes her an intricate clockwork box, and when she finally gets it unlocked, there's a delicate little ring with a piece of adamantium in the shape of a keyhole?

I'm sure to dwarves, that kind of thing would seem really romantic.

Or, if you're more Order-of-the-Stick dwarf-friendly: He's already written away to her parents to ask if she can marry him, presenting his lineage, deeds, and financial records. When he gets a reply back, Volioker proposes to her by saying "My diamond in the flint (you see dwarves think this kind of thing is romantic), your parents have already approved of our joining, like two fine metals heated into an alloy (work with me here...), would you do me the honour of becoming my... business partner...and (sob) wife?"

Or both...

Maybe the Fort did check in with Magnimar, and Lord Mayor Grobara just wants to clean the PCs off his hands by NOT telling them there's any problem, but also having the deniability to say
"Well, we heard one short message, it went , erm, where's that scroll where we wrote it down on, oh here it is: "help, there's ogres attacking us, they've killed about AAAAGH help please help us AAAAGH it's grabbing my AAAAGH make it stop AAAGH that's not right-" but we couldn't really tell what was going on, so we didn't think it was worth telling you."

I can see the Lord Mayor being more than a bit Rudgutter-ish, but less eating of eyeballs.

I have to agree with this, my group has done an 'emergency reconvene' on a Saturday afternoon (we usually play every second Thursday night, which drives me crazy.... tooo.... long.... between....gaaaming.....), and they seem to be having a ball, we're about to enter the dungeons of Thistletop at the moment.

The boards have been FANTASTIC- handouts, extra plot hooks, side quests, artwork (special thanks to Lilith for her work). I wish boards on... ahem, 'another' gaming company website could be this supportive and familiar. I now get in trouble from my (gamer) wife (who's playing RotRL) because when she gets up, I've been checking the Paizo boards for half an hour... when she goes to bed, I'm usually checking the Paizo boards for another half hour...

Gaming so good it's wrecking my marriage. I'm not sure whether I should cheer or cry.

I just made my own copy of Tsuto's journal a couple of nights ago. Damn, should have checked the boards.
Ah well, I used Lilith's beautiful artwork (I think one of my players gained a

from looking at Tsuto's sketches of his girlfriend) and sewed the pages together. But yours looks cooler.

So it's not reasonable to ask people to use titles like "Problem with Burnt Offerings main villain" or "RotRL 1, final encounter" or something like that?

I keep running into the same problem with the AoW, which I'm playing in. I don't read those posts, but some of the titles give up the goods anyways.

That seems fair enough, I've been guilty of this too. Sorry.

Oh, and for my 2cp:

* Madam Mvashti/Hellfire Wyrm CR wrong?
* Players getting distracted by murders, not investing in real estate!
* Bluff check for Shayliss to pretend she's not a wererat?

Yep, me too!

Wow, I hadn't really realized how much fun making up magic items could be. It's got me on a whole 'item-crafting' kick now, I've got to 6 pages of possibles and I just can't stop. At least I was able to choose one in the end.

I have to second the 'dire boar' idea. The major reason: There's a Wizards mini for it here.

...Though I do like the bear cavalry someone already linked to.

I know this post is nearly dead, but Reaper came out with an awsome Aboleth like mini a month ago, I'm using it in Savage Tide. It's called Goroloth and it's nearly 10 inches long.

Take a look.

-Stabbity

Kaiju Aboleth anyone?

Man I love that template!

I destroyed the weapons and armour for my party's knight, the ooze got hit by the sorcerer's last spells, killing (I think) three of them) and they were all about to get engulfed by the last (10hp Huge) black pudding before our ninja bravely charged forwards and punched it to death.
However, he also got sucked in (I gave the Knight a chance to grab him out before he died, but as I described the screaming head emerging from the ooze, the skin sizzling away, the knight went white, shook his head, and said "I'm not touching him!")... so out ninja bravely died punching his pudding.

If you have access to the Book of Exalted Deeds, you may want to take a look at pg. 8 (Redeeming Evil) and pg. 28 (Mercy, Prisoners, and Redemption). Only if the pit fiend honestly repents it's evil existance will the paladin be required to accept its surrender and take responsibility for redeeming it.

Or the PCs could just hit the Pit Fiend with a lesser restoration and then proceed to play with the dam as much as they like, knowing that the pit fiend can't get out and won't just get drained to death.

Or maybe I'm thinking a bit simplistically here...