Charles Evans 25's page

From the start, I’m confused by this entry. As far as I can make out from the title and opening paragraphs, Mihalyi stole the folding boat, the Mastrien Slash, to elope in, her father tracked her progress by divinations, the boat was wrecked off the coast of Geb, the father discovered it had been wrecked but the father wants to hire the PCs to retrieve a folding boat which he knows has been wrecked and which therefore may well be quite useless to him?
Then you apparently realise this may be a problem and change your mind several paragraphs in, and say that actually the Mastrien Slash wasn’t the boat that the couple eloped in, but an unnamed Nexian merchant vessel, which has run aground… Oh and the crew were murdered, but all the bodies have gone, but despite the fact that the things most likely to show evidence of murder have gone, the PCs can still find out that the crew were murdered anyway. How? All things like bloodstains will indicate is that bloodletting occurred - maybe a fight. If the PCs find something like a bottle of poison all that proves is that someone left a bottle of poison on board. The Nexian merchantman is a Golarion Marie Celeste run aground, with no crew or bodies anywhere. (Edit: I see Joel Flank has touched on this too.)
I'm not clear either on why the oni did decide to kill the crew? Was it annoyance at their incompetence in letting the ship go ashore?

Anyway, eventually you get ashore and things improve there, although your entry’s very open-ended and vague about what - if anything - is supposed to happen? Someone else has said it has a ‘sandboxy’ feel to it, which I suppose is a good description. The problem here is that half your sandbox (the mangroves) is rendered potentially irrelevant by the fact that the PCs’ mission is only to retrieve the folding boat – they can get the boat back by just going to the plantation and fighting lots of things or sneaking around really well.
The whole plantation setup, by the way, reminds me strongly of some of the Dance of the Dead Ravenloft novel.

My overall impression is that you’re still in ‘design location’ mode from the previous round. I’m not sure that your heart was quite in the process of getting the PCs to the location(s) in the first place, and I feel that you couldn’t quite find the things which you needed to focus on in time to make a really good presentation to your audience - which is unfortunate for this entry.

My thanks, however, for your submissions in this contest, and if you’re not doing so already, may I recommend that you submit a proposal or two (perhaps even an abbreviated form of this) to Pathfinder Society. Josh did post that he had voted for your work last round after all... :)

There is a lot of friction between the House of Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus.

The Church, of course, worship a mysoginistic devil.

Thrune, on the other hand, is led by a woman who's familiy believes that devils are nothing more than tools.

It's a complex relationship, and one that is easy to misrepresent by saying "All of Cheliax worships devils." A proper Thrune member would bristle at the suggestion that he or she worships devils. And while they allow the church of Asmodeus to operate as the nation's official religion, Thrune sees this as yet another tool on their belt to keep the populace in line through fear and threat. They don't worship devils, but they openly admit that devils and Hell have a good plan for running an organization, be that organization a nation or an afterlife. That Thrune based the nation's new laws on the teachings of the Asmodean church isn't something that a Thrune agent would cite as proof of their worship as much as it would be them admitting that the Asmodean texts work well as a baseline... but that they've improved that baseline with their own additions.

The Church, on the other hand, likely sees the House of Thrune as an annoying but necessary evil; they let the church operate openly and with a lot of power, after all. But when it comes down to it, Thrune is the power in charge and they have to follow the Queen's orders when they come down from on high.

As for Asmodeus... I'm sure all of this, including letting Cheliax be ruled by a woman, is part of his incredibly complex plans
...

Cheliax:
More information about Cheliax has come up in products since the release of the Campaign Setting which could be incorporated into a revised Cheliax entry.
Somewhere close to the top of the list of things for inclusion might be that the core of the laws of Cheliax are based on Asmodeus' holy text, (as according to both the Cheliax Companion and information in the Council of Thieves adventure path) which I feel gives some indication of just how interlinked (at least superficially) state and church are.

On a separate note, I am curious as to what the dynamic between the crown of Cheliax and Hell is? The entry on Asmodeus in Pathfinder #29 makes it quite clear that Asmodeus is a misogynist, yet the ruler of Cheliax who invited the legions of hell into Cheliax in the first place was a woman, and another with her name now rules. Does it give the church of Asmodeus a sense of superiority with regard to the crown and its agents when they operate in Cheliax, or are the clergy prepared to perhaps (however grudgingly) afford female Thrune rulers perhaps 'honorary man' status if they are sufficiently ruthless?

Charlie Bell wrote:

The historical answer of Christianity is that God did make us perfect. But as a species, we blew it for ourselves and the rest of the world.

Maybe. I think that the idea there is that "God is perfect" and "God made us" and (somehow) therefore "we are perfect". That really isn't Biblical though. Also, what exactly does "perfect" mean?

The Guide to Absalom (page 12) didn't really indicate anything special about the Kortos Mounts other than the fact that they are infested with centaurs, minotaurs, harpies, and dragons.
The Campaign Setting on the other hand on Page 240 says:

...The Isle of Kortos itself exports rare metals and gems from the central mountains that loom tall and jagged above city's skyline and imports large quantities of foodstuffs and weapons to feed and power its massive defensive military...

Seldriss wrote:

Stephen Dove wrote:

Please drop me a line if you are interested in writing for us Seldriss: you sound like you have the perfect background.

I might be, Stephen, indeed i might be :)
Where should i drop this line?

send me a mail s(dot)k(dot)dove(at)bham(dot)ac(dot)uk

Sorry to write it like this but I have had bad experiences with spam bots.

regards

Steve

Agreed. :)

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

I don't see any Starstone elements in this proposal.

The third word of the proposal's Adventure Background is "Starstone." It doesn't need to be ALL ABOUT the Starstone to raise my red flag. Just mentioning the name is enough. It's THAT important a part of Golarion. And my final comment about that section DOES say that "Fortunately the Starstone elements in this proposal are very muted."

Edit:
[humour] Umm, does this mean Owen can expect a late-night house call by half a dozen ninjas? :-? [/humour]

[humour] Surely shorter articles mean more space for revenue raising adverts or for great artwork by The Eldritch Mr. Shiny, Crystal Frasier, Liz Courts, Butterfrog and crew? [/humour]
Apologies to those artists whose names I have not represented here. You're probably great too.

I'm fairly certain that this has already been commented on and responded to elsewhere, but as a reminder the image of the holy symbol of Sarenrae on page 167 extends up to obscure the initial part of the word 'Religion' at the top of the page.

(edited, tidied)
This seems to me to be one of the stronger two entries in this round, so I am going to be extra-critical of it as there is a chance it may end up as a module.

It doesn’t actually say in the Campaign Setting that the cornucopias were created by Aroden. It just says that that’s a popular tale, and I can’t find any further details on their creation either in the Campaign Setting or the Guide to Absalom.

If the hags can already wander in and out of dreams, spying, then why do they actually need further advice from the Denizens of Leng on ‘dream-thievery’? The Denizens of Leng as further contenders for the cornucopia, offering a rival bid to that of Abaddon, could set up interesting possibilities later when the PCs are in the fortress however.

After the PCs have the fight in the prison, why can’t someone else run down the nobleman for them? That seems to me to be a distraction.

I’m not clear how the hag makes the ‘appearance’ in the prison in Absalom to expose Londaro Balloric out of petty spite. The only means I can currently think of is astral projection which is 9th level, and a big problem for the PCs if it means that they’re up against 17th level spellcasters. Furthermore, making that appearance means that the hag has risked losing all secrecy (unless the entire fortress is protected by something akin to an uber mage’s private sanctum effect), since having seen her some PCs will inevitably be able to use scrying to find her.

The PCs may well catch Inva before she arrives at her guild. In fact for the sake of page count (presupposing that she has somehow used up the shadowdancer abilities for the day which might allow her to utterly evade capture) it might be preferable to assume that she does.

Your setting up implied that there are already Denizens of Leng already at the fortress. In your proposal as it currently stands, the PCs on their way there encounter Denizens of Leng also on their way there, but don’t actually meet any Denizens of Leng in the fortress.

Uggh. Load bearing villains… And if the fortress starts to fall apart as the PCs take them out, then there’s the problem that if the PCs take one out ‘early’ as indicated there may be an opportunity to do, the PCs may have just made it impossible for themselves to search the place and find the missing cornucopia.
The fortress falling apart is to some extent interesting and buildings in Pathfinder have occasionally collapsed or fallen over and rolled down hillsides (I have no wish to be more specific on this thread as that would be to provide spoilers) but I’m not sure if this is quite the right place for a dramatic structural collapse. Hmmm.

My overall impression is of an intriguing general outline, but with some problems around the principle villains of the piece and their lair. There are several distractions/diversions which will eat into page count, which is already low (as other posters have observed) unless Paizo ‘go planar’ with their hardcovers next year and their 8th adventure path, providing supplementary material which could support this adventure.
That said, Lisa has already commented that she is sure her staff could produce any of the proposals as 32 page modules if necessary.
It appears to me that with very careful development the latter stages of this might be able to play as either PCs-go-in-swords-and-wands-blazing or as a roleplaying, spying, talking, and double-dealing intrigue module.

My thanks for your submissions in this contest.

...1) Starstone: As with "From Time's Depths," we have starstone elements in this adventure. And the more I think of it, the more I am convinced that starstone elements and themes just aren't appropriate for 32 page adventures. It's a HUGE part of Golarion, and we want to treat this stuff with the pagecounts it deserves. 32 page adventures simply aren't appropriate for this theme. Fortunately, the Starstone elements in this one are VERY muted...

Umm, unless that was a subtle spoiler you posted hinting that what happens in Shadow Absalom's cathedral is because of the Starstone on the Material Plane, or confirming the story that the cornucopias are linked to the Starstone? :)

...And, even from what I'm reading in the Wikipedia entry, even just the sentence describing the festival presents some significant differences between Holi and Hol-Yatra.

...In Nepal, Holi is regarded as one of the greatest festivals, as important as Dashain (also known as Dussehra in India) and Tihar or Dipawali (also known as Diwali in India). Since more than 80% of people in Nepal are Hindus[6], Holi, along with many other Hindu festivals, is celebrated in Nepal as a national festival and almost everyone celebrates it regardless of their religion, e.g., even Muslims celebrate it. Christians may also join in, although since Holi falls during Lent, many would not join in the festivities. The day of Holi is also a national holiday in Nepal.

People walk down their neighbourhoods to celebrate Holi by exchanging colours and spraying coloured water on one another. A popular activity is the throwing of water balloons at one another, sometimes called lola (meaning water balloon)[7]. Also a lot of people mix bhang in their drinks and food, as also done during Shivaratri. It is believed that the combination of different colours played at this festival take all the sorrow away and make life itself more colourful...

(edited)
As far as I've noticed most of what Pathfinder takes from the real world is from the past, and done with, or from real-world fiction/myths. Apart from the blood-pig in Escape from Old Korvosa, I'm not sure I've seen much in Paizo products inspired by current actual traditons/events. :-?
Hmm. I could be buying the wrong products or failing Perception checks though.

Further edit:
If this does end up as this year's winning module proposal, I trust that the crack team of editors at Paizo will put a suitably sensitive spin on the festival however. :)

*Alkenstar Watch*
Alkenstar is mentioned in the technology entry, in the clockworks section, on page 236. This one may be useful for trying to guesstimate how long Alkenstar has been serious about developing technology:

...Rumors circulating among the arcane and mundane developers of clockwork mechanisms whisper of engineers in the magic-dead city-state of Alkenstar who experiment with steam as a potential energy source, but most arcanists laugh off the notion as yet another bizarre development from that "backward" place...

And that brings to my attention an earlier possible error I missed:
P. 201

...571 Vudrani traders introduce gunpowder to the Inner Sea region...

Pairing her up with her old friend Nualia seems sensible, although remember Erylium (as written) really doesn't like big open spaces and may require some sort of vision or prompting from Lamashtu to get her moving. Or she could find a way to slip deeper into the temple and join up with the Scribbler in #5. Or Nualia and Erylium could pair up with the Scribbler in #5 (although Nualia probably would need divine promptings about what to do here, as she might not even know there was more to the smugglers tunnels/Catacombs of Wrath than what she saw when being tutored by Erylium).

Update:
Sadly, there appear to be about a thousand years between the end of the Nex-Geb war and dwarven sky citadels officially starting to go down as their empire fragments, which would be a long time (in mortal lives) for a havero to wait in the wastes or under the mountains to strike.
A shame, as I had been thinking that a havero getting loose might have been the thing which made Nex sit up and think 'hang on, this has got to end right NOW', and go and vanish himself or whatever he did to end the war.
I am a sufficient havero fan that I may adopt the idea for my unofficial version of the setting history anyway.

P. 235
Hmmph. Something I missed.

...Likewise, it would seem that the mysterious ichthyic masters have largely abandoned their psionic skills as well, in favor of glyph-based magic, although verifying these assumptions is difficult at best due to their isolated nature...

P. 236

...new magics, mechanical practices, arcane theories, and alchemical procedures become increasingly more common and more accessible to clever minds with each passing day...

...The first Spark of Tomorrow is already lit, and a time approaches when the confluences of trade and learning, need and chance, might bring about the technologies of the next Age...

...even those without command over arcane magics can contribute to the creation of clockworks, allowing this burgeoning technology to advance at an increasing rate...

(For what this post is worth)
P. 234

...Many use meditative exercises, physical discipline, or the contemplation of perfect forms (crystals are a popular focus for such efforts) to properly frame and orient their perspective and psyche...

...the crystal-eating inesctoid folugubs...

P. 235

...Concentrated study and focus enabled some penitents to awaken the powers of the mind in radical ways...

...In Vudra they are as much a part of lilfe...

...There is another realm to the Inner Sea region wherein psionics are common - yet ironically while this realm is far closer than Castrovel or Vudra, it is a realm of which even less is known - the Darklands.

As a general comment with regard to the psionics entry, there are several places where confusion is created because the word psionics is used to describe both the mental art and the practitioner of that art. This is akin to creating a position where saying 'sciences study sciences', is the form instead of 'scientists study sciences'. Haven't there been specialised terms around before now in RPGs to describe those who practice psionics, and if so wouldn't it make sense to use one of those here (unless they're all trademarked or something like that???)?

Hurrah! Psionics entry down, and the end is coming into sight... :)

(edited, tidied up summary)
This seems to me to be one of the stronger two entries in this round, so I am going to be extra-critical of it as there is a chance it may end up as a module.
First of all, 8th level characters have access to an array of interesting spells and abilities some of which may drill holes in this adventure. Clerics have divination, sorcerers and wizards have locate creature and sorcerers and wizards and druids have scrying. If the party levels up, mid-adventure, the clerics gain access to scrying too, and contact other plane comes into play on the sorcerer and wizard list. Then there is detect thoughts, and even the ubiquitous detect evil at will of a paladin. Just on divination alone, parties at this level have the power to sidestep traps and ambushes, and if they reach ninth level before the Journey stage kicks in, overland flight (if a sorcerer or wizard puts it on their spells known list) will bypass Citraka.
Eighth or ninth level PCs have their own accommodation options, too, rope trick first and foremost amongst these and a perfectly sensible logical option to take when out in dangerous territory hunting a murder cult. Even if the PCs do stop at the village to check for directions, between Sense Motive checks, a paladin (if present) detecting evil and natural player paranoia (ramped up by now if the hermit/were-leopard thing played out on top of the earlier switcheroo with the rakshasa-pretending-to-be-Naasim) the chances of the villagers getting to pull the strangle-them-in-their-sleep routine seem to me to be somewhat limited. (And in any case, if you're going for treacherous archetypes, why don't the villagers try the get-them-blind-drunk-then-kill-them-when-they're-helpless gambit instead?)

With regard to story, I would concur with those who have expressed some doubt as to the hook into the adventure, where PCs may simply ignore the notes about the escaped bird - after all they're 8th level PCs, why do they need to go chasing after an escaped peacock?
I have also already commented on the somewhat unlikely manner towards the end in which the masters of a murder cult conveniently line up to be picked off one-by-one. The assumption that the PCs will come storming in the front door of the temple (especially if scrying or arcane eye reveals many cultists there) seems to me to be somewhat shaky too. Some groups of PCs practically never go in the front door if they can help it, preferring to look for side-entrances or secret escape routes which they can sneak in through instead, on the basis that this makes for a better chance of catching the occupants by surprise.
And why do you mention that the thukur is playing with his son when the PCs first meet him? The thukur having an infant son is something I expect to figure strongly if you bring it up in a proposal. Like Chekov's gun, I expect it to go off. Except in this case it doesn't, which I think was a big mistake. I know that Paizo have guidelines with regard to children and what happens in adventures, but in this case I think you could have risked playing to one more archetype, and set the whole thing up with the murder-cult (who have an agent in the palace to provide intelligence after all) abducting the infant, then issuing their deadline. This sets up the thukur not knowing whom to trust, his suspicion that even someone quite close to him is a spy, and the need to have someone from completely outside who may not already be in the cult's employ to investigate. But, on the other hand, this might not be quite so saleable in shop-shelf terms, so maybe with an eye on bigger picture you were right not to go that route.

My overall impression is that this is a draft proposal for a bouncy bouncy action adventure (probably one of the bounciest I have seen in a while), which may require some reworking. Nevertheless it currently seems to me to be one of the strongest two entries of this round, and there is at least a sense of overall direction and drive to the entry - even if the logic seems somewhat crazy at times.

My thanks for your submissions in this contest.

Set wrote:

Quote:

Many wear robes that were once white, but are now smeared and painted a myriad of colors. The normally reserved Vudrani rub multi-hued powders on each others faces and yell exuberant, joyful blessings. Grinning children splash each other with dyed water.

Cool, and nice backdrop for an action scene.

This is an actual festival in India, called Holi celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, and others. I thought it was a nice touch to add.

Psionics:
I am aware that it has been said elsewhere that psionics will likely go. The half-elf entry on pages 12-13 makes quite a bit of psionics, giving the interaction between half-elves and psionics at least half a paragraph, and including a sidebar on crystals.
I'm not sure if the half-elf entry will require rewriting, or if it could be left as it is and the crystals sidebar replaced with an explanation on what Paizo's position is with regard to psionics.

I'm somewhat busy at present, and will be back later in the week to give this a proper reading, but my initial impression (based on a brief read through, so which will have likely missed points) is:

Hmm. Menagerie reference.
I don’t get the ‘we must have outsiders (in the ‘not from around here sense’) to save us’ thing, or at least not given that this is presented as being partially an investigation story. Outsiders don’t know who to go to and ask about things when pursuing leads. Locals may be more likely to clam up when someone strange shows up, asking questions. And word will go around a lot more quickly if it’s a group of outsiders asking things, putting those under investigation on alert. About the only reason the ‘outsiders’ thing makes sense with is in the context of ‘not knowing whom to trust’.
I’m unclear on why a group of evil death-goddess worshipping killers whose allies have tried to assassinate the PCs en route to their lair then proceed to nice and honourably line up to be picked off by the PCs one by one, instead of combining forces for a big fight.
At the moment this strikes me as too staged.

I'm somewhat busy at present, and will be back later in the week to give this a proper reading, but my initial impression (based on a brief read through, so which will have likely missed points) is:

Too much going on on too large a scale for a party of 6th level adventurers.

I'm somewhat busy at present, and will be back later in the week to give this a proper reading, but my initial impression (based on a brief read through, so which will have likely missed points) is:

This reads as if it could be an extended version of a PFS adventure. Indeed I am slightly concerned that it could be too short. I suppose it depends how much detail goes into the mangrove swamp, which I suppose is the really big location here.

I'm somewhat busy at present, and will be back later in the week to give this a proper reading, but my initial impression (based on a brief read through, so which will have likely missed points) is:

1) Prison investigation introduction.
2) Interlude. Explanation of political stuff.
3) Trying to track thief in foreign place. Then a chase. Hmm. There was a rooftop chase in Edge of Anarchy which sort of worked.
4) More explanation and then a journey with encounters.
5) Investigating the hag fortress.

I think this might be workable if the journey to the fortress with encounters stage is trimmed. I would have thought that someone in Shadow Absalom should in theory know a way to get the PCs straight to the fortress.

I've been looking at the Shackles Pirate, and it feels to me like it should have been more a big bad fighter type than trying to be a rogue.
I'm aware that elsewhere it has been said it's being completely axed from the revised Campaign Setting, but if it does come back at some future point, I might go for something along the lines of fighter BAB and HD, Good Fort and Reflex saves, decent (4 or 6) skill points, no or minimal sneak damage and make a play of mystical connections to fog/mist/rain. Maybe a create mist ability usable limited times per day, and limited range blind sense which improves in mist or rain conditions? A guy who can fire a crossbow in your approximate direction from fifty feet away, through driving rain, even though he can't see you, because he just *knows* that you're there.
Possibly tie some or all the 'mystical' stuff to proximity to the Eye of Abendego.

Anyway, those are the thoughts I've had thus far on the Shackles Pirate.

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

For what it's worth I'm curious as to why a decision was apparently taken to capitalise 'Red' and 'Mantis' but not 'assassin'? This appears to be consistent throughout the entry, so I assume it is deliberate...

Because "Red Mantis" is a name of a group, while "assassin" is a job.

P. 230

...When she gets 0 spells of a given level, he gains only bonus spells...

...and grants a +1 dodge bonus to AC and fast healing equal to his Constitution bonus...

...Provided the Red Mantis assassin has sufficient Intelligence to have a bonus spell of this level...

For what it's worth I'm curious as to why a decision was apparently taken to capitalise 'Red' and 'Mantis' but not 'assassin'? This appears to be consistent throughout the entry, so I assume it is deliberate...

Jared Goodwin wrote:

Zurai wrote:

WotC's contest was not a game design contest. It was a design contest, but "game" had nothing to do with it except tangentially.

It was a contest to design content which will chiefly be used for tabletop roleplaying games.

Which is why I said "except tangentially". The contest had nothing to do with game design. It was designing fluff that would eventually end up as part of a game after being re-written by a team of game designers. As a game designer myself, I assure you that there is a very great deal of difference between the skill set of a game designer and that of a writer or scenario designer. WotC's contest was the equivalent of a scenario writer's job. The proof of this is that the contest could have been exactly the same if it had been for designing a new setting for a series of books.

I can understand why Jared would point to the Setting Search as a larger design contest than RPG Superstar. The intent of the statement is to focus on the "game design" aspect of the challenge, and the Setting Search was more of a "setting design" contest.

But that all hinges on the definition of the word "design," which can get pretty loosey goosey (and frankly pretty boring).

I'll see if there's a better way to put it next time we write a news release about the contest.

P. 226

...They represent those who took the Crusader's Oath to shatter the powers of the Worldwound and eradicate its taint from the world..."

...but when faced with the raw destruction of a demon host, sometimes the decision to support of the lesser of two evils is the only real choice that can be made...

...This ability is identical to the ranger class ability of the same name, applies only to chaotic outsiders or a specific humanoid subtype, and stacks with...

Flag of Convenience (Ex):
This makes reference to Knowledge (nobility & royalty) which is now just Knowledge (nobility).

P. 227
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Ex):
This makes reference to Hide which is now a part of Stealth.

Live to Fight Another Day (Ex):
This makes reference to Hide which is now a part of Stealth.

Although later on in Savage Tide, in the Abyss:

A post by Set from the *product discussion thread for the revision* (one misquoted spelling error he made corrected, and formatting tweaked for consistency of error highlighting):

Just noticed that this was likely to see a reprint, updating it to Pathfinder and stuff.

While I'm sure y'all have a spellchecker, I've noticed a few that snuck through in the last couple of days, and, unlike what I normally do and forget them before I even get to the next page, I wrote them down;

p 172 - Entry for Baalzebul, 'throuh the buzzing of flies'

p 214 - Entry for Aurochs, 'form the relatively small herds' (the 'the' doesn't flow with the rest of the sentence)

p 115 - Entry for Castle Urion - 'Iomadae' should be Iomedae

p 231 - Mantis Form - not a typo, just something unclear, is the quickened fear usable only in Mantis Form? The sentence feels out of place, as if it was part of another entry that got dropped into this entry.

P. 225

...The suits grant morale bonuses as follows. Strength: +1 on attack rolls; Dexterity: +1 to AC; Constitution: +1 on weapon damage rolls; Intelligence: +1 on all skills; Wisdom: +1 on all saving throws; Charisma: +1 on caster level checks. All of these bonuses are insight bonuses...

P. 222

...with many of its people retreating to the interior or falling into foul practices in the rain-drenched ruins of their former glory...

P. 224

...is based off six ancient Varisian philosophies, which the Varisians correspond to six of the towers of Desna's palace (the seventh tower represents the unknown future - a subject of endless fascination to a harrower)...

With regard to the harrower class generally, from the point of view of revising it, you now have seen it in play for a year or so, and should have some idea of how it plays. I will say that looking of the mathematics of it, it seems a useful prestige class for a 'blaster' to pick up given that four of the six towers for a harrow casting enhancing aspects of the spell likely to prove useful (CL against SR, save DC, damage, and CL for the spell right across the board). You may like to look at how the harrower (as currently written) stacks up against the current Evocation school powers. I have a nasty suspicion that at present a specialist evoker would be best switching into the harrower prestige class as soon as possible. The reward is minimal in the short term, but an evoker doesn't lose much by switching and it should pay off in the long run...

With regard to the chart on page 225, I am confused as to why NE is listed as both an Opposite and Partial Match for NG, and why NG is listed as both an Opposite and Partial Match for NE? Was that a mistake?

At one point, the kingdom management rules DID have rules for spending Build Points to hire lower level adventurers to go take care of problems, but we had to cut those rules for space, unfortunately.

I'm thinking about issuing a short web enhancement (which might end up only being a sticky thread in these forums) that adds that information plus a little bit more in as well once the rules are out.

Hey Charles, I bet you already saw it, but I thought I'd point out to you the promotion going on at the wiki right now. Since you're scouring the CS for details, you might as well try to get a few chances to win free stuff from Paizo.

P. 220

...Written Taldane uses an alphabet of 26 letters, 17 of which come directly from Jistka, which in turn adopted them from Ancient Azlanti...

...Varisian is rife with subtle double meanings, innuendo, and very slight gradations of meaning...

...Auran is a breathy, gentle-sounding language that sounds best without the use of vocal cords...

P. 221

...Original Giant (perhaps the tongue of the ancient cyclopes is lost to time...

I'd just like to add that I like the way that Infernal has been concepted, as a language which deliberately punishes the ignorant or sloppy. I suspect devils find it quite useful for diddling people with contracts. :)
And I had to check what 'code switching' is (with regard to Gnome) but fair enough, that's educational... ;)

Threadromancy.
*Frogs and kitchens???*

Two areas of questions for now:
1) Who drew the awesome picture of Ara Verennie on page 38?

2) I'm curious as to the location of the brain or brains of the Vouivre in the bestiary on page 88, and in particular how the monster interacts with being walloped with a vorpal sword? The creature is described as 'Large monstrous humanoid (aquatic)' which along with the fact that a Vouivre does not get two sets of actions inclines me to think that there is just the one brain, in the attractive woman part of the creature, but I may be in error here. If there is only one brain, does an otherwise uninformed wielder of a vorpal sword have to nominate which 'head' he or she was going for upon scoring a head taking hit, or should it be randomly determined if the wielder lopped off the 'false head' (with no brain) or the 'real' one?
(Conceivably the brain might not even be in either head, but somewhere in the body, rendering the creature completely immune to vorpal hits.)

Lord Fyre wrote:

I take it that Tieflings in this AP would more likely be of a "Demonic" bloodline coming from the World Wound?

There's not much influence from the Worldwound in the Stolen Lands. So tieflings can be of any lineage they want.

And! Yeah, I guess I mentioned it already in some other post. BP = Build Points, the currency in which you build kingdoms, cities, and (come Pathfinder #35) armies.

Sir Turin:
Umm, hadn't your PCs better start getting their fame back up, as it's going to hurt quite a bit later on if they have nothing to work with? (Hmm. I seem to recall some subquests in this module which completion of assists slightly?)
And if the contract went *poof* aren't they on a clock here to shut things down (whether they realise it or not), as per the information pertaining to the contract on page 52 of The Infernal Syndrome?
(Conceivably the Stage 1 encounter might still play out as written if the clock runs down, but the Stage 2 might simply 'give them the laugh' with further brutal consequences for their fame.)

Ahh well. Perhaps the PCs will be in less of a hurry to fireball first, ask questions later after this...

P. 222

Lost Kingdoms, Ghol-Ghan wrote:

...The waterlogged temple of Xanthuun in the Sodden Lands contains the treasures of Ghol-Gan's last patriarch...

Was the temple of Xanthuun, which is mentioned in the Ghol-Gan entry as being the place where the last patriarch of had his treasure stashed, actually in Ghol-Ghan?
If so, it raises questions about the maps, since the area indicated on Page 223 to have been occupied by Ghol-Gan has practically NO overlap with the area indicated as being the location of the Sodden Lands on the 'region map' - or at least not unless the Sodden Lands can be assumed to encompass most of the islands from southwest Rahadoum to Mediogalti Island?
(Possibly, the temple of Xanthuun might originally have been in Ghol-Gan, but since have been moved by magic to a different location now in the Sodden Lands; however this seems a somewhat unsatisfactory explanation unless perhaps the astronomers of Lirgen can be assumed to have done it for some reason - but in which case why did they leave the treasure within?)

Edit:
Apologies for having missed the other Ghol-Gan before making the quoted previous post on this subject, but I wasn't expecting there to be two of them, and was having trouble seeing how the first one (which was the only one I had noticed at that point) could overlap with the Sodden Lands.

P. 223
It seems to me that the map presents certain problems, given that whilst the extent of Ancient Osirion indicated might be accurate for the time when the Jistka Imperium and the Tekritanin League existed, clearly at a later point in time the boundaries of Ancient Osirion were much greater, engulfing both those other ancient realms.
I realise with space at a premium using a series of maps to indicate how boundaries changed with time is almost certainly out of the question, but would it be possible to maybe use a key and different colours on the boundaries to perhaps indicate the extent of different empires at different time periods?

And should the Tekritanin League be marked as 'Tekritanin League' on the map instead of as just 'Tekritan'?

Other Events Occuring in Birmingham:
From the 16th - 25th July this year, the Birmingham International Jazz Festival is scheduled.
This may be of some interest to those arriving early or looking to stay on a day or two afterwards.

The Website for the Jazz festival is here: *link*

P. 222

...until its prideful leaders came to believe themselves superior to the aboleths who had raised them out of barbarism. In preemptive retaliation for their disloyalty, the aboleths looked to the stars, uniting in a great ritual that brought a great stone tumbling from space...

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

P. 223
So what is there about the stretch of land in the southwest of what is modern day Rahadoum that the Jistka Imperium apparently didn't want it? I am unable to find any explanation for this in the lost Kingdoms or Rahadoum entries. At least the gap between Edasseril and Bakrakhan in Thassilon can be explained by the elven forces then occupying Celwynvian.

Jistka doesn't have to match Rahadoum's borders. Their empire covers what it covers likely because that's what they had the resources to control.

Edit:
It could have been something as simple as independently minded local tribes whom it was less bother to leave be than fight given the problems Jistka had with the Tekritanin League and then later Ancient Osirion to the east.

Berselius wrote:

How were class variants like the Rogue's "Poison Master" or the Sorcerer's "Hidden Reserve" changed when the Pathfinder Core Rulebook finally came out? Can anyone list what one must now give up for each variation?

They haven't been changed yet. The Advanced Player's Guide is where class variants like these will be detailed for the Pathfinder Game, and once the Campaign Setting Hardcover is revised and released this September, the class variants will no longer be a part of the book since the ones that are still viable will have moved to the Advanced Player's Guide.

(edited, corrected)
They haven't been changed yet.
A revised version of the Campaign Setting is in the works for publication in autumn 2010, however, and if the class variants of the original 3.5 Campaign Setting do not see updated versions before that in some product such as the GameMastery Guide or Advanced Player's Guide, then I would guess that there might be a chance of seeing updated class variants in the revised Campaign Setting.

P. 222

...The waterlogged temple of Xanthuun in the Sodden Lands contains the treasures of Ghol-Gan's last patriarch...