Chef's Slaad's page

Big Jake, that is one hell of an expose on the good captain. Excelent work indeed. I would love to see more of these kinds of npc spotlights.

As to the captain:
Lets assume Skellerang is indeed an innocent dupe, helpless at the hands of his inconspicuous 'adviser', Lord Vhalantru. How would this so called lord control Skellerang? Charms alone seem a bit risky. They are fine for short term control of a subject, but when used over a longer period, there is a chance the subject makes its save. And even then, a charmed subject is not going to follow every order to the letter.
So what other means does Vhalantru have at his disposal? I'll take a look at some of the more mundane.

Blackmail springs to mind. Perhaps some vice that might hurt the captain's position, where it to become common knowledge? But that sort of rules out the innocent dupe angle. Perhaps threats. A loved one taken hostage, or threatened might convince the captain to be more cooperative. Or maybe Skellerang realises that where he to refuse too many of the lord's requests, he would be replaced by someone more willing to do Vhalantru's bidding. And that would leave the citizens of Cauldron in an even worse position.

The Captain may find himself on a slippery slope. Giving in to a few minor questionable requests to save himself and his family from harm or humiliation. Unfortunately, this leaves him more vulnerable to blackmail and more requests by Vhalantru. Unfortunately, whatever rationale Skellerang uses to justify his actions, the actions remain are morally questionable to say the least. In my opinion, even though Skellerang may have started out an inncent dupe, the fact that he remained in his position for so long means he is innocent no more.

Two thoughts spring to mind:

1 How about replacing the shrine of Pelor with one to Correllon Larethian? I mean same location, same priest etc. Perhaps alter the location a bit. You know, more trees, less buildings.

2) Use the wooded area next to the lakeside pavillion as the location for the shrine. It means you'll either have to figure out why Shensen is there (she inhabits those woods after the flood season story, or come up with another location for her. The drowning Morkoth springs to mind.

The second Adventure Path will begin shortly after issue #120. Probably #122 or thereabouts.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon

That soon! all right.

hum di dum di dum.... 7 more issues. Counting the months.

:-)

Thanks guys,

I never saw that on the chart before.

I appreciate the help!

I can't wait to surprise my group with a villain with two hands full of magic rings. They will flip.

You might want to be carefull with that. In my experience, players end up defeating the villain and looting the rings. Then you have a group of player with unlimited rings. Which is probably not what you had in mind...

more idea's:

*) Sig's (mine would be "don't forget to eat your greens")

*) info on the posters (such as location; number of posts; date of registration etc.)

*) emoticons

Also, I'm having trouble linking to specific threads. For example, If I link to this thread, I end up on Paizo's main page.
URL - http://www.paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/adventurePath/location%3AS hrineOfPelor

What are we doin with this post? I dont understand how to reply to it really.

Sorry, I could have added more of an explanation I suppose. It was sort of an aftherthought when I posted my version of the player's handout.

This is a location in cauldron relevant to one of my players, a cleric of Pelor. I fumbled with Kristof's sex on my first discription and kind of stuck with it. Besides: two female and two male high-priests is a pretty balanced way to start out a campaign :-)

I went with a fairly basic shrine. Just an altar and some decoration really. One of the texts in the 6th or 7th adventure had a tidbit on Kristoff's superiors both having died recently. My thoughts are that the cathedral of wee-jas is behind it. Perhaps they cooked up the storm and sabotaged the roof to make it look like an accident. Kind of depends how keen the PC's are on digging into the Wee-Jas vs Pelor sub-plot.

I got a question. Why did the web enhancements stop after flood season? Are you going to add the web enchanements to adventure path two.

Also an idea is to use the web enhancements for useful tool for the DM like the aura info per room that has been removed from the current format of the magazine.

The web-enhancements probably stopped because there where no new monsters or stats that had to be published. Stuff that did need further development was put in an appendix rather than a web-enhancement. I suspect because it is easier to protect content (such as presitige classes) that way.

Shrine or Pelor
Eight marble columns form a circle around the central altar of this shire to the Sun God Pelor. The altar faces east, towards the rising sun, so the high-priestess can start the each day with a ritual greeting of Pelor. In front of the altar, a mosaic depicts the deity’s symbol. The shrine looks ill kept. The columns show cracks and signs of ageing. The Mosaic is missing several stones and the marble floor shows cracks which sprouts grass and weeds. Two small buildings flank the central altar. The roof of the northern building has partly collapsed. The Southern building is still intact.

The High-priestess, Kristoff Jurgensen is a woman in her early 30’s. She is terribly young for such a grave responsibility, even though this is only a small shrine. Fate has it that both the previous high priest and the successor he was training have perished three months ago in a terrible thunderstorm, in which the roof collapsed on top of both of them. Until a suitable replacement could be found, Kristoff was appointed the post of high priestess.

Description
This heavily fortified city is built along the bowl of a long dead (or sleeping, if you believe the rumours) volcano, far from the rest of civilisation. The peaks of the mount chain of which Cauldron is a part reach far above the steaming subtropical jungles. This small city of only 4500 inhabitants is nearly completely autonomous from the capital Sasserine, almost two hundred miles to the north. At least, as long as Cauldron Merchants provide the capital with an abundance of fruit, spices, exotic animals, rare ores and gems
A Visitor climbing one of the four steep roads up the side of the volcano first notices the 50’ high wall, set with watch towers half again as high as the wall. But it is not the wall’s height that makes first-time visitors hold their breath in awe. As the sun reflects off the wall’s malachite stones, the entire wall becomes bathed in a dark-green hue. Once through the massive city gate, the visitor notices a dark lake at the center of the crater. Closer to the lake’s shore, the sulphurous air, mixed with the smell of raw sewage that runs directly into the lake is difficult to endure. Un surprisingly, this part of the city is houses the poorest part of the population.
Four mayor throughways form concentric rings along the vulcano’s crater, and separate the poorer from the richer areas. From the inside out, these roads are: Ash avenue, Lava avenue (also called lava lane, although no more than an occasional tree lines this road), Magma avenue and Obsidian avenue. Although most travel occurs on foot, merchant caravans and carriages carrying nobles
Can occasionally be seen on Magma and Obsidian avenue.
Houses are constructed mainly from local (volcanic) stone and hardwood from the subtropical forests. The houses near the lake stand on wooden stilts, sometimes rising as much as 20 feet above the lakes water. Houses closer to the malachite wall are built from exotic stone sometimes contain vast courtyards.

History
The city Cauldron has been built on top of the ruins of many older civilisations. The catacombs are still accessible through some of the city’s older buildings. Rumours speak of abandoned underground complexes deep under the city’s streets. And some lava tubes even seem to grant access to the Underdark.

Government
The city’s Lord Mayor is Severen Navalant, a noble originally from Sasserine. Its captain of the town guard - Terseon Skellerang - does an exemplary task of keeping the peace. On a day to day basis, the city pretty much runs itself. Local nobility govern the lands surrounding the city. Infrequent patrols keep the road to Sasserine free from bandits and other rabble. In all, disorder is at its lowest point in nearly sixty years.

Places of note: (name - location - proprietor)

Temples
* Temple of Lordly Might (Kord) - Obsidian avenue - High Priest: Asfelkir Hranleurt
* Church of Wee Jas - Obsidian - High Priestess: Embril Aloustinai
* Church of st. Cuthbert - Obsidian avenue & Magma avenue - High Priest: Sacrem Delasharn
* Shrine of Pelor - Magma avenue - High Priestess: Kristoff Jurgensen

Inns
* Drunken Morkoth - Obsidian Avenue - Halpeen Welvihk
* Tipped Tankard - - Rivek Mol
* Slippery Eel Tavern - Magma avenue -

Shops
* Surefoot Livery - Ash avenue - Tippys Surefoot
* Weers Elixers - Ash avenue - Vortimax Weer
* Skie's Treasury - Lava avenue - Skie Aldersun
* Guernezarn's Treasury - Obsidian avenue - Philias Guernezarn
* Zanathor's Provisions - Obsidian avenue - Bjellkir Zanathor

As promised, here is my own (translated) players handout

I'm about to start playing the adventure path soon!

A timeline would be great for me, anyone have any ideas on how old Cauldron is, or how long the Lord Mayor has been in office?

cauldron was founded some time after redgourge. Probably 700 years ago, although te adventure path does not give a specific date (or even ballpark).

There is no official word out on the lord-mayor. He should be pretty experienced and well connected by the time the adventure path starts. I would say about 8 years, giev or take.

CONCERNING AUTHORS:

you got some pretty well-known authors to write installments for the first adventure path. Can you give us a few clues as to who will be writing the for second one? Or better still, can we give sugestions?

Personally, I would like to see a mix of well known and debuiting authors.

My handout looked something like this:

Authority figures
Lord Mayor Severen Navalant, male human
Terseon Skellerang, Captain of the Town Guard, male human

Big Jake,

would you care to post that little gem on this forum? I would love to read it. I did something similar, but it's in Dutch. I tried running it through bablefish, but it got horribly mangled.
I'll try to get it translated into something that resembles english and post it here too.

I'm running Life's bazaar right now. I ran the first encounter (almost) exactly the same way. Ruphus called for the guards when the PC's incapacitated all three thugs. The guard patrol was led by sgt. Krewis. Of course, when it turned out the thugs where in fact city guards, he got pretty nervous. Depending how he (and the PC's) deal with this rather delicate situation, there might be a promotion or a demotion in the works for the good sergeant.

Good stuff Sean. I would love to read more.

Perhaps a couple of interludes between adventures?

I really like the set-up of the adventures. Some roleplaying / detective work together with a good old fashioned dungeon crawl. Overall, the pacing seems pretty good too. Oh, and the new format is GREAT!. Now, as for the input. Here’s some stuff I would like to see in a new adventure path:

More fluff I would like a more detailed setting and backstory. I like the way the adventures were linked together, but I think you could go even further. You know, provide more hooks for side-treks, write-ups for locations, detailed npc’s etc. Perhaps a write-up of one or more NPC’s per issue in an appendix

Locations I prefer locations like the Lucky Monkey to ‘generic’ dungeons like the Kopru ruins or Jzadirune. The latter, in my own mind and the player’s are less believable. A city built into a dormant volcano. That was a great idea. I want more of that! I would like to see castles, inns, ships, lighthouses, floating clouds-fortresses and hollowed out stalagmites rather than caverns and 30’x30’ rooms hewn into mountains.

Story arch I would like to see multiple stories woven together. And more continuity. I want to see stuff happening in the background as well. Like how more (half-orc) mercenaries where added as the situation in Cauldron got grimmer. I would like more (NPC) reactions to campaign events. And more NPC’s taking initiative. For example, I like how the stormblades went on their own adventures. I feel other groups, such as the chisel or the striders of Fharlanghn should be developing their own leads, and setting their own plans into action.

Encounters I love the encounter format. Very clear, and all the info in one place. I would like to see stat bocks in an appendix rather than in the text. That way they don’t muddle up the text. I would also like to see a small section on tactics with each encounter. That kind of stuff makes DM-ing a LOT easier.

That’s all for now

Chef’s Slaad

I second that. clears up the board a lot

Sounds like a great plan James. So this new book will be on the shelves... In time for christmas perhaps? :-)

Hey a guy can dream, can't he?

same bug here (on the adventure path thread). Only in my case, I got an empty post for my trouble.

cheers

I'm quoting Puk here who had an excellent Idea:

"Seeing how lots of people here are running, or planning on running the adventure path, I figured it might be worthwhile to bundle some of our experiences here. I'm thinking stuff like errata, faq, neat side-treks, how best to run certain encounters etc.

....snip.....

so what have you done in cauldron?

:Blush:

Thanks Nahualt.

I posted a preliminary timeline in another thread. Feel free to comment.

b.t.w. I changed my avantar name from PUK to Chef's Slaad because there's a PUG arround here. Confusion is a good thing, but only in moderation. Besides, I was bored with my old name anyway.

One of my players decided she would like to play an archeologist. Which, considering the amount of ruins and abandoned haunts littered arround the adventure path, is pretty good news for me.
Thing is, so much of the stuff is littered throughout the adventures it's pretty hard to figure out what happened when. Here's what I've pieced together sofar. Feel free to add or comment.
ps: I'm not allways sure about the order of events. I've left dates blank if I'm not sure of a ballpark year, which looking over the timeline is pretty much everything.

-?? Cataclysm destroys spellweavers
-?? Kopru abandon Cauldron Area
-800 Surabar Spellmason founds Redgorge
-?? Nabatharon defeated, Blast creates Demonscar.
-?? Foundation of Cauldron, based on Surabar's legacy
-?? Lord Orbius Vhalantru settles in cauldron
-100 Hookface last seen in cauldron area
-75 Magic plague ravages through Jzadirune. The enclave is abandoned
-30 Cagewrights discover Soul Pilars
-10 Malachite Hold Abandoned
1 Current year; start of adventure path

It's far from complete, but its a beginning none the less.