DM Corvus's page

please check in, kiddies.

The three and a half weeks in Lepidstadt seem to pass all too quickly. Winter breathes its last for this year, and spring blooms all around. Drinks are never paid for and never lacking, meals are taken with Kendra, with the council, and with Father Grimburrow with frequency. The peace and the quiet grow comfortable and familiar.

Ravengro, it seems, has returned to complacent sense of normalcy it has clung to for so long. Time spent in research, reflection, and study has not been wasted.

Kendra had busied herself packing--an offer was made on her house, through one of the councilman Hearthmount. She agreed to the price, and readied herself to make way to Caliphas, to resume her studies. With the house to exchange hands on the first of the month, the party found themselves released to complete their task, and deliver the tomes to the appropriate parties in Lepidstadt.

The day before Kendra was set to leave, a carriage was visible outside Kendra's house, as the party returned from their own preparations.

Upon entering, they find Kendra conversing with a familiar face. Adivion Adrissant, well-dressed, sits in one of the well-worn chairs in the library.

"My friends," Kendra announces as she stands. "Many of you have met Lord Adrissant previously, but to the rest; this is Adivion Adrissant, a professor at Quatrefax Archines in Caliphas and old friend of my father's. He has offered to let me stay in his apartments there until I find lodgings of my own."

The man stands - he is tall, pale and impeccably dressed. His long, thin white hair is tied back, and his hands are gloved. He shakes hands with each in turn as they are introduced.

To those he met previously: "A pleasure to see you again, glad you are well."

To those he had not met: "Well met, friends of Lorrimor. I have heard of your exploits and offer you my congratulations on the deed done. Most impressive, Lorrimor would be proud."

At the end of the first month, an oppressive August, the first victim, Mary Ann Nichols had been found. 'Leather Apron' was the name given to the murderer. Despite arrests and an inquest, nothing was found, no one charged, and the second victim, Annie Chapman was found murdered in a similar manner eleven days later.

A letter received three weeks later gave the murderer his moniker, Jack the Ripper, and panic tightened on Whitechapel.

The next two victims came in rapid succession: the same night Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, each given over the specter of death that loomed over that part of London.

October offered a blessed reprieve from the depredations of the Ripper, though no true measure of calm returned to the area. Death still hovered over the fog-choked streets of London, and none knew when it would descend, blade flashing in the darkness.

November 8th came marched to a close like many days preceding. Big Ben dutifully tolled the hour of Ten, and the sensible scurried to their homes, jumping and lurching in terror at the shadows thrown by the thick fog and scarce lighting, hurried at the sounds of footsteps on damp cobblestones, echoing down the narrow alleys and streets.

Anticipation crept into the thoughts of the restless: Would tonight be the night that Jack comes ripping?

Welcome players, to what will hopefully be an interesting and entertaining twist on Pathfinder.

A couple things to note:

As previously stated, I plan on making this as RP heavy as possible. While combat is inevitable, expect brutal odds and harsh consequences to a fight. I won't be sculpting every fight to suit your party level and provide a challenge. Sometimes you'll need to run, frankly, and I'm not always going to tell you. The absence of magical healing, at this point, should way heavily on your decision.

Since this is a Gothic horror campaign, I have adapted the Ravenloft rules from 2nd and 3rd edition D&D to be used, specifically the Fear, Horror, and Madness rules. When faced with a situation that requires a check, you will be informed, and it will be on you to RP the effects in a suitable manner. I will post a link to these rules shortly, so you are familiar with them.

In your alias profile, please include the crunch for your character, as well as your background, equipment, and general appearance. Here is an example of what I want your profile to look like. This is for everyone's convenience.

As far as skill checks go, I post under a spoiler the results, denoting the necessary DC. It is up to you to roll if you want.

In combat, I roll Initiative for everyone. For an example of how I run combat, you can check either of the other games I am running.

"Speech should always be in bold," he said, While they keep the internal in the italics," he finished, inwardly.

When the party is separated, Spoilers will be used to keep things secret. It is up to PC's to impart information they gather from spoilers to the rest of the party as their character would see fit.

Anything else I can think of, I'll try and address before we get started.

Start date will be sometime next week, hopefully Wednesday.

Thursday, November 8th, 1888. London, England.

You have the misfortune of being near Dorset Street, on a fog-choked Thursday, November the 8th, when an unidentified killer commits one final act; ensuring immortality as a vicious legend, a notorious moniker, etched in the annals of history with the blood of five women.

Greetings and welcome to the recruitment thread for a new PBP Pathfinder game. This will be a somewhat restrictive recruitment and rule-set (at first) but will open to more character choices as the story progresses. This will also be an opportunity to playtest a new rule-set I have been working on for the past few weeks. (More on that later)

A note on setting and mood

This will be a Gothic horror campaign. Role-playing will be highly emphasized and excellent role-playing will be highly rewarded. Your characters will be ordinary folk faced with the extraordinary. As such, we will be utilizing a version of the Fear, Horror and Madness rules originally from 2nd Edition Ravenloft (these will be made available to all).

Combat will be rare, but brutal.

Application
Characters will be picked on background first. Please include crunch information in a spoiler. No need for an Alias just yet.

If I have forgotten anything or you have any questions, please let me know.

First: All credit due to the folks who worked so hard on the Mistfinder conversion. I have taken bits and pieces and added them to my own conversion. I am only using the name above to hopefully attract the attention and feedback level that original thread received.

Second: The rest is either adapted from Sword & Sorcery's Ravenloft or the original 2nd edition boxes sets, or some monstrous combination of both.

I'll start with what I think makes up the core of the Ravenloft experience: The Fear, Horror and Madness checks. First, Fear.

Please note the language is not well-developed in many areas. There is some copy/pasting, which will be rectified before further posting.

Fear, Horror and Madness checks

Saving throw

Fear, Horror, and Madness saves are considered Will saves in all respects. Anything that modifies a Will save likewise modifies Fear, Horror, and Madness saves; anything that modifies
Saves vs. Fear Effects modifies Fear saves.

Luck effects and resistance effects(such as those generated by a luckstone or a cloak of resistance) do not affect Fear, Horror, and Madness saves; they are outside the purview of luck and are not "active" effects that would be resisted. Divine effects do aid Fear, Horror, and Madness saves, however.

If a character succeeds at the Will save, then there is no effect, and she is immune to that specific source of fear, horror, or madness for 24 hours.

The effects of failures depend on how badly the check failed.

Failure Margin Effect
1-5 points Minor
6-10 points Moderate
11-15 points Major
16+ points Major, plus additional effect (see below for specifics).

Recovery Checks

A character who fails a Horror or Madness save needs to make recovery checks to shake off its effects. Recovery checks are actually just Horror or Madness saves, usually with the same
modifiers and DC. However, succeeding at a recovery check removes a Horror effect or lessens
the severity of a Madness effect; failing a recovery check does not cause additional ill effects. Characters may take 10 on recovery checks.

Fear

A character should make a Fear save when facing overwhelming odds and/or immediate, dire
physical danger. Fear saves can also be used to test the morale of the heroes' foes. Common fear triggers include the following:

• The group is badly outnumbered or outclassed by opponents (CR is 4+ higher than the average party level).
• The most powerful character in the group or half of the group's members are killed/unconscious.
• An enemy/creature is immune to the group's attacks.
• An enemy/creature is at least two size categories larger than the biggest member of the group.
• An enemy/creature has the Frightful Presence special attack.
• The character is helpless and threatened by immediate death.

If a character doesn't know they are in dire peril, then she has no reason to make a Fear save. Likewise, if a player thinks their hero is doomed, a Fear save may be warranted. Illusions can often trigger these "false" saves.

Fear Save DC:

For monsters / Menacing creatures, DC is equal to 10 + ½ monster’s Hit Dice + the creature’s Charisma modifier. Frightening Presence adds a +2 to the DC.

When multiple monsters trigger the effect, use the strongest monster’s DC.

Traps and the like start at 10 and add the CR value.

If the character or ally has a weapon / ability / spell that he/she knows is useful against the creature, they gain a +4 on their fear save.
If the character or ally has a weapon / ability / spell that he/she believes is useful against the threat, they gain a +2 on their save.
Defeating a creature gives a +1 to subsequent fear checks against similar types. Being defeated in the past confers a -1 check against further monsters of the same type.

Failure Results:

Minor Effect: Shaken as per the PRD.
Moderate Effect: Frightened as per the PRD
Major effect: Panicked as per the PRD

If a character fails a fear save by 16+, they are immediately panicked and must pass a Horror Save, at the same DC -5
Recovering from Fear

Fear effects last for 5d6 rounds. Spells that remove fear effects cancel the status on the target.

If you happen to be from any of my games, you should stop reading here. And also, stop stalking me you creeps.

ANYWAY!

I have three big bads that I need some help equipping suitably. I would like the equipment to be cool and memorable, and most importantly, character-fitting, rather than just powerful (though that will help too).

I have a few ideas, but frankly, this is one of my big weakness as a GM.

The first is an ifrit ranger (level 8), two weapon style fighter. As far as character goes, he's none-too-bright but all-too-vicious type who happens to be a very successful slaver. He wears a hat of disguise to appear human, and is fond of mounted combat. A desert-centric character, servant of one of the Water Lords of Thuvia

The second is an fighter/inquisitor/Hellknight (level 8) who favors heavy repeating crossbows and whips. She is, at the moment, a slave master for an important archaeological dig sponsored by a powerful Chelaxian family.

The last is a conjurist/diabolist of Cheliax, level 9. Not necessarily a 'bad' guy, a son of the Leroung noble family who is in charge of the aforementioned dig. Obsessed with the ancient past and the potential for power through exhumed artifacts.

The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.

There are few modules with such a history , and none with as deeply felt and long-reaching impact as the original Ravenloft I6. It served as inspiration for a long running, fan-favorite setting of the same name. Updates using subsequent iterations of D&D rules followed the original adventure's publication, so popular was the original module.

This is my gaming White Whale.

It's been thirty years since publication, ladies and gentlemen, and I've never played or run this seminal piece of RPG history. Many of you can probably say the same.

Let's you and I fix that.

This is not a recruitment thread just yet. For now, let's discuss what we would like in a PBP implementation of the classic Ravenloft adventure.

Namely, what edition and what version?

• 3.5's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft offered up a long-form version of the original. This would be easily converted to 3.75, should that be the route taken

• House of Strahd is a version steeped in 2nd Edition D&D and Ravenloft setting rules (Dark powers, fear and horror checks, etc)

• The original I6, 1st edition AD&D in all of it's messy glory.

Choices, choices...

So what do you think? Is there enough interest to see this run through to the bitter end?

Duwwor is not a beautiful city. Merabs and Aspenthar to the north are bustling ports; the latter boasts a martial, functional beauty, while the former’s skyline is dominated by the incomparable Temple of the Redeeming Sun, countless Alchemists’ Guilds and spectacular noble manses. Lamasara, home to artists, architects, and performers has a mad beauty to it, and tiny Pashow, a city dedicated to the arcane and alchemical studies boasts a tight cluster of spiral towers rising high into the desert sky. But while Duwwor cannot match the other city states for man-made beauty, it boasts a natural abundance unmatched throughout Thuvia, and much of northern Garund.

Sprawling out from the Turvanar River, that borders to the east, and the Barrier Wall to the south, the cluster of sandstone and mud brick houses fades into a seasonally fertile expanse that expands out to the west and north along both banks of the river.

The most important, and visually noteworthy structure in the city is the Temple of Gozreh that dominates the western bank of the Turvanar. It appears at first glance to be an expansive and meticulously maintained garden, but the verdant grounds hold a great open-air temple to the God of nature, where the farmers and tradesmen come to offer sacrifice and prayer to the fickle deity whose favor their livelihoods--and very lives--depend.

And while Duwwor is not denied it’s opportunity to sell the Sun Orchid Elixir every five years, it, more than any of the others, is not solely reliant upon the potion to drive it’s economy. As the breadbasket of Thuvia, Duwwor sees enough trade that the Elixir is an excellent boost to the city’s coffers. Every five years, the wealthy of the world travel down the Turvanar and across the Thuvian desert in caravans that stretch for miles, set up temporary resident in the Sun district, across the river, and Duwwor becomes a city transformed. The usually subdued markets become a colorful bazaar of the bizarre and international, with people of every culture, creed and race, descending to take part in the ritual that will bestow a dose of youthfulness to the lucky few.

This is Duwwor’s year. And there is much to be done.

Welcome one and all. Before we get underway, there are a few things to cover.

First, please arrange your profile in a manner similar to this example. Particularly the information listed under Class, so it displays in the thread with each post. The less digging I have to do in combat means more posts!

Second, if you take a look at the combat in my Carrion Crown thread, you can get a feel for how I tend to run things. Essentially: post your actions, not necessarily in order, then we recap and move on to the next round.

Please use the below format for anything posted during combat. this is important, i wont keep track of your HP. Also please denote move action, Standard and minor actions, wherever possible, simply using a FA MA or SA to indicate is perfectly fine.

Round X,
HP: x/y Status: x, round x of y
Spells used: lvl 1 x/y, lvl 2: x/y

now we'll give everyone a while to check in and get underway as soon as possible.

please make any necessary adjustments to your characters to fit the rules posted in the recruiting thread. Remember, no weapons with a +2 or better enchantment.

Having looked through the rules, I certainly find this an intriguing idea.

I'm wondering if some of you more crunch-oriented power-gamer types can provide some insight as to when having your PC's 'ascend' to mythic is most ideal. It seems to me that they could receive the mythic bump (patent pending) at just about any time, but I'm not particularly gifted at the analysis necessary to confirm this.

Were I to, say, in a carrion crown campaign give the mythic bump(patent still pending) after say, the climax of book three, would it be more ideal and more noteworthy to the pcs at roughly lvl 9 tier 1, than if I awarded it at the climax of the entire adventure path, at roughly lvl 17, tier 1?

Thanks.

Thuvia is a land of few mercies. What life cannot be claimed by the endless desert can fall prey to the vicious Div that stalk the sand, or the fickle Water Lords, territorial men who fight over the few precious oases and the prized and sought-after Sun Orchid, source of the land's solitary mercy. The few plants that harvested are sent to the Citadel of the Alchemist, where they are distilled into an concoction that reverses the effects of time, the Sun Orchid Elixir. Each year, carried by a blind, mute servant, a case emerges from the fortress, and each year, one of the five city-states auctions off the six vials within.

This ancient tradition is the heart of the Thuvian economy, and as such, the elixir is the source of much intrigue, violence and plotting. While the lords of the five city-states strive to keep the trade open and unabetted, there are many who would usurp the practice for their own reasons, be they the profane, the personal ...or the profitable.

Accepting submissions for a party of four to six palyers. Characters are mercenaries or associated with the church of Gozreh in some vague way. Deadline is the 25th of November.

This campaign will mostly focus on and take place in the nation of Thuvia. Ideally, there will be a good mix of political intrigue, action and old fashioned, Indiana Jones-style tomb-raiding.

Basics
Ability scores: 20 pt buy
Starting level: Characters start at fifth level.
Class: Any, no 3rd party.
Races: Any, though races from the ARG will need approval (Alternate racial traits from the ARG are fine)
Traits: Two, from different categories.

Starting Wealth: 10,500 gold
Starting Items: Wealth spending guidelines are below. Follow them loosely. nothing with a +2 magical bonus or better. (this is not lose)
Items do not need to be complete in order to be considered for a spot.

Starting location: City of Duwwor in south-west Thuvia

Alignment: Alignment rules will be largely ignored in this campaign. Spells like detect evil and protection from evil will usually only work against the undead, extraplanar, and the like. Channeling will work normally.

As such, you do not need to state an alignment in profile.

Please post any questions, and good luck.

For a feel of how I run my games, my Carrion Crown game can be found here.

I've been running a little loose with the XP so far in my campaign. We are currently about to start Broken Moon at lvl 7. I know they should be level 9 by the end, plan on hitting level 8 right before the Stairs of the Moon.

As I don't like breaking action to tally XP, I was wondering at what future points I should be thinking of leveling up the party?

Or at least anecdotes as to when your party leveled up throughout the entire Adventure Path.

In a recent adventure path, our cleric commanded a flying devil to 'fall' The devil failed it's will save, and fell to the ground as the spell commands. The ground being 200 feet below, the devil did not survive.

Now I'm not a rules lawyer, I just don't have the chops. But this kind of irked me. am I missing something in the rules here? I enjoyed the clever usage but I feel like something is not lining up here.

The news came to you, propelled by the wailing wind of Calistril's final storm. A messenger, bearing dark news—a missive regarding an old friend. You obliged the written request, (How could you not?) departing right away.

As was only right to do.

The sodden trail was lonely, but blessedly uneventful. The goddess Desna, protector of travelers, kept your way clear... or perhaps and more appropriately, it was Pharasma herself, shepherd of the dead, who kept you safe. Any musings on the divine were but distractions; grief and memory were your companions on your journey, and the discussion you shared with those silent comrades was of little comfort. The words written to you roiled over and over in your mind as the miles fell away behind you.

You do not know me, but I have heard much of you from my father. My name is Kendra Lorrimor, and I send you grim news. Petros Lorrimor, my father, your friend, has died. He will be buried on the second day of Pharast, and I know he would be truly honored and grateful if you helped lay him to rest.

Yours truly,
Kendra Lorrimor

And finally, when the month of Calistril's snow faded into a rainy Pharast, you arrived in Ravengro, the squat brown village that Professor Petros Lorrimor apparently called home. The persistent rain seemed appropriate as you approached the Restlands, where your friend's body would forever rest.

A haggard-looking old horse, lashed to the cart that bore your friend's remains to this place, whinnied softly at your approach. Hooded figures stood waiting by the entrance conversations muted by a shared grief.

Congrats and welcome!

Please check in with your aliases and completed profiles here.

Please follow THIS TEMPLATE. for character profile. I find it easier to find what I need this way.

Remember to outfit yourself with 150 gold worth of gear.

IF you want to expand or intertwine any backgrounds, please go ahead. More ammo (errr, information) for me!

I'm looking for four players to start a Carrion Crown PBP. (my first PBP, but second time running Carrion Crown)

the basics:
-20 point buy.
-150 gold starting
-Core rules, APG, UM/UC and Inner Sea World Guide. Anything else needs approval.
-2 traits. one from the Carrion Crown player's guide. Please feel free to include Professor Lorrimor (and his daughter if you like) into your backgrounds to whatever degree you like. Be a student of his, be a local admirer of his daughter, whatever.
-Posting primarily on weekdays. Looking for one post a day from players.

Please post character ideas and a rough background. Once selections have been made, I will ask for a complete background and character profile. Deadline for applying is Friday, midnight EST.

If I'm forgetting anything, please let me know.

Specifics for posting combat/skill checks/etc will be covered once characters have been selected.

I'm not a rules lawyer. I tend to rule in favor of what is cool/interesting/fun over what's by-the-book. We will see how this shakes out in a PBP

I think this Adventure Path lends itself very well to PBP, so hopefully this will be a lot of fun for everyone. Good luck.

Please post your highlights from combat encounters within Carrion Crown. I'm hoping to share fun and interesting turns used to make some of the fights really unique, challening and different.

I'll start with our last session in Trial of the Beast:

My group of four PCs made their way into V&G's chymic works after a few days trying to track them down. What followed was one of those spectacular sessions of gaming that I'm still giddy over. Hence the post, I guess.

I think this was the most interesting, challenging and well-layed out fights so far in the adventure path.

-The Barbarian and Ranger in the group were happy to have a serious brawl on their hands for the first time.

-The cleric, drained of all spells, with a few channels left still had an incredible time with the fight.

-the alchemist had a great bomb-slinging duel with Vorkstag.

To mazimize the fun here I tried to use the different levels in the main room to maximum frustration for the PCS.

One of the mongrelmen yanked the barbarian off the entranceway platform, then the remaining started wailing on him when he was down.

Vorkstag, with his Jump extract, was leaping along the platforms between the vats, hurling bombs. (sadly not to great effect, but it was frightening to the PCs). When he hit low HP, he went invisibile and hid deep in the factory.

Grine hurled axes for a while, but in his best moment, he spider-climbed onto the ceiling, out of reach of the barbarian and cleric who were closing in on him, then used Command to make the barbarian take a walk over the railing. He made good his escape, only to be cornered in the tower trying to pry the window open to get out. He was brained by the barbarian who sprinted after him, slaughtering the frankly kind of pathetic homonculi in the way.

I was going to have Vorkstag escape to further antagonize the PCs, but when one of the players started rooting around in his room immediately following the combat, he came roaring back into the fight, hoping to defend his cabinet of skins, only to be brought low by the PCs.

The players were ultimately thrilled with the fight, which was great, considering it took almost two hours to complete. I hope to continue this with Caromarc's castle next week.

Hey--

I apologize if the answer for this is already on these boards somewhere, my search-fu is weak...

I am planning a one-shot adventure for my group with new characters. Characters will be 6th level, and I was wondering how I should go about determining their magic items.

I know the GameMastery guide suggests 16,000 gold for 6th level... so should I simply make them purchase their starting items from that sum, or give them a few to go with.

Is there a certain enchantment level I should limit them to? (+2 I figure)

Thanks in advance.