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Using Orlangru doesn't make much sense - how would the PCs manage to track down his lair from the shipwreck?

You could always destroy the ships rather than leaving them repairable, but that's a bit heavy-handed.

Perhaps the Nixie has crashed by the gargoyle cliffs? Lavinia gets word to the party that they are in trouble and need help. Repairing the ship might take too long so the PCs head off on foot to help the Nixie?

I love Castle all on it's own, but this weeks episode was just a whole nother level of awesome.

Alexis: Besides, didn't you wear that, like five years ago? It's time to move on.

Castle: (dressed as Mal) But, I like it

:-D

Pure gold.

Well, crud. Bought Carnival in hopes of running it for Halloween, but I just don't see a way to make it work for my evil party. Townspeople being killed? Harumph.

Does anyone have a clever way to make Carnival work for an evil party?

Does Hungry Are The Dead or Hangman's Noose work better?

Arachnophobia.
Monster House is a great movie.

What about the old stuff - Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob?

We've finished as well. Almost a full year of weekly gaming. I'd give the campaign a solid 7/10.

Highlights:
* Harrow Deck of Many Things. I thought it kind of silly but the players loved it.

* Sial and Laori. Most players trusted neither, one player trusted one, one player trusted the other. Was a lot of fun playing the middle of all that.

* The Arkonas. Bahor killed one PC which made him very hated. Vimanda's successfully fooled the party which was great fun to play.

* Dragon forming at the end. I think all six players said "holy sh*t".

* Erineyes. My players sincerely hate them now and I enjoyed the massive amounts of harassment I dealt out with them.

* Korvosa: Players & I both really enjoyed the city.

* Scarwall: Loved that dungeon adventure, very good feel to it.

Lowlights:

* Ending Is Too Much Combat: We played probably 12 weeks on Crown, all of it combat. That includes skipping Three Face, all the Red Mantis, and Sabina. The climax was a little off due to battle-fatigue.

* McGuffins of History of Ashes: I loved this adventure when I read it. When I was explaining to the players what they had to do, it sounded ridiculous.

* No Real Conclusion: Yeah, you defeat the Queen, but who takes over from there? As discussed in other threads, a more "resistance" type adventure at the end would have been better with some hints as to what happens next in Korvosa.

A dataset for Crown of Fangs for DM's Familiar is available.
http://www.paladinpgm.com/dmf/downloads.htm

Do you guys actually play any Paizo stuff? :)

I find Tim Hitchcock to be creepy. The Prison one and Siege of the Spidereaters would both make good October fair. They're low level though.

The Styes and it's follow-up (the one with lots of spiders) would be good as well, but a little higher level and more Lovecraft than classic monsters.

The Scarwall GM Reference thread has this explained.

Name of PC: Vencarlo Orsini
Class/Level: Ftr5/Rog1/Duelist 6
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Unholy Blights

After battling the boggard's on level 2 the PCs were a little beat up so Ileosa sent her Furies after them. Alternately appearances at either end of the dry hallway, the party was hit by several unholy blights as they ran back and forth. Eventually the Furies are wounded enough that they flee.

Having several potent spells up, the PCs decide they should quickly press on. They swim up the water filled shaft to the third level but are dismayed to find a nearly transparent portcullis sealing it off (minor image). Even more troubling is that the Furies are there and waiting for them.

Before a passwall can be created to get by the illusion, the party is hit with several more unholy blights. Vencarlo dies before he can escape. His body floating back down the shaft.

-------------

Name of PC: Zarinikal
Class/Level: Wiz15
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Having no healing

The PCs have escaped the water-filled shaft and are battling all four Furies on the third level. Sick to death of the unholy blights, the party splits up so they can't all be hit.

Zarinikal, with only 1 hit point, runs off to the eastern passage and is safe there since the Furies are fighting others. Poor Zarinikal has no healing and so spends three rounds hiding, unable to do anything.

Meanwhile, Ivan, the party rogue is going 1 on 1 with a Fury and losing. To escape, he takes off running....and winds up right next to Zarinkal. The Fury is in close pursuit, cackles with glee, and drops yet another Unholy Blight on the two hapless PCs. Zarinikal misses her save and dies.

I'd have Krogun show up, scoff at the "cheaters", and throw his klar to cut the ropes. But, sounds like your players were smart about it so I wouldn't be too harsh.

I don't see why the King dieing makes a difference in the PCs caring for the city. You want the PCs to adventure in the city so they to know Korvosa. That's exactly what the first three adventures do.

* bump * the Teleportation question above, and..

The Trumpet Harrow card allows the summoning of a elemental. How long does that elemental stay around once summoned?

SPOILERS

You'd want to have the showdown with I. to end the campaign. In Escape you rescue N. and V., you could say that gives the players the political muscle to move against I.

Use the castle map from Crown of Fangs, change up the monsters, and let the players attack the castle and I directly after Escape.

Name of PC: Zarinakal
Class/Level: Wiz15
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Catalyst: Carelessness, maybe even stupidity

After fighting a number of battles with Sergimatto, the PCs eventually end up with the book and contract. Though they've seen Sergimatto go etheral, teleport, and ambush them multiple times; Zarinakal decides to take the book and contract to the Acadame for research by himself while the rest of the PCs go to meet the Field Marshal.

Walking by himself on Korvosa's city streets, the ethereally-following Sergimatto pops back into the material plane. Zarinakal loses initiative and is quickly tongue-entangled and then constricted to death. "That was dumb" the last words to escape his lips.

Via my kids (Graveyard Book, the Stardust movie), I've discovered Neil Gaiman. What should be next on my Gaiman list?

My party's cleric and paladin wanted nothing to do with them either. That didn't stop the party wizard from communicating via sending and the fighter couldn't do much about the daily scrying. :) They were quite perturbed when Sial's bonehouse showed up on the causeway.

I'm not sure I'd change the nightcrawler encounter. The party doesn't want them along, let them resolve that encounter as they've set it up.

I allowed Sial to "sense" when Serithial was recovered. He then teleported in and tried to steal it.

Crud, sorry for the spoiler. I don't see a way to change it. Moderator? Maybe just change the title to "Spoiler: Crown of Fangs: Redemption?"

The adventure mentions the Erinyes teleporting about the pyramid but that requires a DC32 caster level check that they can only make on a 20. I assume they know that by now and wouldn't risk except in the most dire circumstance?

Leher's "How We Think". How the brain works, what it's good at, what it's not so good at, and how best to use your brain. Easy, not too technical reading on a really interesting topic.

The Belier delights in grabbing an opponent and then shifting back to the ethereal plane. But, etherealness only allows you to take willing people. Error? Special ability of the creature? I'm dumb?

The PCs are supposed to be "unofficial" trouble-shooters that Kroft can use when she can't use regular guard. I don't see it as a huge problem though. I don't find the beginning too railroad-y though either.

Great idea.

I had the city of Korvosa founded by one Glipkerio Korvosa - a companion of Mandravius who fled Castle Scarwall with the Fangs.

Why oh why would you design a map so incredible difficult to draw out for play.

I would also like to know how people played through this adventure.

Does anyone know of a virtual tabletop that can be run on a Mac?

My group attacked, got their butts handed to them, and decided to flee. The Vampire took that time to leave.

Apparently though he made an impression. We're at Crown of Fangs and the PCs are contemplating attacking the castle. While discussing the bad guys, one of them said 'Hey, what about the vampire thing that was in the hostel? We haven't seen him yet. Bet he's in the castle too. Probably a whole tribe of vampires in there. Illeosa could be a vampire!'

So you've changed the nature of Bahor's and Ileosa's relationship?

Perhaps the PCs will remember and offer the deal with Bahor again.

How did you resolve the caretaker of the tower bit in Skeletons of Scarwall?

RTFRT! (Read the f'ing reference thread)

Duh, thanks. A battle of wits with a contract devil? I think the party bard is really going to enjoy that. Thanks for the bonus material, Tito!

Several NPCs from the earlier adventures have survived in my campaign. Here's how I'm going to use them:

Bahor: Has been named Minister of the Blood. His men are collecting the blood samples and storing them at the Arkona palace. Triffacia is also his gift to the Queen and the Scarzni working with Triffacia are actually Rakshasa.

Vimanda: Once Kroft quit and went into hiding, the Queen had Vimanda assume her identity to try and keep the troops in line. Hopefully the PCs will go see Kroft directly and let her hold Serithial. At that point, the Grey Maidens in hiding will jump out and kill them.

Sial: My PCs bluffed Sial throughout Skeletons of Scarwall and made off with the sword. Quite angry, Sial is preparing in his Bone Tower to go after them. He has a wizard in his employ for scrying and teleporting. Once he finds the PCs, he, the wizard and his mummies will go after them. If the PCs don't manage to scry & teleport on him first.

Laori: Calmer than Sial, she'll continue to work the PCs. She's waiting at Salvator Scream's for the PCs to scry & teleport on her. When they do, she'll put up no resistance. Claiming to have critical Kazavon information, she'll demand to accompany the PCs from this point on. If they refuse, she hangs around town and waits for a chance to attack (after the Triffacia fight or Sebina perhaps).

Is there an important piece of information in the contract the PCs are supposed to learn cuz I'm not seeing it? Or is the contract just cool window dressing?

Maybe I'm being thick, but what's the purpose of Venster?

It seems that Venster is there to provide one little chore before giving the PCs a cool magic item? I suppose he could be used to provide any details of the story that the PCs missed?

Just an observation:
If the PCs can move quickly, they'll bypass the last two encounters of Scarwall. Jumping into the blue-light shaft gets them past Idlevrok since he won't pursue. Kleestad has no good way to deal with flyers and he's too big to pursue down the tunnels.

For my campaign, they flew down the blue-shaft, flew out to the island to grab the sword, and left. Kleestad got in one breath weapon before the party disappeared down the tunnels.

If you don't want things that easy, Idlevrok could be the only one to open the blue-light shaft and not until he gets a curate. A portcullis the gugs can close would keep the flyers from fleeing (and give a thief something to do).

Name of PC: Sirak
Class/Level: Paladin 12
Adventure: "Skeletons of Scarwall"
Catalyst: Party splitting up

Story: Deep in the Star Tower, the party encounters Idlevrok and gets in some trouble. They manage to trap Idelvrok behind a Wall of Force and half of the party (including Sirak) retreats. The other half of the party thinks they should take advantage of the trapped nightwing and leaps into blue-light shaft and then out to the tunnels and the lake.

Sirak and Ivan heal up and then eventually start after the rest of the party. By this time Idlevrok has summoned a Dread Wraith. Sirak and Ivan engage the dead wraith but start hearing screams for help from the rest of the party. The brave paladin encourages Ivan to go help the party while he deals with the wraith. Fighting one on one, Sirak doesn't do so well and is quickly drained of all his CON.

The Pathfinder rules, as far as I know, are OGL so anyone can license it. You just have to follow the OGL rules.

Is there any interest in starting a Pathfinder Society group that would play via virtual tabletop (I'm using Kloogewerks, but am open to others that don't have to be purchased).

Ideally, there would be a group of a dozen or more players with a couple people interested in sharing the DM role on a rotating basis. DM could just pick a module, date/time they want to run it, and whomever wants to play can play.

Interested in playing? Interesting in DMing? Experience with virtual tabletop software?

Glad you're liking it. There's a yahoo group if you've got questions or are looking for advice.

Silverhair: Since DMF doesn't enforce any rules - you just enter the data your want - it should have no trouble with Pathfinder.

Datasets for use with DM's Familiar are available on the DMF downloads page. Currently it is Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne.

A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for Escape from Old Korvosa on the downloads page.

The first RPGSuperstar had a Shuagin villain and a his underwater home. Good stuff.

In Dungeon, I'm remember an adaptation of Shakespeare that was all underwater. Three sisters and their father the king.

Name of PC: Hugh
Class/Level: Clr12
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Telling the truth, Lack of hit points

The party has already defeated Mithrodar when they encounter Nihil. Nihil is curious as to what has happened and calls out the party cleric to explain things. Being one of those honest types, Hugh, the cleric, explains in no uncertain terms that they're hear to deal with everything evil, their mothers, and throws in some other IMC insults to Nihil.

A running battle commences. Nihil lays down some area effect spells which badly injure the party. They retreat from the tower and try to heal up. As they do Nihil throws open the trapdoor from the roof above. Party flees to the hallway. Nihil teleports to the hallway, the PCs attempt to make a stand, and Hugh ends up the target of Nihil's Chain Lightning. Being a sickly, elderly priest, Hugh doesn't have enough hit points to survive the blast even though he's at full.

Curse of the Crimson Throne. It's city based and stays in that location for a good long time. Plenty of time to develop ongoing, complex NPC relations.

Name of PC: Darwin, Orr, Sirak
Class/Level: Brd12, Ftr12, Pal12
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Catalyst: Poor will saves

Story: PCs enter Scarwall by breaking the glass in the ballroom and lowering down on a rope. The Danse makes his appearance and the three PCs above fail their will save and begin dancing.

Party cleric uses some cure spells to do some damage. Rogue can't get past the Danse's DR and the wizard can't get past the SR. Between the tree of them, they can't do enough damage fast enough and all three dancing PCs have lost their CHA.

By RAW, they'd all be dead. IMC, Darwin spends one of his Hero points to get a new Will save and then uses 4 of his 5 Harrow Deck rolls before finally making the Will save. DM allows the bard to use his countersong ability to get the other PCs new saves. Using the bard's Perform check as the save, they break out of the dance as well.

But, since they use the ballroom as the exit/entrance to Scarwall, they're bound to run into the Danse again.

I wouldn't worry to much about the six players rather than four. For my group of six, I just generally have them a level below where they are supposed to be - seems to work OK. In a battle with boss + minions, I might throw in an extra minion or two but that's the only adjustment I make.

They've been through the Hospice a couple times and aren't alarmed with the conditions inside? The "patients go in but don't come out"?

Have a beloved NPC get sick and be taken to the Hospice.

A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for Seven Days to the Grave on the DMF downloads page.

A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for Edge of Anarchy on the DMF downloads page.

The point is, we elected a president this time who is beholden to a different set of criminals than the last one was.

And what about after Scarwall and into Crown of Fangs? Maybe we lose one NPC to the Star Tower but the other is still around and the goals of the PCs and the NPC are still in line? I see no mention of either Sial or Laori in Crown of Fangs but it seems reasonable they would still be around?