paizo.com Favorited Posts by Olwenpaizo.com Favorited Posts by Olwen2024-03-28T11:45:21Z2024-03-28T11:45:21ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Wrath of the Righteous campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs4387b?Olwens-Wrath-of-the-Righteous-campaign#252020-12-06T08:46:00Z2020-12-03T13:23:01Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Tanaquil wrote:</div><blockquote> <i>The Testament of Tanaquil Octavia Charthagnion, Part V: When Fire Beetles Battle With Their Spittle In A Hovel And The Hovel's Rather Little In A City That's Been Totaled, This Is What We Call A Totaled City Little Hovel Fire Beetle Spittle Battle</i></blockquote><p><span class=messageboard-ooc>By the end of the campaign, the header will be longer than the text! ;)</span>Tanaquil wrote:The Testament of Tanaquil Octavia Charthagnion, Part V: When Fire Beetles Battle With Their Spittle In A Hovel And The Hovel's Rather Little In A City That's Been Totaled, This Is What We Call A Totaled City Little Hovel Fire Beetle Spittle Battle
By the end of the campaign, the header will be longer than the text! ;)Olwen2020-12-03T13:23:01ZForums: Strange Aeons: We finished - Comments and Opinions on the Campaign [Spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs437mw?We-finished-Comments-and-Opinions-on-the#12024-01-03T08:48:36Z2020-10-17T15:05:57Z<p>We finished our <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y&page=1?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Strange Aeons</a> campaign after about 35 sessions spread over 8 months and probably over ~160h of gameplay. This is the eighth AP that I more or less finish (after half of Rise of the Runelord, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, 2 thirds of Mummy’s Mask, Hell’s Rebels, Return of the Runelords), mainly with the same group of players and all using Pathfinder 1st edition rules. It’s always a pleasure to reflect back on the path traveled, what worked and what didn’t. It’s a little different this time around because it took about half the time it usually takes us to go through an AP (thanks pandemic…) and everything is still quite fresh in our minds. Even though the AP didn’t last as long as usual in real life, it’s still quite a commitment to run an AP all the way through and it’s always a joy to wrap one up! </p>
<p>I GM’d a group of 4 players through the AP. It’s really enjoyable to have such a nice group of gamers and we’re able to have a lot of fun through these stories despite our sometimes different playstyles. The 4 characters went from from level 1 up to level 16 for the final session, with a group consisting of an android teleportation conjurator, a halfling shadow sorcerer, a human cleric of Horus within an animal companion, and a human grappling fighter. The characters were created with a 15-point buy, the players are very experienced, and the characters were quite optimized. The campaign was fairly tensed at times (as I like it to be) with a few deaths but nothing permanent (as I like it to be). And also with quite a bit of insanity as you would expect for the "lovecraftian AP."</p>
<p>So a huge thank you to Adam Daigle for developing this AP, and to the authors Wes Schneider, Tito Leati, Ron Lundeen, Richard Pett, John Compton, and Jim Groves for writing those adventures! There were some very high notes and some more frustrating times but, overall, this is an AP that is worthy of being played, especially because it’s quite different from most other APs because of its cosmic horror theme. It’s not my favorite AP of those I GM’d (that would probably be Kingmaker and Return of the Runelords) but it’s still an excellent AP and of the very high Paizo standard.</p>
<p>So let’s go straight to what frustrated me: since I know and love Call of Cthulhu as well as what is now commonly called Lovecraftian horror, I came into this AP with expectations (fighting unbeatable odds, cosmic, incomprehensible horror, etc) that don’t always play well with the Pathfinder rules in which character become super-heroes very quickly and in which dungeons sometimes overstay their welcome. While the Chulhu set up worked really well in the first chapter, and towards the end in the spooky lost city of Nerazuvin or in Carcosa, I felt very frustrated in the dungeons of The Whipser Out of Time. The sudden power change inherent to the Pathfinder rules also create some particularly jarring discontinuities in the flow of the story. The most egregious one is that, after spending all of chapter 3 journeying on the Sellen over 6 sessions and 1-2 months of game time, then the PCs reach level 9, have access to teleport, and the AP drops any focus on traveling, assuming the PCs just teleport to the next step. It’s so frustrating, especially since traveling and what happens during the travel times is an intrinsic part of the most famous Call of Cthulhu campaigns that Strange Aeons at times tries to emulate.</p>
<p>Among the changes I made to the AP, I was very happy with myself in the way I used a (less codified) version of the corruption rules instead of the insanity rules that quickly seemed too mechanical to me. When PCs were failing at their "SAN" checks in front of incomprehensible horror, I would give them some corruption effect, based on the one corruption theme each character had. I kept the rules fuzzy and it worked really well to represent the PC’s minds unravelling as they were in fugue state. That also gave them a very strong incentive to figure out what had happened to them. And it created some really good role-play opportunities that, I thought, were way more fun than just slapping crippling phobias on the PCs.</p>
<p>Towards the end, in the last two chapters, I also removed a lot of what I consider padding ("random-ish" encounters in Nerazuvin or in Carcosa) to focus more on the role-play of the alienness of these places and the impression to be in front of unfathomable beings/places/events. I find myself doing this more and more often at high level and it worked very, very well here because it avoids the issue of trying to scare the players but being undermined by a bunch of supposedly scary encounters that the characters beat in 2-3 rounds. Cosmic horror is best left to the thriving imagination of every player rather that put in stats to be fought!</p>
<p>Overall, here’s what I really enjoyed in the AP:
<br />
- The cosmic horror. When it worked (most of the time), it worked really well.
<br />
- As usual with Paizo APs, the encounters and role-play with interesting, lively, and lovely NPCs: Winter, Skywin Freeling, Upianshe, Queen Cassilda. There are fewer than in most APs but at least these four are very memorable.
<br />
- The start, in the asylum, without memories, surrounded by doppelgangers and ghouls. Wow, talk about unsettling!
<br />
- The fact that Lowls is present more or less from the start, grows into the villain quickly and gets stopped at the end, even if it’s not really him anymore.
<br />
- The exploration of the Dreamlands; the trip to the moon in the Dreamlands.
<br />
- The fight against the PCs own selves!
<br />
- The alien decor and locations towards the end (Nerazuvin and Carcosa).
<br />
- The story that becomes very meta if the players know of the play the King in Yellow, Chambers’ writing, or Chaosium’s Beyond the Mountain of Madness, etc. It’s so appropriate to have NPCs (or the PCs!) quote parts of the Chambers novel in Paris! And it’s very much in tradition with how the writing of these many authors (Chambers, Bierce, Lovecraft, Willis, …) combined to build the "lovecraftian" universe over more than a century.</p>
<p>And what I enjoyed less:
<br />
- As mentioned above the disconnect between the basis of the Pathfinder rules and the tenets of cosmic/lovecraftian horror. As a player put it: proto-shoggoths are supposed to be scary, not hit on the head until they die.
<br />
- The annoyance of confusion and frightening effects that dispossess the players of their characters. Insanity and fear are an intrinsic part of the Cthulhu mythos but, in Pathfinder terms, they are really punishing to the players of PCs with low Will saves.
<br />
- The high-level padding (the generic encounters described for Nerazuvin, the Shantaks in Paris, the Larvae of the Gods, the Shrike Worms at the end, all of which without much agency and requirement from a story point of view) that eat many pages of AP, especially at high level. These could have been better used to provide many more details about the alienness of Nerazuvin, of the Elder Thing city, or of Paris.
<br />
- The fact that Paris feels like an afterthought when it could have been the opportunity to go full meta and, for instance, do a set piece with a representation of the King in Yellow in 1923 Paris. Quite a missed opportunity.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s always the GM’s job to tailor any AP to their needs and those of their groups. It’s just like it felt that there were more of those frustrations than in other APs. But it’s a high quality campaign nevertheless: epic, alien, full of emotional moments, weirdness, and heroic moments!</p>
<p>As for specific details on the six chapter…</p>
<p><b>In Search of Sanity</b> (4.5/5.0) That beginning in media res is very, very, very good. And the PCs having no memories of the last few years, with no idea of where they are, with monstrosities all around, bleeding doors, rats in the walls, a society of asylum patients, etc. That was a <i>huge</i> amount of fun to play through. It may be a little long and unnecessarily deadly once the PCs make it to the ghoul section of the asylum but that’s a minor complaint. The Tatterman that first appears in the PCs dreams at the very start before being the final encounter was a cool arc. And this sickly yellow fog, seeping everywhere, preventing any exit… That chapter was hugely exciting to play through.</p>
<p><b>It Came From Hollow Mountain</b> (4.5/5.0) This one worked surprisingly well. I was originally skeptical when I read it but the many smalls encounters in Trushmoor with the locals who dislike the PCs while these don’t know why was very fun to play through and make the PCs discovery the horrible people they were before. The dungeon-y parts of the AP, with the fort and the manor are quite optional and the group only quickly explored Lowl’s manor, which was a bit of a relief to not bog the story down. It also gave me the opportunity to stage a takeover of Thrushmoor by the skums and the zombies who didn’t stay idly put in the fort. That was quite a classic Call of Cthuthlu move, with the skums taking the inhabitants prisoner to lead them into the lake while the zombies attacks the temple where the refugees from the asylum had settled it. It was much more dynamic than a simple dungeon exploration and a much better fit to the story.</p>
<p>Dreams of the Yellow King (4.5/5.0) One of these memorable modules because of both the well-crafted journey along the Sellen and the forays into the Dreamlands. Journeys are an integral part of the mythic Call of Cthulhu campaigns (the Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond the Mountain of Madness, Horror on the Orient Express, etc) and this volume was a nice tip of the hat in this direction. The Dreamlands adventures were also very enjoyable because of their quirkiness, because they threw the PCs of balance and allowed for very inappropriate encounters without consequences that were too severe (the shopkeeper, Bokrug). Searching for 7 gifts was a little too much, though, especially since I dislike this structure for modules (go fetch many things to advance the plots, sigh). The trip to the moon to rescue the Yellow King was quite something, though. And this final encounter, with the PCs fighting themselves! What a mess of an encounter for the GM, but that was a very fun mess!</p>
<p><b>The Whisper Out of Time</b> (2.0/5.0) That was a real letdown for me because of the reasons I developed above (jarring change in the rhythm of the story with 3 disjoined locations separated by 100s of kilometers after a whole chapter spent traveling over the Sellen; basically 3 dungeons with things to bash to advance the story). I think this part of the story should have focused on a reckless chase after Lowls that would end in Nerazuvin rather than having these three set pieces. The set pieces aren’t bad but I felt I needed to edit them heavily to make them more interesting: in the Old Infirmary, I dropped everything related to the derros, which transformed the place into a spooky abandoned local with drying skins, stitched up monstrosities, etc. I removed a few encounters in the Nethys Library to go more quickly through it (and, really, Proto-Shoggoths shouldn’t be filler encounters…). I removed the small investigation in Katapesh that I felt had little purpose and, luckily, the PCs assaulted the Blossoming Thorn from the top, which allowed us to run it into a single protracted encounter. I was particularly disappointed by this chapter because I usually adore Richard Pett’s chapters and he seemed a very good fit for a Cthulhu campaign. A missed opportunity; it happens!</p>
<p><b>What Grows Within</b> (4.0/5.0) The journey to Nerazuvin and the few encounters until the group reaches the city are weird enough that it helps setting up a strange atmosphere that blooms nicely with the exploration of the alien city itself. The literal alien Kaklatath helps to set up the mood. I felt the exploration of the city itself required quite a bit of work to remove the unnecessary bits ("random" encounters, the 8-room, dungeon-style exploration of the undercity that is supposed to be huge but empty) and make the rest creepy (no fighting encounter in the Snarl but entities that have been here for aeons). I think the work payed off, though, and there were some memorably moments: Upianshe, the battle with Kaklatath against the waking Polyps and the promised army of millions if the PCs failed, the Husk of Xhamen-Dor attacking the PCs as they are conducting the final ritual, etc.</p>
<p><b>Black Stars Beckon</b> (5.0/5.0) I amped up the alienness of Carcosa throughout this book and it really worked. It was spooky, dangerous (a house full of vampires, slithering shoggoths in the dead city of the Elder Things, crazed humans in Paris, etc.), and this chapter provides a glimpse of Lovecraft’s, Chambers’, or Bierce’s writings. There’s ample opportunities to go meta and present scenes, encounters that resonate with the players who know that universe while their PCs don’t. It’s pretty damn cool! I thought Paris could have been more developed.
<br />
One part I changed and I’m very happy I did is to replace the Briarstone Witch with the Pallid Mask in the final encounter. The PCs haven’t heard about the Witch for 5 AP volumes and, even then, only as a vague legend, so I don’t think she makes for a satisfactory final encounter. On the other hand, having the Pallid Mask as a recurring villain who comes back here to try and thwart the PCs is much more interesting. The PCs know him, the players hate him from their first encounter, and he is a clear minion of Hastur, so why not use him again? That worked perfectly.</p>
<p>Thinking about the details of what I liked and disliked, it’s very clear that it was globally a great story, despite the sometimes discordant expectations between the Pathfinder and lovecraftian setups. I’m really glad we played this one and I’ll fondly remember many cool moments of this AP! The fact that it ended with one of the character betraying the others and fleeing with the Necronomicon is an added bonus!</p>
<p>The next stop should be Kenabres and the Worldwound for Wrath of the Righteous!</p>We finished our Strange Aeons campaign after about 35 sessions spread over 8 months and probably over ~160h of gameplay. This is the eighth AP that I more or less finish (after half of Rise of the Runelord, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, 2 thirds of Mummy’s Mask, Hell’s Rebels, Return of the Runelords), mainly with the same group of players and all using Pathfinder 1st edition rules. It’s always a pleasure to reflect back on the path traveled, what worked and what didn’t. It’s a...Olwen2020-10-17T15:05:57ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Strange Aeon campaign journalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y&page=2?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#912020-09-29T19:30:13Z2020-09-21T16:30:15Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">NobodysHome wrote:</div><blockquote><p> Well-played GM. I like what you did.
</p>
•• spoiler omitted •• </blockquote><p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Players can read the spoiler; it's long past, now.</span>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>These encounters are quite common and I almost systematically create a way out with good roleplay. Here, it certainly wasn't an easy way out, but the roleplay was good and that made the Diplomacy check DC reachable (35-40, if I remember well?). But it's not a given: a similar situation happened with the moon nagas the next session and, there, the characters weren't able to sway them with words.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>It's always tricky to find the right balance between what can be a cool scripted event and letting the players have an impact on what happens. But, in general, APs have too many "X fight to the death" encounters. And if it's not that, it's "Y allies with the PCs to recover the item and, then, they betray them." It's fine every so often, but it happens so many times in APs that I don't understand why any player would have their character ally with anyone if you play the APs as written…</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Ah, well, that's what the GM is for!</span></p>NobodysHome wrote:Well-played GM. I like what you did.
** spoiler omitted **
Players can read the spoiler; it's long past, now. These encounters are quite common and I almost systematically create a way out with good roleplay. Here, it certainly wasn't an easy way out, but the roleplay was good and that made the Diplomacy check DC reachable (35-40, if I remember well?). But it's not a given: a similar situation happened with the moon nagas the next session and, there, the characters weren't...Olwen2020-09-21T16:30:15ZRe: Forums: Strange Aeons: Dreamlands Death + InsanityOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs431vx?Dreamlands-Death-Insanity#42020-06-14T10:26:30Z2020-06-09T12:41:51Z<p>I tailored them to the PCs. It created some really fun roleplay opportunities but certainly requires a mature gaming group to avoid getting out of hand (at least with the way we played it). If you're interested in knowing more about how it went, here's our <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y&page=2?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#68" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">campaign journal</a>.</p>I tailored them to the PCs. It created some really fun roleplay opportunities but certainly requires a mature gaming group to avoid getting out of hand (at least with the way we played it). If you're interested in knowing more about how it went, here's our campaign journal.Olwen2020-06-09T12:41:51ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Strange Aeon campaign journalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y&page=2?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#682020-06-08T02:30:54Z2020-06-07T17:23:07Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>I have no issue with you taking a look at the corruption rules. :)</span></p>I have no issue with you taking a look at the corruption rules. :)Olwen2020-06-07T17:23:07ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Strange Aeon campaign journalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#122020-02-09T08:06:21Z2020-02-08T14:09:53Z<p><b>Session 2</b></p>
<p><i>A place, a time, Carcosa</i></p>
<p>Fatigue, exhaustion, despair. They barricade themselves in a side room. Nightmares, yellow mist, screams. The Tatterman, stroking Mrriaál's face. Shudders. Barely any rest.</p>
<p>The final room in this wing of the Asylum. A laundry room. A torture room. Cadavers. A living cadaver, hungry; mangled legs, immobilized in a washing bassin. A surviving doctor, still alive. Tortured. Or was she. They almost save her, back to the barricade. Still, suspicion. Paranoia. She held the key to the manacles to the crazed man, the body, and the ghoul attached to the wall. Paranoia. Mrriaál slits her throat before Tam can stop her. Horrified companions. The cacophony of Bit's pet talking bird. Already, the body of the woman changed to that of a dead shapeshifter. Survival. Paranoia. Paranoia has its virtue. But leaves you all alone.</p>
<p>At the barricade, they let them through. Without their weapons. A large group of survivors. Patients. Doctors. Visitors. Kids. Winter Klazcka is doing her best to keep them alive. And sane. She prays to the Lady of Graves, the Mother of Souls. The chapel is safe. The Great Dreamer protects their sleep.</p>
<p>It started with riots. Prisoner Zandalus, crazed, leading hordes of former patients. Transformed residents, violent. A plague of shapeshifters born of the residents. It all started that way. But the chapel is a harbor. Only Lorena, furious, attempts to destroy the statue of Desna. Confusion. Hesitation. What is happening to her? What is she becoming? What is she already?</p>
<p>An eye eating a wall. The only way to the rest of the Asylum. No way out. The eye fights back. Eventually destroyed by healing magic. The way through is open!</p>
<p>But outside, the yellow fog. Tendrils of mist curling. Shapes in the haze. Rain. A warm rain. An oily rain. A warm oily rain the color of blood. No way but further in. Searching for answers to questions. Searching for questions to answers. Searching for a way out. Searching for a way in.</p>
<p>The library; scattering rat-people. More rats and even more rats. Skittering, scrambling, climbing. On the books, on the shelves, on them. Biting, gnawing, scratching. Rats all over. Rats in the books. Rats in the walls. Forced to retreat to the chapel.</p>
<p>They rest, worn out. Bit connects what she sees. Tam's holy symbol. N… She knows, recoils, stays away from the scribe, no closer, sense of danger. Yet his magic is helpful, heals. How is it possible. The Black Pharaoh. How?</p>
<p>The library again. Fire, weapons arcing under the lantern light. Books flying and rats skewered. And rat-people. But more still ahead. They know. Lorena went and saw, unseen.</p>
<p>Still forward, halls and hallways, corridors. A path of mucus between doors…</p>Session 2
A place, a time, Carcosa
Fatigue, exhaustion, despair. They barricade themselves in a side room. Nightmares, yellow mist, screams. The Tatterman, stroking Mrriaál's face. Shudders. Barely any rest.
The final room in this wing of the Asylum. A laundry room. A torture room. Cadavers. A living cadaver, hungry; mangled legs, immobilized in a washing bassin. A surviving doctor, still alive. Tortured. Or was she. They almost save her, back to the barricade. Still, suspicion. Paranoia....Olwen2020-02-08T14:09:53ZForums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Iron Gods campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42xg9?Olwens-Iron-Gods-campaign#12020-06-24T20:19:49Z2020-02-03T21:39:55Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>After our <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42wro?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Return of the Runelords</a> <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq&page=1?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">campaign</a>, we started <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Strange Aeons</a>… But we had a free slot with a smaller part of the group, so we started Iron Gods too! This one with two players. I very much hope I'll be able to keep two journals running (with the players if they want too).</span></p>
<p><b>Session I:</b></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Standby mode… buffering… Standby mode… buffering…</span>
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc>Energy saving mode activated… Sending probes… Satellite connection activated…</span></p>
<p>> The large beacon of light emerging from Torch has been silence for 8 days. Multiple expeditions have explored the newly found caves under Black Hill. The one of Khonnir Bain came back, bringing with it the remnants of a drone, stories of a wondrous place of metal. His second expedition never came back.</p>
<p>> The sixth expedition is a small one. A human highlander, expert in primitive firearms. They call him Angus. A sister android prone to violence from overloaded circuitry. They call her Basic.</p>
<p>> They reach the submerged entrance of caves under the Weeping Pond, as locals call a lake suffused with chemical seeping from broken machinery. Evidence of destroyed vermin, a strange toad-like creature. A couple of dead bodies from the previous expeditions. They stumble on heat-absorbing mold.</p>
<p>> A group of chameleon humanoids live in the caves. They are to guard the caves but the previous expeditions took their toll. They agree to let the sixth expedition pass in exchange for dealing with a group of gremlins. Agreement is reached. The sixth expedition explores the gremlins' warren. The gremlins are small, sneaky, nasty, like ghosts in the machine, bugs. Basic loads combat protocoles and deals with the gremlins. Angus produces more noise than damage with his primitive pistol.</p>
<p>> Back with the chameleon humanoids. They offer gifts as thanks. Brown access cards. Worn-out, useless batteries.</p>
<p>> Investigating the dead bodies found in the caves, the sixth expedition analyzes they are from Torch inhabitants. Probably part of the previous expeditions. The human is known and engaged in a social bond with another inhabitant. It is also infected by spores and mold that will grow and spurt plant specimens. The sixth expedition stores it away in the cold mold for conservation.</p>
<p>> They continue through a glaucite door, into a world they don't know.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Explanding scanning protocoles</span></p>
<p>> A succession of corridors and hallways, broken, collapsed. The sixth expedition does not have the knowledge of most of what they see. In the broken equipment, they find a set of grippers, a black e-pick, two full batteries. I am curious: they appear to know what these are and how to use them. Swiping access cards to open doors. Maybe there is hope.</p>
<p>> The final metal door leads to the desert of the habitat dome, expansive. But not cold. Broken machinery. How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive?</p>
<p>> How did we…</p>
<p>> How…</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Overwhelmed sensors… Power spike reaching dangerous levels… Warning-warning-warning Emergency Shutting Down…</span></p>After our Return of the Runelords campaign, we started Strange Aeons… But we had a free slot with a smaller part of the group, so we started Iron Gods too! This one with two players. I very much hope I'll be able to keep two journals running (with the players if they want too).
Session I:
Standby mode… buffering… Standby mode… buffering…
Energy saving mode activated… Sending probes… Satellite connection activated…
> The large beacon of light emerging from Torch has been silence for 8 days....Olwen2020-02-03T21:39:55ZForums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Strange Aeon campaign journalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal#12020-01-29T02:06:22Z2020-01-27T22:06:48Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>After our <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42wro?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Return of the Runelords</a> <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq&page=1?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">campaign</a>, we started Strange Aeons… I'll try to keep a journal from… a nameless someone's perspective (it will eventually become obvious) and stick to it, like I did for our <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt&page=1?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Shattered Star campaign</a>.</span></p>
<p><b>Session 1</b></p>
<p><i>A time, a place, Carcosa</i></p>
<p>It hit them like a wave, like a dream, like a nightmare. The yellow fog engulfing the world, the screaming wind, the shapes in the mist, the wet street, the leprous walls of crumbling buildings. And the Tatterman, pounding closer and closer from the fog, assailing their sanity, slashing them to ribbons. The blood-covered cobbled street…</p>
<p>They woke up, or at least they thought they did, to the sound of the tortured man calling for help. Chaos followed. A scrambling of the shapeshifter with Mrriaál grappling her, Lorena making the scalpel the shapeshifter held fall to the ground. Claw, grappling, globs of acid being hurled. Chaos. And finally a dead, horrific, shapeshifter reverting to its natural asexual self. The tortured man was now dead. They were hurt. Badly. Tam's magic healed them. Little did they know. It would become obvious soon enough.</p>
<p>Bit had already started to change, it was eating her already. The others didn't know. They would.</p>
<p>No way out from this subterranean series of cells but a vent through a cold furnace and a chute over a mount of dead bodies, ripened beyond their time. They chose the vents leading to a boiler room, where they infringed on the territory of a zoog and its rat companions. Rats in the walls… Mrriaál and the zoog eventually talked and they agreed to leave the creature's territory.</p>
<p>In the hallway beyond, a barricade, warning crossbow shots. Humans at last! But why were they shooting? The humans would not let them through, crossbows ready. Too many shapeshifter. On the barricade, they didn't trust them and forced them away. Words did not help. On the barricade, they were too scared, they had been through too much to take any risk.</p>
<p>Down the dark hallway, rooms buried under rubble, the half collapsed walls of the Briarstone Asylum. Yes, that's where they were now, the Briarstone Asylum, Ustalav, Golarion, another place. Their place for then.</p>
<p>Corpses in the rubble. Asylum patients, doctors, visitors. And shapeshifters. All dead but one that almost fooled them, pretending to be a wounded old nurse. But it didn't. Paranoia has its virtue. But leaves you all alone.</p>
<p>A dead body that animated. Remnant necromantic magic. Haunts. Echo of events to come.</p>
<p>An old laundry room, an undead creature, attached to a wall, eating a corpse that was the only barrier preventing it from eating a crazed asylum patient. "Zandalus sees," he screamed. "Praise!" The undead creature gone, they took no risk. Subdued the crazed man. And moved to the only other door out of the laundry.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Unconscious:
<br />
- Bit, against the torturing shapeshifter
<br />
- Mrriaál, against the torturing shapeshifter</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Sanity point losses:
<br />
- Bit: 1/37
<br />
- Lorena: 1/40
<br />
- Mrriaál: 2/29
<br />
- Tam: 1/38</span></p>After our Return of the Runelords campaign, we started Strange Aeons… I'll try to keep a journal from… a nameless someone's perspective (it will eventually become obvious) and stick to it, like I did for our Shattered Star campaign.
Session 1
A time, a place, Carcosa
It hit them like a wave, like a dream, like a nightmare. The yellow fog engulfing the world, the screaming wind, the shapes in the mist, the wet street, the leprous walls of crumbling buildings. And the Tatterman, pounding...Olwen2020-01-27T22:06:48ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Band of Misfits -- A Return of the Runelords Campaign JournalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq&page=3?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords#1102020-01-29T02:05:52Z2020-01-27T21:33:07Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Welph, I guess the characters' sanity is still reasonably okay after a 4h session. As for the players, I can't say for sure… :-p</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>And, on my side, it starts <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42x4y?Olwens-Strange-Aeon-campaign-journal" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</span></p>Welph, I guess the characters' sanity is still reasonably okay after a 4h session. As for the players, I can't say for sure… :-p
And, on my side, it starts here.Olwen2020-01-27T21:33:07ZForums: Return of the Runelords: We finished - comments and opinion on the campaign [spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42wro?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#12022-07-10T22:11:26Z2020-01-18T09:51:02Z<p>After 16 months in real life, 35 sessions, and ~180h of game time, we concluded our Return of the Runelords campaign. This is the sixth AP I finish, mainly with the same group of players, and it's always both a relief and a sense of pride and accomplishment to conclude one of those, especially when it's been as interesting a story as in Return of the Runelord.</p>
<p>Our group started with 5 PCs before a player had to pull out a third of the way through and we played through most of the campaign with 4 PCs (15-point buy, very experienced players, and fairly optimized characters). There were a few PC deaths along the way, but nothing permanent. I actually found the whole campaign very well balanced: it was appropriately tensed for the concluding chapter of the Runelords trilogy and the world-shattering events happening in Return of the Runelords certainly deserved to be more than speed bumps for the players!</p>
<p>The details of the campaign can be found in <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords#1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">this journal</a>.</p>
<p>So a massive thank you to James Jacobs for developing this AP, seeding some hints to it throughout the last 10(!?!) years of Pathfinder APs. Our group played most of Rise of the Runelord and all of the <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qn66&page=1?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">excellent Shattered Star</a> before playing this one and it sure was a boon. There were quite a few throwbacks to the old days that brought back very fun memories!</p>
<p>A big thank you also to the six authors — Adam Daigle, Mike Shel, Richard Pett, Jason Keeley, Amanda Hamon Kunz, and Greg Vaughn — for the adventures themselves. They were quite varied and not repetitive one bit, even over 35 sessions of gameplay. It's no surprise with this mix of "old-timers" and new(er) blood from Paizo employees whose talent pushed them very quickly to the forefront of the Pathfinder AP-writing team. I can't wait to see more AP chapters from these six!</p>
<p>It's hard to think of many things that didn't work out in this campaign that I played mainly as written. With APs, I usually end up changing half a chapter to a chapter because I don't find it suits my/our needs but that wasn't the case here, which is quite rare. I tweaked a few things, of course, but that was mainly for the campaign to resonate better with the PCs' background and with past events from the APs we played before in Varisia.</p>
<p>So what did I particularly like or found suboptimal?</p>
<p>Likes:
<br />
- The best parts of the AP were hands down the continuation from the past Varisia APs and the whole time travel and tempering arc. It felt epic, with a definite feel of finality in the air over the last couple of books at least.
<br />
- The last book was truly bloody epic! All those temporal events! The final battle against Alaznist! That one lasted 9 rounds and Alaznist expanded more than 30 spells.
<br />
- The throwback to the old days: Xanesha, Magnimar, Sheila Heidmarch!, the Sihedron heroes, the time wound that involves Xin. Of course, that only works if you've played the other APs in the trilogy before, but it certainly works very well if you did.
<br />
- It was a nice change to reach level 20. Pathfinder rules are as always quite cumbersome at that stage but, every once in a while, it's fun to use capstone abilities and hurl level 20 mythic wizards and their mythic <i>meteor swarms</i> at the PCs without killing them outright!
<br />
- A suite of very well crafted NPCs throughout the various chapters. It started with Audrahni at the very beginning but interesting NPCs kept appearing (Lullaby Vancaskerkin, Viralane, Sursha Antefalle, Sorshen!, the Steward of Stethelos, Ninuron, Belimarius,…).</p>
<p>Suboptimal:
<br />
- As usual with APs, the higher level books contain quite a bit of padding in dungeons, especially since encounters can take so long to resolved. But that's easily dealt with.
<br />
- Not much else, really.</p>
<p>So a truly excellent AP that I would rank up there with the best ones (Kingmaker and Shattered Star for those I've GM'd). Maybe a close second after Kingmaker, but for entirely different reasons?</p>
<p>As for specific details on the six chapter…</p>
<p><b>Secret's of Roderic's Cove</b> (4.5/5.0) A very well crafted first chapter that hurls the PCs into a story they can't even fathom at this stage and with events already in motion. It's a very sandboxy first chapter and the author and developer were clearly trying to avoid the railroading from session 1 of chapter 1. If I had a criticism, it's that it sometimes feel a little <i>too</i> loose and sandboxy for the start. I imagine that may cause trouble for some groups that want a bit more guidance. But all the individual pieces of the chapter are very well crafted and the ghost of Roderic can serve as a "mission giver" if the PCs and players are a little lost about what to do next.</p>
<p>I particularly liked that the adversary NPCs tend to be in shades of grey rather than the common binary good/bad NPCs. Most of the NPCs can be interacted with and it's never entirely obvious whether the adversaries aren't just people in the wrong place at the wrong time who have to deal with a crappy situation. <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords#12" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Even the goblins.</a></p>
<p><b>It Came From Hollow Mountain</b> (5.0/5.0) Wow was this one tons of fun. The Hollow Mountain part of this AP is well crafted and enjoyable but it's the traveling part between Roderic's Cove, Magnimar, and Hollow Mountain that really made this one shine for me. So many opportunities to develop the interactions between PCs and NPCs! So many opportunities to show why some of the NPCs ended up being adversaries to the PCs! Varilane, Audrahni, Sursha… Stealing Baraket, the assassination attempt (and success!)in Magnimar… Damn, that was good!</p>
<p>The dungeon part may be a tad too long but it has numerous entrances and my group bypassed a quarter of it so it was about the right length and didn't last overly long.</p>
<p><b>Runeplague</b> (4.0/5.0) I had my doubts about this chapter before playing it (too scattered over Varisia, with set pieces that feel too disconnected) but it turned out quite okay. I still find it would have been better if it had been more focused instead of trying to visit the four major cities of Varisia but the parts in Korvosa (Sorshen!!) and in Riddelport were particularly enjoyable. The part in Korvosa because it wasn't a dungeon (I also changed the festival rules and made it far less gamey and much more role-play-y) and it was a great opportunity to meet with a changed Sorshen… that the PCs had a really hard time figuring out and making a decision as to whether to trust her or not. The part in Riddleport with the base defense scenario was amazing. The PCs had time to prepare, and they did so well, but they still almost lost because of the repeated assaults on Zincher's Tenement.</p>
<p>It's also the first chapter the PCs get to clean out the (current) Runelords. Krune didn't stand a chance in from of a thoroughly prepared group but that's perfectly fine as it was a nice reward for the group and it made it obvious they were achieving something.</p>
<p><b>Temple of the Peacock Spirit</b> (4.0/5.0) Still very good but maybe the weakest chapter of this AP, basically because it's primarily a long big dungeon? Still, it's varied enough that it's not too boring and there are some very good parts interspersed throughout: the peacock shrines that add an interesting twist, the fact that the cultists are not homicidal killers (contrary to some PCs, which led to particularly enjoyable philosophic discussions), Xanderghul's behavior and the multiple encounters with him. I also particularly liked the first part of this chapter in the time-locked Therassic Library. Ninuron is an interesting character too!</p>
<p>I did make one major change and got Xanderghul to reincarnate as the Peacock Spirit (more or less the mythic phoenix of Mythic Adventures) after he died. That was quite needed to make the final encounter truly epic.</p>
<p><b>The City Outside of Time</b> (4.0/5.0) This chapter both suffers and benefits from high level play. The padding I mentioned earlier is quite apparent in the Realm of Frozen Tears but, at the same time, it's becoming quite epic with some traveling through the plane of shadows, visiting and helping a city locked in time that is being eaten by time and reality, the interaction with Runelord (Runelady, really) Belimarius, and the final encounter in her runewell. I particularly appreciated the nuanced stance with Belimarius: she's clearly a horrible person but she wishes to save the city as much as the PCs. So much so that, in chapter 6 Xin-Edasseril became the only safe place they could think of to regroup as Varisia was being destroyed.</p>
<p><b>Rise of New Thassilon</b> (5.0/5.0) One of the best AP chapters I have ever played, if not <i>the</i> best one. I took what was written and ramped it all the way up to 11. Varisia was being destroyed with little to do against it, everything the PCs knew was falling apart and only they could save the timeline by repairing Alaznist's damage. It doesn't get more epic than this! At the same time, we played a session with the Sihedron heroes going on a suicide mission to prevent Yamasoth from entering Golarion (and that indirectly helped the PCs by lowering Alaznist's paradox points). It was so much fun to get to play with those characters again, 4-5 years later!!</p>
<p>Freeing Karzoug's soul in the Boneyard was certainly something. The final encounter, with Alaznist and her minions, is suitably epic (it was certainly touch and go for quite a moment!) But I think that it's the weirdness of the visit to Stethelos, the interaction with Tawil At'Umr, and the healing of the temporal wounds that I particularly enjoying. These are all short but incredibly well crafted encounters that give so much of the history of Thassilon to the characters and players. And to get to revisit these key moments in time and interact with them… Wow!</p>After 16 months in real life, 35 sessions, and ~180h of game time, we concluded our Return of the Runelords campaign. This is the sixth AP I finish, mainly with the same group of players, and it's always both a relief and a sense of pride and accomplishment to conclude one of those, especially when it's been as interesting a story as in Return of the Runelord.
Our group started with 5 PCs before a player had to pull out a third of the way through and we played through most of the campaign...Olwen2020-01-18T09:51:02ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Path: General Discussion: Recent Adventure Paths underwhelming to you? And if so, why?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42p37?Recent-Adventure-Paths-underwhelming-to-you#92020-03-23T16:37:12Z2019-08-12T07:52:21Z<p>As a GM who is close to wrapping up Return of the Runelords, I can confirm it's a very good AP, especially if the group has played through all or parts of Rise of the Runelord and Shattered Star. There's been sub-optimal and above-par APs throughout the whole AP run and the current state doesn't look better or worse than usual. A lot of it is also a matter of taste. Remember the massive arguments around the time of Iron Gods, which I would consider as one of the very good APs?</p>As a GM who is close to wrapping up Return of the Runelords, I can confirm it's a very good AP, especially if the group has played through all or parts of Rise of the Runelord and Shattered Star. There's been sub-optimal and above-par APs throughout the whole AP run and the current state doesn't look better or worse than usual. A lot of it is also a matter of taste. Remember the massive arguments around the time of Iron Gods, which I would consider as one of the very good APs?Olwen2019-08-12T07:52:21ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Band of Misfits -- A Return of the Runelords Campaign JournalOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs429pq&page=2?Band-of-Misfits-A-Return-of-the-Runelords#802019-07-29T18:33:14Z2019-07-28T12:32:51Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Ice Cracking In The Sunlight wrote:</div><blockquote> <span class=messageboard-ooc>The GM has now given us a difficult choice; we can either primarily keep playing as our current characters, or switch to our character from Shattered Star, which <a href="https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt&page=1?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">all of us played in</a> back in 2012-2013. That's tough for me, since I really like this character, but also really liked Viv, my fireball-happy Aasimar cleric of Asmodeus who ended up with the body of Sorshen — I'd love to take her up to 20th level, too!</span> </blockquote><p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Not to worry, everyone will get to play both their PCs. ;)</span>Ice Cracking In The Sunlight wrote:The GM has now given us a difficult choice; we can either primarily keep playing as our current characters, or switch to our character from Shattered Star, which all of us played in back in 2012-2013. That's tough for me, since I really like this character, but also really liked Viv, my fireball-happy Aasimar cleric of Asmodeus who ended up with the body of Sorshen -- I'd love to take her up to 20th level, too!
Not to worry, everyone will get to play both...Olwen2019-07-28T12:32:51ZRe: Forums: Rules Questions: CSI: Magnimar, or: Can you Vital Strike with a (Su) Attack?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs42hbm?CSI-Magnimar-or-Can-you-Vital-Strike-with-a#92019-02-24T00:14:01Z2019-02-23T15:01:16Z<p>Not that I feel the need to defend myself (although I guess I do), but I never said it was Xanesha's stat block that was. The tactic is listed in the tactics of a Hell's Vengeance NPC.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>It only cost the group a scroll of <i>breath of life</i> and it sure was a nice entrance into the module. And, anyway, cool/fun/tensed always trumps rules.</p>Not that I feel the need to defend myself (although I guess I do), but I never said it was Xanesha's stat block that was. The tactic is listed in the tactics of a Hell's Vengeance NPC.
[Spoiler omitted]
It only cost the group a scroll of breath of life and it sure was a nice entrance into the module. And, anyway, cool/fun/tensed always trumps rules.Olwen2019-02-23T15:01:16ZRe: Forums: Return of the Runelords: Player's GuideOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2vbdi?Players-Guide#352019-01-01T18:01:01Z2018-08-29T15:38:10Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Catharsis wrote:</div><blockquote> My DM already has the first module’s PDF, yet still no Player’s Guide. The lack of Player’s Guide is literally blocking us from playing the game now. :( </blockquote><p>As your DM, you know that's literally not true, right. Just be patient, it'll come when it comes. Website being down and all. And if it's not this week, it'll be the next one! :)Catharsis wrote:My DM already has the first module’s PDF, yet still no Player’s Guide. The lack of Player’s Guide is literally blocking us from playing the game now. :(
As your DM, you know that's literally not true, right. Just be patient, it'll come when it comes. Website being down and all. And if it's not this week, it'll be the next one! :)Olwen2018-08-29T15:38:10ZRe: Forums: Hell's Rebels: We finished - comments and opinion on the campaign [spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2uy48?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#112018-03-10T10:35:49Z2018-03-09T15:33:53Z<p>Yes, the rebellion rules are simpler than the kingdom rules but I find they suffer from the same problem. Namely that you'd want to use them in-game so you can more easily mesh them with roleplaying, playing through the random events, but, at the same time, they correspond to so many "boring" rolls, they are so abstract, that they don't bring much to the table and you're much better off doing them offline between session. I still haven't found a way to reconcile these two facts.</p>Yes, the rebellion rules are simpler than the kingdom rules but I find they suffer from the same problem. Namely that you'd want to use them in-game so you can more easily mesh them with roleplaying, playing through the random events, but, at the same time, they correspond to so many "boring" rolls, they are so abstract, that they don't bring much to the table and you're much better off doing them offline between session. I still haven't found a way to reconcile these two facts.Olwen2018-03-09T15:33:53ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Why is the adventure format stuck in the past?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2syww&page=3?Why-is-the-adventure-format-stuck-in-the-past#1422015-10-17T10:35:11Z2015-10-15T20:54:38Z<p>I bought all the APs and I ran about a quarter of them. But I've read almost all of the ~100 volumes published by Paizo. The pleasure I get in reading the AP volumes is a major reason why I am still a subscriber and happily buy them each month. So I fall straight into the category James describes. More importantly, if they weren't enjoyable to read and get into, I probably wouldn't run them either! So making them easy to read is certainly important to me.</p>
<p>I tried reading some more structured modules from other publishers and, more often than not, I can't get beyond a few pages because the very structured and supposedly helpful format makes them boring to read, even with the goal to run them. And if the GM is bored when reading the module, I can't imagine a good outcome at the table later on…</p>I bought all the APs and I ran about a quarter of them. But I've read almost all of the ~100 volumes published by Paizo. The pleasure I get in reading the AP volumes is a major reason why I am still a subscriber and happily buy them each month. So I fall straight into the category James describes. More importantly, if they weren't enjoyable to read and get into, I probably wouldn't run them either! So making them easy to read is certainly important to me.
I tried reading some more structured...Olwen2015-10-15T20:54:38ZRe: Forums: Savage Tide Adventure Path: Download Request: Savage Tide Encounters PDFOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2gtw7&page=7?Download-Request-Savage-Tide-Encounters-PDF#3342014-12-09T14:49:59Z2014-12-09T14:21:19Z<p>Except that WotC will never allow it. They already didn't allow Paizo to release the pdfs of these Dungeon issues. So the only option we have is to go back to the magazines. :)</p>Except that WotC will never allow it. They already didn't allow Paizo to release the pdfs of these Dungeon issues. So the only option we have is to go back to the magazines. :)Olwen2014-12-09T14:21:19ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: We've Finished!Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rhqt?Weve-Finished#22014-09-15T12:58:43Z2014-09-15T11:06:45Z<p>Well done! How did the final fight against Nyrissa go?</p>Well done! How did the final fight against Nyrissa go?Olwen2014-09-15T11:06:45ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: Kingmaker Completed!Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rb49?Kingmaker-Completed#62014-07-27T12:17:37Z2014-07-27T07:03:10Z<p>Well done! It's always quite an achievement to finish an AP, especially Kingmaker! :)</p>Well done! It's always quite an achievement to finish an AP, especially Kingmaker! :)Olwen2014-07-27T07:03:10ZRe: Forums/Pathfinder Adventure Path: General Discussion: Why are the Pathfinder adventure paths such meatgrinders?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r207?Why-are-the-Pathfinder-adventure-paths-such#132014-05-21T17:14:25Z2014-05-19T03:15:23Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Orthos wrote:</div><blockquote> I find it utterly hilarious that this thread is going on at the same time the thread in the <i>Wrath</i> forum is going on about how Mythic makes <i>Wrath</i> way too easy and people are curbstomping their way through every encounter in two or less rounds. </blockquote><p>Yep! It just goes to show that Paizo's probably doing about right with the difficulty of their APs.Orthos wrote:I find it utterly hilarious that this thread is going on at the same time the thread in the Wrath forum is going on about how Mythic makes Wrath way too easy and people are curbstomping their way through every encounter in two or less rounds.
Yep! It just goes to show that Paizo's probably doing about right with the difficulty of their APs.Olwen2014-05-19T03:15:23ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: The Dead Heart of Xin (GM Reference)Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2olvd&page=2?The-Dead-Heart-of-Xin#832014-11-01T21:58:53Z2014-05-05T06:41:30Z<p>In the Inner Sea Bestiary, the veiled master has the following languages line:</p>
<p><b>Languages</b> Aboleth, Aklo, Aquan, Azlanti, Undercommon; telepathy 300 ft.</p>
<p>It also has Int 21, so Ongonthunn should have another one. Maybe Common? Except if you'd rather she spoke Thassilonian, which, I think, would make a lot of sense.</p>In the Inner Sea Bestiary, the veiled master has the following languages line:
Languages Aboleth, Aklo, Aquan, Azlanti, Undercommon; telepathy 300 ft.
It also has Int 21, so Ongonthunn should have another one. Maybe Common? Except if you'd rather she spoke Thassilonian, which, I think, would make a lot of sense.Olwen2014-05-05T06:41:30ZRe: Forums: Advice: How do you handle obscene powergaming?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qqx9&page=2?How-do-you-handle-obscene-powergaming#982014-03-06T16:59:47Z2014-03-02T15:07:54Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">CNB wrote:</div><blockquote> <div class="messageboard-quotee">Thomas Long 175 wrote:</div><blockquote><br />
<br />
A well power gamed character can take a few above that. For a well built team, CR=ACL+3 should be relatively easy encounters.
<br />
</blockquote>So the designed encounters for the Adventure Paths are useless, then? </blockquote><p>No, but it strongly depends on the number of characters, the experience of your players, and the point-buy you allowed. The APs are written assuming 4 PCs, players who have maybe played through another AP, not much more, and a 15-point buy. Any deviation from these will mean more work for you, the GM, to taylor the campaign to your group.
<p>I personally played Shattered Star as written with a group of 4 experienced players with a 15-point buy and it worked very well, if a little rough for the PCs.</p>CNB wrote:Thomas Long 175 wrote:
A well power gamed character can take a few above that. For a well built team, CR=ACL+3 should be relatively easy encounters.
So the designed encounters for the Adventure Paths are useless, then? No, but it strongly depends on the number of characters, the experience of your players, and the point-buy you allowed. The APs are written assuming 4 PCs, players who have maybe played through another AP, not much more, and a 15-point buy. Any deviation from these...Olwen2014-03-02T15:07:54ZForums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Way of the Wicked campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qody?Olwens-Way-of-the-Wicked-campaign#12014-04-14T02:20:15Z2014-02-10T01:46:38Z<p><b><i>Four improbable companions.</i></b></p>
<p>Father,</p>
<p>They were chosen well. The most improbable companions teaming together to overcome overwhelming odds against their very survival.</p>
<p>The nimble would-be assassin; a girl, really, her lithe body not yet completely deformed by puberty. Cast as an outsider from her sect of shadow walkers because she dared steal from one of her marks instead of merely killing him, Chloé discovered the hard way that she did not wield the talents required to escape the Iomedan inquisitors of Lastwall tasked with tracking her down. Hunted down then captured in the northern reaches of the Fangwood Forest, she was charged with murder and fraud and the swift justice of Lastwall soon sent her on her way to Branderscar. She was to survive, though, to later be sent to the salt mines… and die there.
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc>Chloé is a human rogue (knife master) going for the assassin prestige class.</span></p>
<p>The proud and manipulative diva; petite, but with a voice so powerful that it can move, hurt, fascinate her audience. Maybe it is this strangeness in her stemming from her improbable mother… So proud was Chrism, and so sure of her talents that she could not understand that Lastwall is not Cheliax, despite the invitation her Egorian troop had received to tour the shores of Lake Encarthan and play at Castle Everstand. One does not kill a servant boy because he brings cold coffee. That simply wouldn't do for the Lastwallians and it is the commander of Castle Everstand, Captain Thaum Gauntwood, who arrested her himself. The punishment was clear: beheading, to be conducted at Branderscar. And it would not come too soon for the Lastwallians.
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc>Chrism Rosewood is a changeling bard (Chelish diva).</span></p>
<p>The dark witch; tall, brooding, consorting with dark powers beyond her purview. Æthelflæd… She's an interesting one, this one, talking to her pet scorpion and channeling dark powers through it. But which powers? The horrors from beyond space as she liked to pretend when she worked with this ragtag band of brigands preying on the roads between Ustalav and Lastwall? Or something else much more powerful and respectable? Either way, it did not help her when the bandits angered Lastwall enough that they a detachment of Knights of Ozem, led by the promising upstart Tholton Firrine. Captured with the others, she was the only one deemed sufficiently evil and dangerous to be sent to Branderscar to be hanged.
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc> Æthelflæd Fhintain is a human witch with the Trickery patron.</span></p>
<p>The hunter; the "baron," he calls himself, despite his lack of noble titles and his bastard ascendancy, half human, half elven. But Mordrick has qualities for sure, not to hunt game, but to hunt humans. And he enjoys the hunt thoroughly. Too thoroughly, it seems, since it led him to kill his latest quarry in the very cathedral of the Inheritor in Vigil, where it had ran for protection. Ha! The sight of all these paladins and clerics of the upstart god witnessing a murder in their most holy site. What a scene it must have been! Sure, Mordrick benefitted from everyone's bewilderment to flee, but he did not flee for very long since, less than two days later, Marthas Harkon and his group of proud knights and priests of Iomedae brought the murderer back to the capital in chains, to be judged. Justice came swift, and the "baron" later arrived to Branderscar to be punished for desecration. The pyre would burn bright.
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc>Mordrick Viscerian Baxter is a half-elf ranger (spirit ranger) with human as favored enemy and going for a two-weapon fighting specialty.</span></p>
<p>Yet none of the four would be punished. A little nudge at the door, as they say, and they would prove that they had what it takes. But will it be enough?</p>Four improbable companions.
Father,
They were chosen well. The most improbable companions teaming together to overcome overwhelming odds against their very survival.
The nimble would-be assassin; a girl, really, her lithe body not yet completely deformed by puberty. Cast as an outsider from her sect of shadow walkers because she dared steal from one of her marks instead of merely killing him, Chloé discovered the hard way that she did not wield the talents required to escape the Iomedan...Olwen2014-02-10T01:46:38ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: We finished - comments and opinion on the campaign [spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qn66&page=2?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#952015-02-16T01:16:06Z2014-02-10T00:40:16Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">leo1925 wrote:</div><blockquote>So you have told us about book 6, what would you change in books 4 and 5 in order to make things better? (both on encounters and maybe in the story) </blockquote><p>It's a little difficult for me to say much about book 4 since my PCs skipped the top floor, as well as the first two underground levels when they entered through the sea drake cave. That meant they were a level behind for the lower levels of the Groetus temple, but I liked it. I'd make sure to have the gongorinan qlippoths surprise the group at least once; that was fun for me to play. Otherwise I'd keep things as they are.
<p>It's more or less the same thing in book 5. It worked very well as written. You should be aware that the PCs will likely never find the drows, or most of the encounters in the Core. It seems obvious that the thing to do is to follow the ruins of the bridge and, once in the ruins, to explore them, which leads to the discovery of the illusion-protected shaft that leads to the Embassy.</p>
<p>If I were to play the campaign again, the one thing I might develop in book 5 is the political strife between giants. As it stands, it's just General Stom sending the group to do her dirty work but it could add more tension to have some of the giants of the underground level turn against Chief Jubbek for one big massive, level-wide fight of giants against giants with the PCs in the middle.</p>leo1925 wrote:So you have told us about book 6, what would you change in books 4 and 5 in order to make things better? (both on encounters and maybe in the story)
It's a little difficult for me to say much about book 4 since my PCs skipped the top floor, as well as the first two underground levels when they entered through the sea drake cave. That meant they were a level behind for the lower levels of the Groetus temple, but I liked it. I'd make sure to have the gongorinan qlippoths surprise...Olwen2014-02-10T00:40:16ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: We finished - comments and opinion on the campaign [spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qn66?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#382015-02-16T00:10:13Z2014-02-04T19:17:50Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">leo1925 wrote:</div><blockquote><p> So now that you know more and actually played/run the battle once, what would you change (especially if the PCs are level 17 and rested before the crystal palace) in the last battle?
</p>
add a few more axiomites and/or crystallists? make some of the axiomites sorcerers or wizards or fighter instead of rogue? include the veiled master in the final battle? </blockquote><p>To be entirely honest, I would give the clockwork reliquary a second life. He's brought to 0 hp and collapses on the ground, the walls shudder, the crystal the palace was built from pulses widely, the rhythm accelerates, stutters, goes wild, and the electricity that coursed the walls suddenly dives into the reliquary's carcass. Xin rises again.
<p>I really wish I had done that… The PCs could have survived another fight with Xin without minions.</p>
<p>Oh, one thing that made my PCs' lives easier is that they moved so quickly through the palace that Xin hadn't completely connected with the reliquary. So he took the -4 penalty to initiative and other penalties that are stated in the book. He acted last as a consequence of this and a bad roll. Had he gone first, I doubt it would have been so easy.</p>leo1925 wrote:So now that you know more and actually played/run the battle once, what would you change (especially if the PCs are level 17 and rested before the crystal palace) in the last battle?
add a few more axiomites and/or crystallists? make some of the axiomites sorcerers or wizards or fighter instead of rogue? include the veiled master in the final battle?
To be entirely honest, I would give the clockwork reliquary a second life. He's brought to 0 hp and collapses on the ground, the...Olwen2014-02-04T19:17:50ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: The Dead Heart of Xin (GM Reference)Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2olvd&page=2?The-Dead-Heart-of-Xin#772014-11-01T21:58:14Z2014-02-03T20:34:22Z<p>1) The ioun stones are consumed and don't provide their own benefit anymore. They help to power the artifact.</p>
<p>2) The Sihedron description doesn't say so, so we assumed no. It provides other spell-like abilities in instead.</p>
<p>3) We couldn't find any, so we assumed that there is no limit. It doesn't make too much of a difference at this level, though.</p>
<p>4) We played it like a normal spell-like ability. Once it's cast, it behaves like a spell and lasts for the spell's duration.</p>1) The ioun stones are consumed and don't provide their own benefit anymore. They help to power the artifact.
2) The Sihedron description doesn't say so, so we assumed no. It provides other spell-like abilities in instead.
3) We couldn't find any, so we assumed that there is no limit. It doesn't make too much of a difference at this level, though.
4) We played it like a normal spell-like ability. Once it's cast, it behaves like a spell and lasts for the spell's duration.Olwen2014-02-03T20:34:22ZForums: Shattered Star: We finished - comments and opinion on the campaign [spoilers]Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qn66?We-finished-comments-and-opinion-on-the#12014-02-23T19:31:44Z2014-02-03T18:15:10Z<p>After finishing <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2lii3?A-suitable-ending-to-the-Legacy-of-Fire" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Legacy of Fire</a> and <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2owky?A-finished-Kingmaker-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Kingmaker</a> over the last four years, our group successfully concluded Shattered Star. In total, we went through 36 sessions of 4-5 hours, adding up to a little more than 150 hours of game play. It's less than for our Kingmaker campaign, but it's still quite a commitment!</p>
<p>The final fight was <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt&page=2?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#96" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">suitably epic</a> (although it could have been more so; more below), and the full campaign journal from Sheila Heidmarch's perspective can be found <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
<p>The heroes of Magnimar are:
<br />
<ul><li>Draco Don Zerba, fomer blacksmith from the Fenwall Mountains, male human alchemist (vivisectionist)/barbarian (invulnerable rager) 16
<br />
<li> Laslo Grigorovich Budynek, misunderstood anatomist, in "sabbatical" from his home country of Ustalav, male tiefling alchemist (beastmorph, vivisectionist) 17
<br />
<li> Nasim ibn Asad ibn Shahzad al-Fahim, hunted soul hailing from the far lands of Qadira, male tiefling magus 17
<br />
<li> Viveltre Vanderale, troubled daughter of one of the noble Magnimarian families, female aasimar cleric (theologian) of Asmodeus 17</ul></p>
<p>The campaign was a huge blast to GM and I'd like to thank Paizo's developers and all the authors for creating such a fun AP. Of course, I should also thank the players for coming up with such quirky characters. ;)</p>
<p>At first, I was a little worried that this AP would turn into a slugfest because of all the dungeon crawls but Paizo did a masterful job at making these dungeons lively, and full of roleplaying opportunities. Once I made it clear that the PCs should not feel forced to clear every room but should let the story drive them and that I would compensate with additional material and cut scenes, the dungeon exploration unfolded beautifully. The artifact hunt was also quite a benefit since it meant that it was easy to go from one chapter of the AP to the next.</p>
<p>The good points of the campaign:
<br />
<ul><li>the many roleplaying opportunity (Sheila, Lockerbie Brast, the troglodytes, Oriana, Kandamereus, General Stom, Morcruft,…);
<br />
<li>the numerous ways to overcome many encounters (fights, cunning, diplomacy, bluff,…);
<br />
<li>this trap in Curse of the Lady's Light that created even more roleplaying opportunities;
<br />
<li>the open dungeons which could be tackled in many different ways;
<br />
<li>the many links to Thassilon and Varisia's long history;
<br />
<li>Magnimar;
<br />
<li>saving Magnimar;
<br />
<li>the more and more epic episodes;
<br />
<li>the links to the previous APs;
<br />
<li>Pathfinder, of course.
<br />
</ul></p>
<p>The more negative points:
<br />
<ul><li>it's hard to feel for Magnimar with only the first and final books taking place there;
<br />
<li>Xin's lack of foreshadowing;
<br />
<li>a little too many mind-affecting spells and effects?
<br />
<li>the <i>Sihedron</i> is too powerful and hurts the tension of the last chapter.
<br />
</ul></p>
<p>The most iconic moments of the campaign were:
<br />
<ul><li>The fight against Ashamintalu, that the PCs lost, turning the end of this chapter into a hunt through the Lady's Light, splitting the group to bait the alu-demon so a small group could sneak back to the treasury to retrieve the shard and the body of a dead companion.
<br />
<li>The finale of Beyond the Doomsday Door, when the PCs faced the Crawling Chaos.
<br />
<li>The fight against Cadrilkasta, epic and indecisive. A suitable fight to retrieve the final shard.
<br />
<li>The tsunami.
<br />
</ul></p>
<p>Finally, my opinion on the various chapters:</p>
<p><b>Shards of Sin:</b> A nice start to the campaign, starting small. The Tower Girls were fun as there were options to deal with them without killing them. The Crow's dungeon felt a little too long, with a bit too many rooms and levels. It sometimes felt like the dungeon dwellers did not bring much to the story (the devils, for instance). Great quick investigation in Magnimar to start everything, though!</p>
<p><b>Curse of the Lady's Light:</b> Probably the best volume of the AP. Ah, this trap… What a masterful piece of adventure crafting. It needs to work and it won't for all groups, but it did for us and it had awesome consequences throughout the campaign. The wilderness part outside was great, with the possibility to side with the boggards or the troglodytes. So was the interaction with the Gray Maidens and the possibility to ally with them. Ashamintalu was probably the worse threat the PCs had to face and it was truly memorably, especially with her ability to turn the PCs against each other. The dungeon was varied and steeped in Thassilonian lore.</p>
<p><b>The Asylum Stone:</b> I can't really comment on this one since we skipped it. I felt it suffered from two things. Firstly, too much variety in the encounters. Reading this chapter, it sometimes felt like the challenge had been to use every monster that had never been used in an AP so far: a coualt, caulborns, a pale stranger, an eoxian, and a dullahan all in the same chapter. That was too much for me. It's sad, because I really like what James Sutter usually does. I guess this one was just not my cup of tea. The other issue is that the campaign is set up so the PCs need to care about Magnimar in chapter 6, but they spend chapters 2-5 away, as written. So I added material in the City of Monuments to replace The Asylum Stone.</p>
<p><b>Beyond the Doomsday Door:</b> A really good installment. I particularly liked that the PCs could enter through the lower levels and bypass a third of the dungeon if they were smart, or lucky, or both. The dungeon was flavorful and made sense. The finale of this one was really epic, with the appearance of the qlippoth lord.</p>
<p><b>Into the Nightmare Rift:</b> It would be the best chapter if not for Curse of the Lady's Light. The labs and the embassy are so strange and weird that they become scary. It's the first time my players actually said "Let's not touch what we don't need to touch" and left part of the loot! The part in Leng is just bizarre and great, and the final fight against a slothful Cadrilkasta was a gem. They could have all died there if dice had been against them. It's worth a read <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt&page=last?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#84" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
<p><b>The Dead Heart of Xin:</b> The reforging ritual and its consequences was really fun. The PCs got to realize the power of the <i>Sihedron</i> and use it to save the city. Xin's palace is also very well crafted. The visions, in particular (my PCs did not find the <i>flamma horacalcum</i>), were a nice touch to tell the story of Xin without going through hours of exposition. The dungeon made sense, but I felt it was undermined by the power of the <i>Sihedron</i>. The artifact is very powerful in a fight and effectively heals the PCs after it for free. That was just too much and robbed us of some of the necessary tension for a finale. We still had a great time and the final fight was epic enough, but I wish it had been a little more dicey for the PCs.</p>
<p>All in all, we had a wonderful time playing through this over a period of a little more than a year. So thanks to all the authors, developers, and players. :)</p>After finishing Legacy of Fire and Kingmaker over the last four years, our group successfully concluded Shattered Star. In total, we went through 36 sessions of 4-5 hours, adding up to a little more than 150 hours of game play. It's less than for our Kingmaker campaign, but it's still quite a commitment!
The final fight was suitably epic (although it could have been more so; more below), and the full campaign journal from Sheila Heidmarch's perspective can be found here.
The heroes of...Olwen2014-02-03T18:15:10ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: Advice on Nyrissa Showdown?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qli4?Advice-on-Nyrissa-Showdown#132014-01-23T13:26:24Z2014-01-23T08:08:18Z<p>Yes, I was also going to point out Nyrissa's nymph abilities. Don't forget her blinding beauty. Effectively, anyone within 30 feet who attacks/targets her without averting their gaze needs to do this DC 29 Will save every round or become blind. If they avert their gaze, it's a 50% miss-chance for them. That got nasty quite quickly for my group. Your ranged characters could potentially be attacking from more than 30 feet, but I'm not sure it's very likely in the castle or the Fable that both have rooms that are quite small. And Nyrissa could always move behind a corner, in a smaller room, etc. to force the ranged PCs to get closer.</p>Yes, I was also going to point out Nyrissa's nymph abilities. Don't forget her blinding beauty. Effectively, anyone within 30 feet who attacks/targets her without averting their gaze needs to do this DC 29 Will save every round or become blind. If they avert their gaze, it's a 50% miss-chance for them. That got nasty quite quickly for my group. Your ranged characters could potentially be attacking from more than 30 feet, but I'm not sure it's very likely in the castle or the Fable that both...Olwen2014-01-23T08:08:18ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: A finished Kingmaker campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2owky&page=2?A-finished-Kingmaker-campaign#622013-11-13T14:52:36Z2013-11-13T07:26:03Z<p>Congrats! Details? :)</p>Congrats! Details? :)Olwen2013-11-13T07:26:03ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: Into the Nightmare Rift (GM Reference)Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2olvc&page=2?Into-the-Nightmare-Rift#552018-12-07T20:41:47Z2013-09-12T15:02:18Z<p>It very much depends on how you play Xavanshee. If she waits until after the encounter with Cadrilkasta for the PCs to be healed up and re-buffed before making her move, yes, that could be stupid (although it also depends on how she makes her move). Since she's not stupid, she'd likely make her move straight after that fight, or maybe towards the end of it. Nothing says she should be nice to the PCs (or you to your players) and betray them when they are in a stronger position.</p>It very much depends on how you play Xavanshee. If she waits until after the encounter with Cadrilkasta for the PCs to be healed up and re-buffed before making her move, yes, that could be stupid (although it also depends on how she makes her move). Since she's not stupid, she'd likely make her move straight after that fight, or maybe towards the end of it. Nothing says she should be nice to the PCs (or you to your players) and betray them when they are in a stronger position.Olwen2013-09-12T15:02:18ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#432013-09-07T12:57:41Z2013-09-06T22:14:26Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Spoilers for the Champion's Belt, chapter 5 of Age of Worms!</b></span></p>
<p><b>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIX</b></p>
<p><i>Neth 9, 4712 AR</i>
<br />
<i>Day 2 of the Champion’s Games</i></p>
<p>Day 2 of the Champion's Games was a resting day for the six teams that had victoriously battled the other eighteen on the first day of the Games. Apart from the Four Deadly Sins, the Coenoby still hosted Auric's Warband, composed of Auric and his companion wizard, the previous year's champions (they still had not revealed their "trick," what these giant wooden containers that had been brought to the Coenoby held); the Asmodean Brood, a group of four religious Chelaxians openly wearing symbols of Asmodeus (they meant to show the power of the Duke of Hell over mere mortal, and maybe also that of Cheliax over Varisia; they meant business and no one had seen them smile yet); Pitch Blade, composed of two foul dwarf barbarian brothers who always angrily looked at my agents; the Snow Mammoths, an impressive group of Kellids from the Land of the Mammoth Lords (their battling style, mounting their mammoths had certainly impressed the crowd the previous day); and the Skull of Murq, a disgusting group of three bone-canibles from the darkest jungles of the Mwangi Expense.</p>
<p>But with the Serpent's Run dedicated to games, demonstration of magic, and mock battles, the six teams scattered throughout the Coenoby to properly rest and scheme the morrow's battles. Little interactions took place, except for Viv who spent quite some time discussing the tenants of the Prince of Darkness. She sure was happy to be able, for once, to open discuss her faith. During the day, the Four Deadly Sins discretely prepared for their planned nightly exploration of the arena's understructure. Time passed slowly…</p>
<p>When the guards doused the lights, the Pathfinders waited a little bit, and then snuck out. Discretely, they explored. They almost stumbled on a group of guards, but eventually avoided them. In the understructure, they noticed that the domed floor of a room displayed ancient runes, not unlike Thassilonian runes. Could there be something below the dome? Unfortunately, if Viv had queried Asmodeus for the powers to <i>shape stone</i> that evening, the application of this spell would leave a gaping hole in the floor. If this was an option, the Pathfinders preferred to remain more discrete as they did not know how many ventures they would need before they could find the <i>Shard</i>. So they continued their exploration, this time heading for the cavern next to the Coenobye that hosted ruins, the statue of the giant, and a lake. Had a gladiator not told Viv that the lake had been artificially created by Jorston Droaeb, the director of the arena himself, to prevent the passage of some undead horde into the Coenobye? Diving in the lake, Draco confirmed the presence of a plug, which Viv prompted <i>shaped</i> to let the companions pass. It did lead to a tunnel.</p>
<p>What the Pathfinders had not anticipated was the horde of ghouls that dwelled in the natural cavern beyond. Viv was ready to render them into cinders with a few <i>fireballs</i>, her companions were ready to take on whichever ghoul was brave enough to bring the fight to them, when they notice that the ghouls' leader was none other than Lockerby Brast, the ghast they had first encountered in the deeper levels of the Crow! The Pathfinders and the ghast rapidly reached an agreement and my agents were allowed to proceed to the tunnels the ghouls knew were very old, and that they avoided. In exchange, the Pathfinders would not explore down the other tunnels that led deeper into the ghoul warrens. I must say that I am very uncomfortable knowing that below our beloved city dwells a whole society of these undead creature. They appear to have left us alone so far, but who knows when they will feel the need to snack on tasty human flesh… I must confer with Officer Kasadei, and with the Council of Ushers, about what should and could be done about this.</p>
<p>The old tunnels the ghouls had mentioned were clearly of Thassilonian make. My agents were on the right track. They led to a sewage grotto, guarded by a swarm of oozes. Although the ochre jellies turned out to be annoying with their splitting ability, the Pathfinders dispatched them without too much difficulties. In the grotto, they found a hidden passage that led to a very old part of the Magnimarian sewers, where a hole in the ceiling apparently led to a hidden floor below the arena. Laslo was the first to climb and, through a pit, entered a small circular room of Thassilonian architecture. They had succeeded in entering whatever concealed level the Serpent's Run had been built on!</p>
<p>Once the group had gathered in the room, they proceeded down the only way out: a narrow halfway that soon led into a storage room. Yet, instead of mere boxes, the storage here consisted of three gruesome wooden coffins. No sooner had Laslo entered the room that these burst open, revealing wile undead abominations. If they looked similar to zombies, they dashed to their feet much faster than the staggered zombies and the worms that wriggled in and out of their flesh proved incredibly dangerous to the Ustalavian who was fighting without a proper weapon. Viv recognized there some spawns of Kyuss, monstrosities created in a foul ritual to a lost God of old, Kyuss, the Wormgod, now long forgotten. The fight was brutal and if my agents prevailed, the spawns' worms, digging into the living flesh to wriggle their way into their host's brain and transform them into new spawn, were one of the most horrific things the Pathfinders had witnessed so far. It didn't help that the next room they set foot in this time contained half a dozen of these shambling beasts. But this time, more space meant a better tactical advantage for the Pathfinders and they could more skillfully fight. Viv's <i>fireballs</i>, Draco's slams, and Nasim's <i>bladed dashes</i> were particularly efficient.</p>
<p>As the battle against the horde of undead turned to my agents' advantages, one of the spawns of Kyuss opened the only door out of the hall, revealing an altar room. A haughty Chelaxian, cleric of the Wormgod, turned at the interruption and started incanting. The Pathfinders' attention converged entirely on the ritual the man had been conducting on the altar, with a metallic shard of pale inubrix. The <i>Shard of Gluttony</i> lay just there, in a halo of sickly green light, over the distorted bodies of three angels, sucked of their celestial power! A ray of light spurted from the halo to disappear into a set of massive double doors.</p>
<p>The spawns of Kyuss dispatched, my agents focused their attacks on the cleric. If his magic protected him from <i>magic missiles</i> Viv triggered from her ring, the physical assaults of the others disrupted the Chelaxian's <i>summoning</i>. Cornered, his <i>antilife shell</i> dispelled, he quickly fell, but not before he channelled a rain of acid worms inside the room. And as he was about to perish, cleft in half by one of Draco's swing, the Kyuss cleric focussed for a second on his revolting ritual. Gurgling in his own blood, he uttered one last curse: "you are forcing by hand early and, for this, I promise you the true wrath of Kyuss!" and he exhaled his last breath at same moment he ray of light that escaped the <i>Shard</i> was severed.</p>
<p>In the silence, something big steered behind the set of double doors. Something incredibly massive. Unsure as to whether they should investigate what that was, or simply flee, it is good for us all that my agents eventually decided on the former for, behind the doors, a gigantic worm-like ulgurstasta stirred. The size of the church of Abadar, this thing was now attempting to bash the domed ceiling above its head, likely to open a way to lay destruction onto Magnimar! Bravely, the Pathfinders fought this obscenity. Despite the gigantic maw of the Apostle of Kyuss, despite the blanket of slashing tendrils that surrounding it, my agents advanced forward, only to be met by the ulgurstasta's deathly breath that sucked Draco's and Laslo's very life out of them. Their resistance was brave, but the two Pathfinders could still feel the necromantic power of the beast that had been fed by the <i>Shard of Gluttony</i>. Draco shambled forward in the corridor, toward the spherical room in which the beast seemed imprisoned for now. The barbarian got bitten by the worm-like monstrosity, brought to the door of death, and almost swallowed. He was barely standing, but anyone else would have already died. From behind started a tense battle between Viv's healing and the monsters staggering bites on Draco. Nasim as well was supporting his companions as best he could with his magic from beyond the tendril aura, while Laslo turned to a <i>gaseous form</i> so he could slowly drift around the creature and flank it. If only he could use the best of his vivsectionist's knowledge against the Apostle of Kyuss…</p>
<p>Often, my agents' survival stemmed more from Desna's watchful guidance than anything else. Often, it seemed Draco would be swallowed by the monster, that Viv's and Nasim's magic would lack power to stay the beast's assaults, but when Draco and Laslo could finally flank the ulgurststa in a series of deadly strikes, the worm-like monstrosity finally dropped dead in a resounding crash. In the end, looking at each other in bewilderment, they noticed that, apart from that one initial bite that had almost been Draco's end, they were rather unhurt. Nevertheless, they knew they had come very close to their own destruction.</p>
<p>Whatever evil ritual had taken place under the Serpent's Run, it is a blessing my agents stopped it. Who knows what damage would have been wrought onto Magnimar had this cleric of Kyuss succeeded in releasing the Apostle of Kyuss at the heart of the City of Monuments. At the time, we could not help but wonder how someone could have conducted such a scheme within the arena itself. Surely someone must have helped the Chelaxian. We would soon learn who it had been.</p>
<p>For the moment, my agents gathered all they could around, including the <i>Shard of Gluttony</i>, of course, in which Draco quickly embossed the <i>ioun stone</i> I had given them that very afternoon, and they discretely headed back to the Coenobye. Their nightly exploration had apparently gone unnoticed.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 38 (the Apostle of Kyuss biting Draco).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 30 (Viv's <i>fireball</i> on Nasim).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 48 (Draco with a critical <i>+1 longsword</i> hit on a spawn of Kyuss).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 35 (Viv, with a <i>fireball</i> on a spawn of Kyuss).</span></p>Spoilers for the Champion's Belt, chapter 5 of Age of Worms!
The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIX
Neth 9, 4712 AR
Day 2 of the Champion’s Games
Day 2 of the Champion's Games was a resting day for the six teams that had victoriously battled the other eighteen on the first day of the Games. Apart from the Four Deadly Sins, the Coenoby still hosted Auric's Warband, composed of Auric and his companion wizard, the previous year's champions (they still had not revealed...Olwen2013-09-06T22:14:26ZRe: Forums: Shattered Star: The Asylum Stone (GM Reference)Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2olva?The-Asylum-Stone#412013-12-06T21:08:09Z2013-09-06T07:43:51Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Mary Yamato wrote:</div><blockquote> They used scrolls. I think they have 2-3 more of them stocked up just waiting for Windsong Abby. (If they passwall into the bottom of that they may bite the big one, though.)</blockquote><p>That actually works fine in the Doomsday Door, even if it's tougher for the PCs. But they also then have <i>breath of life</i>, access to <i>raise dead</i>, etc that mitigates the difficulty.
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>It's true that there's in general many ways to bypass whole levels of a dungeon with the canny use of spells and scrolls. Sometimes it makes the PCs' life more difficult. My take on it is that it's the GM's job to deal with it, and that it's better than forcing the PCs through levels and levels of dungeons just because they need the XP. And the players feel that they were smart and cannily bypassed obstacles that were in their PCs' way. It doesn't happen so often! ;)</p>Mary Yamato wrote:They used scrolls. I think they have 2-3 more of them stocked up just waiting for Windsong Abby. (If they passwall into the bottom of that they may bite the big one, though.)
That actually works fine in the Doomsday Door, even if it's tougher for the PCs. But they also then have breath of life, access to raise dead, etc that mitigates the difficulty. [Spoiler omitted]
It's true that there's in general many ways to bypass whole levels of a dungeon with the canny use of...Olwen2013-09-06T07:43:51ZRe: Forums: Rules Questions: "Summon" universal monster ruleOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q1ok?Summon-universal-monster-rule#132022-01-15T14:15:50Z2013-08-12T16:40:17Z<p>I actually found the answer with a bit more digging. The <a href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magic.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Magic</a> chapter of the Core Rulebook, stipulates:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">CRB wrote:</div><blockquote><p><b>Spell-Like Abilities:</b> Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability's use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.</p>
<p>A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.</blockquote><p>Note the "unless noted otherwise in the ability or the spell." So since summon monster is a 1 casting round spell, the SLA also should be. At least that's how I read it.I actually found the answer with a bit more digging. The Magic chapter of the Core Rulebook, stipulates:
CRB wrote:Spell-Like Abilities: Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability's use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.
A spell-like ability has a casting time...Olwen2013-08-12T16:40:17ZForums: Rules Questions: "Summon" universal monster ruleOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q1ok?Summon-universal-monster-rule#12023-01-20T23:49:48Z2013-08-12T09:22:41Z<p>I have always wondered, is it a standard action to use, or a full-round action, as seems implied by the "it works like summon monster" clause?</p>I have always wondered, is it a standard action to use, or a full-round action, as seems implied by the "it works like summon monster" clause?Olwen2013-08-12T09:22:41ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#302013-07-02T16:52:16Z2013-07-02T15:11:40Z<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Spoilers for the Pathfinder module No Response from Deepmar, and the Age of Worms chapter Champion's Belt.</i></b> I figured the Asylum Stone wouldn't work for my group (too varied, lacking a well-defined theme) so I replaced it with the module and the Age of Worms chapter. Be warned if you plan on playing these two!</span></p>
<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XV</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 17-19, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>It took two days for my agents to make their way back to Magnimar. Few words were exchanged during the journey as they were all still reflecting on their defeat and their brush with death. Draco's body, stored in the <i>bag of holding</i>, was a constant reminder that their so-far successful adventuring could end at any time in a dank dungeon. Sure, they had successfully recovered the <i>Shard of Lust</i>, but at what cost… They needed to be more careful next time, but their rising fame among the Pathfinders would mean that the Society would cover the costs of raising Draco from the dead. I take care of my agents and believe that the Society should support their explorers in dire times.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 20-21, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>My agents took a couple of days of well-deserved rest. That was needed to get Draco's <i>raise dead</i> ritual underway. There are not many clerics in Magnimar who are able to cast such a high circle spell but I was able to call on a favor from Jyronn Imikar, the leader of the city's church of Abadar. Draco was soon among us again, to everyone's relief. Sorting the old artefacts and the mundane treasures the Pathfinders had looted from Ashamintalu's lair, selling it, and restocking on upgraded equipment took the remainder of these two days.</p>
<p>When he focussed on the <i>Shard of Lust</i>, Laslo readily recognized the vision as one of the Serpent's Run, Magnimar's game arena! Where most of the <i>Shards</i> in our city!? Were there underground dungeons dwelling deep under the arena? I promised I would research further on its architecture. What was clear was that, with the upcoming yearly Champion's Games, the building would be difficult to infiltrate. Maybe the easiest solution would be for my agents to actually <i>run for the title</i>, this year, and for the Society to sponsor them! I know not everyone in Absalom would support this bold move but, in Magnimar, the Society is not as much a part of everyone's life as it is in Absalom and any recognition from the Magnimarian would be beneficial for our recruitment and daily endeavors.</p>
<p>Yes, I will sponsor our explorers, and we shall see what happens. Their mission will of course be to recover the <i>Shard of Gluttony</i>, but if they can promote the Society in the meantime, it would be wonderful. That will take some pulling of strings and some planning and should keep me busy for the next three week before the Games start.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I must admit that I had hit a wall while my agents had been dealing with the Curse of the Lady's Light: I couldn't find the <i>ioun stone</i> that was necessary to block the curse of the <i>Shard of Gluttony</i>. For some unknown reason, it appeared that communications had been severed with the Deepmar mines, to the north, near Diamond Lake. The mines crystals were among the only ones in the region to hold the remanent magic necessary for the crafting of <i>ioun stones</i>. I had sent Andel Gesseran, the scribe of the lodge, to investigate, but I fear the worse as he hasn't come back. The City Guard is also more and more worried about the situation. Although quite distant from Magnimar, the Deepmar colony is affiliated to the City of Monuments and it is its influence over the region that is at stake. </p>
<p>A meeting with Captain Kasadei of the City Guard confirmed the Guard was worried that another Hook Mountain Massacre could have taken place in Deepmar. Their wish to investigate this situation discretely led the Captain to hire my agents to solve the matter. Should they do so quietly and promptly, Kasadei promised 10,000 gp to my agents, and the crystal we need for the <i>ioun stone</i>. With a week's travel there, and another one back, they could almost benefit from a whole week in Deepmar to deal with whatever situation they would find there.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 22-28, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>The journey to Deepmar unfolded without difficulties. The attack from a couple of ogres was briskly repelled, one evening, and the group didn't linger in the gloomy mining village of Diamond Lake. They stayed there only long enough to grab a couple of pints at the Feral Dog, the local seedy tavern, and secure a boat to reach Deepmar on the other side of the lake. No one knew much about the mining colony, except that little had been heard from it for a while. </p>
<p><i>Lamashan 29, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>It is in the afternoon of Lamashan 29, under a light but insidious rain that soaked everything, that the Pathfinder reached the Deepmar colony. Behind the wooden palisade, naught moved. A thorough search through the dozen building led to a few strange discoveries: it was as if everyone had just disappeared in the middle of a normal day, days ago. Food, now rotten, laid there on tables, along with game cards left there in the the midst of a game. A drop of dried blood here, a few crossbow bolts missing there, eaten chickens in the garden were the only signs of something being out of place. That, and the crazed and gigantic four-armed, white gorillion they found in the mess hall, bashing on the kitchen's door. Enraged, the monster did not let itself be calmed down by the Pathfinders who resigned to kill it. That was done quite easily as the dextrous Laslo and Nasim avoided the massive claws of the beast and Draco bashed it to death. Strangely, the brain of the burly girallion was protruding from its skull, showing signs of of tampering (something Laslo recognized right away, and an act he envied, being the good vivisectionist he is).</p>
<p>A cook hid in the kitchen. Although it was clear no one had lived in the colony for days (if not for a week or two), this poor woman seemed convinced that she had woken up from a normal night by the girallion banging on the door. She seemed to suffer from some kind of amnesia. Something strange was afoot, and the discovery of a hidden tunnel in the colony's garden didn't help understand what had happened, especially with the tunnel trapped and needed to be abandoned as it threatened to cave in.</p>
<p>Eventually the Pathfinders decided to explore the two mining sites that the colony was still exploiting, Stygia and Caina (some twisted mind had decided to name the mines from the layers of Hell, to Viv's assent). Maybe they had encounter something after digging too deep and too greedily? Questioning the <i>whispering coin</i> got the group to focus on the Caina dig site. There, the group proceeded to the bottom of the pit of the open mine, only to be engulfed in an explosion of crystal shards. Recovering and looking around, my agents found a dark, cold tunnel that led deep into the earth behind a large rock. </p>
<p>It took half an hour for the Pathfinders to reach the lair that awaited them at the end of the crack in the rocks. And this is when they understood what had happened to the Deepmar colony as, from the ledge on which they appeared, they could see a group of derros guarding a network of other tunnels, alongside a massive rock troll. Could it be that the miners had been kidnapped by derros? After the Crow, that was already the second time in less than a month that derros were spewed from the Darklands on Varisia. Is that the sign of an imminent Darkland invasion on our lands? Gods, do we need the <i>Sihedron</i> to defend ourselves!</p>
<p>But the Pathfinder didn't have time to dwell on these threats as they attacked the derro guards. While Laslo flew into the cave with Nasim, Draco jumping close behind them, Viv remained in the back to provide a healthy amount of artillery support with her <i>fireballs</i>. The one derro who fled was quickly caught up by Nasim and slaughtered before he could warn more of the small blue dwarves.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 8 (a girallion clawing Laslo).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 13 (Draco suffering from sassone leaf poison).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 30 (Laslo with a power attack, sneak attack on the girallion with a claw).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 22 (Viv's <i>fireball</i> on a derro guard).</span></p>Spoilers for the Pathfinder module No Response from Deepmar, and the Age of Worms chapter Champion's Belt. I figured the Asylum Stone wouldn't work for my group (too varied, lacking a well-defined theme) so I replaced it with the module and the Age of Worms chapter. Be warned if you plan on playing these two!
The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XV
Lamashan 17-19, 4712 AR
It took two days for my agents to make their way back to Magnimar. Few words were exchanged during...Olwen2013-07-02T15:11:40ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#292013-06-26T17:29:39Z2013-06-25T22:04:27Z<p>Thanks Monrail. :)</p>
<p>I got sidetracked by a lot of work-related trips to the various corners of the world, and games in-between. I have a lot to catch up on: we skipped the Asylum Stone and I replaced these with No Response From Deepmar and The Champion's Belt (chapter 5 of the Age of Worms campaign). That's all of these 6 sessions that I need to write up as we just started the Doomsday Door last week.</p>
<p>I hope to have more time in the upcoming month to catch up on the campaign journal, so stay tuned!</p>Thanks Monrail. :)
I got sidetracked by a lot of work-related trips to the various corners of the world, and games in-between. I have a lot to catch up on: we skipped the Asylum Stone and I replaced these with No Response From Deepmar and The Champion's Belt (chapter 5 of the Age of Worms campaign). That's all of these 6 sessions that I need to write up as we just started the Doomsday Door last week.
I hope to have more time in the upcoming month to catch up on the campaign journal, so stay...Olwen2013-06-25T22:04:27ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#272013-04-14T16:56:22Z2013-04-14T14:16:55Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIV</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 17, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>Ashamintallu gone, there weren't many options but to continue the exploration of the Lady's Light until my Pathfinders could secure the <i>Shard of Lust</i>, hunting the alu-demon as they were going along. Only the gods knew where Ashamintallu had fled, or whether she was even still in the Thassilonian dungeon. My agents were worried, however, that she could have gone for reinforcements so, after a little time to let the final effects of the <i>confusion</i> spells wear off, the group swiftly moved on with the magic of <i>infernal healing</i>[ slowly closing their wounds.</p>
<p>Oriana whispered a quick prayer for the soul of her dead companion, Martena, and gathered the pieces of her armor for her funeral, when time would be right. A steely resolve washed over her. In the meantime, the Pathfinders figured that a couple of large amber gems found near the bed were the keys to use the teleporters out of this room. They activated the southern teleporter and hopped on it…</p>
<p>… to reappear in what was quite obviously a treasury. And there it was. Singled out on a lonely shelf, the <i>Shard of Lust</i> awaited. Laslo, who the group had decided would carry this <i>Shard</i>, lurched forward. In a foolish attempt to feel the full power of the artifact, he only tossed above his head the <i>ioun stone</i> that I had given them. He sure did feel the full brunt of the fragment of the <i>Sihedron</i>'s magic. As the curse washed over him, he eyed Viveltre in the barely dressed body of Sorshen, his expression turning sleazy, and he started removing his armor which was sacrilegiously covering his body. Laslo's companions focussed most of their attention on the treasure they had uncovered: gems, many magical items, and even Ashamintallu's spellbook, which seemed to double as a journal of sorts.</p>
<p>All at their discoveries, little did they notice the waft of a sulfuric stench breeze through the room. When the incubus appeared out of thin air, they were slow to react. A second later, when Ashamintallu appeared on the teleporter, they knew they were in deep trouble. For the fraction of an instant, it was as if time had stopped, then the chamber exploded in magic and the clash of arms. The incubus charged Viv while Ashamintallu's <i>confusing</i> magic once again overcame Draco, Nasim, and Oriana. The unarmored Laslo, having just ensconced the <i>ioun stone</i> in the <i>Shard</i> retrieved part of his sanity and, joining the alu-demon close to the roof, he charged her with his claws… to little avail: Ashamintallu was protected by some kind of defensive magic. In the meantime, Viv was doing what she could with the few spells she had left, casting <i>burning hands</i> on the incubus, to no result given the demon's resistance to fire.</p>
<p>Draco, Nasim, and Oriana were locked in a deadly embrace that Viv was able to break with a clever use of her <i>spiritual weapon</i>: bluffed the Qadiran into thinking Ashamintallu was responsible for the attacks of the <i>spiritual weapon</i>. Despite this, neither him, nor Laslo were really able to do much to her. Laughing at their feeble attempts, the fake Sorshen was unleashing <i>magic missiles</i> after enchantment spells on the poor Laslo who, luckily, resisted most of her more subtle magic. But things were turning sour nevertheless, and fast. The incubus's scimitar was slicing through Viv's defenses, Oriana and Draco were engaged in a war of attrition, Nasim wasn't quite himself, and Laslo's life was leaving him with each assault of the alu-demon's vampiric claws.</p>
<p>Conferring in Infernal, Laslo and Viv decided their survival was in fleeing. Already, Viv's retreat closer to the teleporter had left Draco the only target of the incubus and he quickly fell under the combined assaults of the demon and the confused Oriana. It was clear they would not come out of this fight victorious. Nothing could be done for poor Draco, laying in a growing pool of his own blood, yet they thought there was still some hope for Nasim, despite his <i>confusion</i>: as Viv dashed through the teleporter, Laslo attacked the Qadiran before doing the same. In the magus's confused mind, Laslo became the enemy and he jumped on the teleporter behind the Ustalavian. The pool of Draco's blood grew even larger as his last breath left him.</p>
<p>Barely a few seconds after retreating in Sorshen's boudoir where they had first encountered the fake runelord, Ashamintallu appeared on the fleeing Pathfinders' tails. It seemed there was no escape… At least the incubus had not followed, likely dealing with poor Oriana in the treasure room. Ashamintallu started clearly toying with the remaining Pathfinders, taunting them and making it clear that the <i>Shard</i> belonged to her, that they wouldn't leave the Lady's Light with it. The flying Laslo faced the alu-demon in an attempt to protect Viv's retreat and to buy time for Nasim. The Qadiran disregarded the fake Sorshen, using his bow to try to kill his current enemy, Laslo. Luckily for the Ustalavian, the Qadiran's abilities with a bow were no match to his use of scimitars.</p>
<p>Desna be blessed for Ashamintallu's feeling of superiority as she didn't right away slaughter my agents. So cocky was she that Nasim soon recovered his mind and the three companions quickly decided they should flee further. Getting the help of the Gray Maiden wasn't an option anymore without Oriana, but if they could lure Ashamintallu away with the <i>Shard</i>, maybe they would be able to secretly retrieve Draco's body (and the treasure!). Nasim <i>hasted</i> everyone and they dashed through the next teleporter. They ran through the Thassilonian dungeon. Their magical speed, combined with additional magic (<i>fly</i>, <i>expeditious retreat</i>) soon left the alu-demon behind. At least three of them had survived! But they were not going to leave the body of their fallen companions behind…</p>
<p>They rushed through the ballroom (the Gray Maidens they had tied to the pillars of the room had had their throats slit in a gory display of savagery), the teleporters, the Gray Maidens barracks, to reach the beach on the border of the large underground lake. There, they regrouped, and considered options, of which there weren't many.</p>
<p>Eventually, the Pathfinder realized that they would not win a straight up fight with Ashamintallu and that the only way for them to retrieve Draco's body was for the group to split up. The fake Sorshen wanted the <i>Shard</i>? Then Laslo would bait her with it while Nasim and Viv would rush through the Lady's Light to, <i>invisible</i>, reach the treasure room. So they waited there, steeling their resolve, ready for the alu-demon. Less than five minutes later, their wishes were fulfilled for Ashamintallu stood at the entrance to the beach. Seething, she had abandoned all pretense at being the runelord of Lust; in her natural appearance, she resembled a beautiful woman with flawless skin but her darting red eyes, her pointed ears, the crimson horns protruding from her forehead, her tail, and her large bat-like wings linked her directly to her succubus heritage.</p>
<p>As soon as Ashamintallu appeared, Laslo shook the <i>Shard</i> at her: "You want it? Come and get it!" Mutated by his alchemist magic, he then dived into the lake and used his palmed feet to stay underwater as long as he could, break the lake's surface only when far enough from the more and more infuriated and frustrated alu-demon. She did attempt to <i>dispel</i> Laslo's mutations that allowed him to so efficiently stay underwater, but failed. Starved for spells, she could do little but wait for the Ustalavian to tire of this game over.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the <i>invisible</i> Nasim and Viv reached the treasury. There, Draco lied in a large pool of his own blood, and so did Oriana. What they hadn't quite envisaged was the presence of the incubus. This fight was violent but brief and, despite his elemental protections, the two heroes were able to overcome the demon. All they could find they shoved into the extra-dimensional bag they had found earlier, including Draco's and Oriana's body ("That armor must be worth quite a lot!" Nasim felt he should justify). Rushing down, they took the time to also gather all the Gray Maidens' armors and weapons that they had neatly stacked in the barracks.</p>
<p>Reappearing on the beach, Nasim and Viv used the <i>wand of fly</i> they had found on the lustspawn sorcerer to flee back up. Laslo was soon in tow, flying as well, enhanced by <i>expeditious retreat</i>, for once an aptly named spell. Ashamantillu, despite her demonic wings could not quite keep up and quickly faded in the background. Yet, as they reached the exit from the Lady's Light—the sarcophagus room where Viv's conscience had been transported into Sorshen's <i>clone</i>— there she waited for the Pathfinders, Ashamintallu who had again teleported as my agents fled.</p>
<p>Without spells, the alu-demon attacked the remaining three companions with her guisarme and her claws. The Pathfinders did resist and stood their ground for a little bit, hoping that the demon wasn't as powerful in melee, but it was soon clear that this was more wishful thinking than reality. Acrobatically jumping and flying around, they all dived upwards through the shaft that led them back to the tunnels under the Lady's Cape. They were hoping that Ashamintallu was tied to the Lady's Light and that she wouldn't be able to follow them. Although they would later realize their mistake in this regard, the alu-demon in fact didn't track them. My Pathfinders were free again! They had retrieved the <i>Shard</i> and, if Draco had valiantly died in the process, that would only be a temporary setback. Their delving in the Lady's Light had been a wonderful success and we are now one step closer to reforging the <i>Sihedron</i>!</p>
<p>My agents briefly stayed with the troglodytes, said their farewells to Maroux the witch (without the presence of the transformed Viv to avoid suspicion), and headed back to Magnimar. The trip back was eventless and gave them the opportunity to read the journal/spellbook of Ashamintallu: if the powerful alu-demon isn't tied to the Lady's Light, the Thassilonian monument has been hers since her mother, Ayandamahla, discovered a way to use her daughter as a surrogate of sorts, forcibly passing on the effect of her binding to the Lady's Light. However, that doesn't prevent the alu-demon from roaming the Lady's Cape on dark nights. Throughout the centuries, it seems Ashamintallu was almost able to convince herself that she was the Sorshen herself. I worry about the dangers of her reverting back to her true form, and the devastating effect of my Pathfinders assault on her fictitious realm. I will make sure that we keep an eye on the Lady's Cape in case the alu-demon finds a way to roam the world.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 17 (an incubus attacking Viv with his mwk scimitar).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 17 (Ashamintallu, with a <i>magic missile</i> against Laslo).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 20 (a <i>confused</i> Draco on a <i>confused</i> Oriana, power attacking with her <i>+1 longsword</i> ).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 32 (Viv, destroying an incubus with an <i>inflict critical wounds</i> spell).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Dead:</b></i> a <i>[confused</i> Draco (-24) hacked by an incubus and a <i>confused</i> Oriana</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIV
Lamashan 17, 4712 AR (continued)
Ashamintallu gone, there weren't many options but to continue the exploration of the Lady's Light until my Pathfinders could secure the Shard of Lust, hunting the alu-demon as they were going along. Only the gods knew where Ashamintallu had fled, or whether she was even still in the Thassilonian dungeon. My agents were worried, however, that she could have gone for reinforcements so, after a little...Olwen2013-04-14T14:16:55ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#262013-04-14T16:56:19Z2013-04-07T19:04:15Z<p>We finished Curse of the Lady's Light two sessions ago so I'm trying to catch up with the journal so I don't have too many entries waiting to be written.</p>
<p>We're skipping The Asylum Stone completely because I wasn't convinced by the scenario and I don't think it would have worked with our group. There's just too many random encounters crammed together in the second and third dungeon. Besides, I felt that the campaign wasn't spending enough time in Magnimar for the PCs to care about it in book 6. So I'm replacing the third chapter by the module No Response From Deepmar, and a chapter from the Age of Worms adventure path (the Champion's Belt).</p>We finished Curse of the Lady's Light two sessions ago so I'm trying to catch up with the journal so I don't have too many entries waiting to be written.
We're skipping The Asylum Stone completely because I wasn't convinced by the scenario and I don't think it would have worked with our group. There's just too many random encounters crammed together in the second and third dungeon. Besides, I felt that the campaign wasn't spending enough time in Magnimar for the PCs to care about it in book...Olwen2013-04-07T19:04:15ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#242013-04-07T17:53:08Z2013-04-07T17:13:16Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIII</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 16, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>The fight with the group of Gray Maiden led by Quenelle Page turned into a bloody mess. At first, the element of surprise seemed in favor of my agents. Viv's <i>fireballs</i> did damage many of the clumped mercenaries, and Laslo's cunning idea of turning <i>invisible</i> before they met the Gray Maidens meant he could attack the officer from the stealth of <i>invisibilty</i>. But the ruthless efficiency of the Korvosans, combined with Draco's and Nasim's long preparation, as well as a few misguided assaults, soon overwhelmed the Pathfinders. Laslo had to <i>vanish</i> back towards invisibility under the attacks of Quenelle, almost dying in the process. Draco and Nasim were back against back, standing their ground as best they could despite the blood on the floor rendering it slippery. But even the <i>enlarged</i> barbarian was soon overcome and left his companion fight alone. Viv, starved of powerful spells, had to resort to fire bolts against the two Gray Maidens who had followed her into the adjacent room.</p>
<p>In the end, it was Quenelle almost killing Laslo, and leaving him for dead, <i>invisible</i>, that proved the Gray Maidens' undoing. Sneaking behind the mercenaries, the barely standing Ustalavian took the time to partly heal himself before he brought half of the still-standing Maidens down in a flurry of unexpected (and lethal) claws. The officer resisted a little longer but, finally, she was as unconscious as all the Gray Maidens still alive, except for one, Helanda Martien, who surrendered after the fall of her leader.</p>
<p>The Pathfinders were exhausted, bloodied by many cuts, their magic expanded, but they had survived once more against impossible odds. Dragging the surviving, unconscious Gray Maidens, my agents retreated to the grand ballroom, whose illusion had now faded away. They tied their prisoners to the pillars of the room and interrogated them. The soldiers appeared to know little else than the fact that their leader, Oriana, had led them to find treasures and valuables in the Lady's Light, only to stumble on Runelord Sorshen. The Lady had quickly overcome them, but she seemed to have liked Oriana's idea of Korvosa needing retaking, and the current weak leaders replaced by a new, strong leader, the strong leader Queen Ileosa had been until she was toppled, just shy of four years ago. Joining their forces, the Gray Maidens were now waiting, honing their battle plans and scheming their assault on the large Varisian city until Sorshen would trigger the assault.</p>
<p>The fanatical Quenelle, on the other hand, was not very helpful as it seemed she could only reply in spite to the gentle questions of my Pathfinders. She even got to the end of Viv's patience who, exasperated, turn to her companion barbarian: "Draco, knock her unconscious. She's boring me know." Taken aback and uncertain, the barbarian replied: "With what, my hammer?" "With whatever you want" was the only answer. "Cool!" he concluded before moving closer to Quenelle Page…</p>
<p>The resting period unfolded calmly as the first Gray Maiden attempted to be a pest was quickly knocked out.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 17, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>(The PCs rise to level 7)</i></b></span></p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>That morning… or was it the afternoon? My agents were incapable of figuring it out after spending such a long period of time underground.</p>
<p>Nasim, Draco, and Laslo woke to partial paralysis. The latter two were able to easily shrug it off, but the Qadiran remained stiff, even after flexing his muscles. They had contracted ghoul fever the day before, either from the ghouls which had attacked them while they were resting, or from the bites of the skavelings. A minor inconvenience, but Laslo did all he could to heal his companions and himself. A few extra <i>lesser restoration</i> spells from a <i>wand</i> helped Nasim recover his full abilities.</p>
<p>Leaving the Gray Maidens there, gagged and attached to the pillars, the Pathfinders carried on. A quick inspection of the room they had fought in revealed battle plans of the retaking of Korvosa. Much thought had obviously been put in these and they showed important weaknesses of the Korvosan defences that only insiders would know of. These plans would clearly fetch a high price from the Korvosan authorities… or from the Magnimarian ones, always eager to know more about the weaknesses of their rival city. The plans were pocketed and the decision of who to sell these to would be made later.</p>
<p>My agents followed the indications of the Gray Maidens and climbed the stairs which were encircling the wide, central pillar of the room. The climb was long but they finally reached a single circular room with eight alcoves. Seven of them contained black marble statues of the seven runelords. The eighth one contained nothing. On the floor, a Thassilonian inscription led my Pathfinders to believe they were facing another riddle. Although hard to make sense of, Viv and Nasim agreed that it read: "She who desires to ascend the Lady’s Light must first deign to embrace the Lady and the Lie." Who the Lady was was obvious, but it was Nasim who first noticed how incongruous it was for the statue of Karzoug, the runelord of Greed, to be offering the gift of a golden rose. Embracing the statue of Sorshen, and then that of Karzoug, produced a golden mist into the eighth alcove. In quick succession, the Pathfinders jumped into it, hoping for the best, and were spirited away.</p>
<p>They appeared in two separate groups, in two similar rooms, but quickly reunited in a central chamber harboring two mosaics of coiling serpents, wheels sticking out of them. Before they tried to figure our the mechanism and usefulness of the mosaics, Viv opened a side room, only to be faced with a Gray Maiden wearing richer gear than they had seen so far. Her "Oriana, I presume?" was met by a staggered step back, before the leader of the Gray Maiden charged forward, screaming: "You'll never play your tricks on me again! Never! I will die here before I become your slave again!"</p>
<p>Ensued a confusing fight during which Viv was doing her best to convince Oriana that they were not her enemies, through magic and then, failing, through words; Nasim was trying to fry the Gray Maiden officer to be safe rather than sorry; and Draco was trying his best to immobilize her. If Nasim's <i>greasing</i> of Oriana's sword partly removed her teeth, his magical assaults certainly didn't help Viv's diplomacy, and the hulking barbarian's grappling attempts were easily countered off by the nimble fighter would even succesfully disarmed Draco and stole his hammer. All the while, Laslo was raising his hands in the air, hoping sense would come to everyone. Eventually, as Oriana was even resisting Viv's attempts at healing her from Nasim's assaults, the cleric cast her shield aside and told the Gray Maiden that she was at her mercy. Oriana did seize this opportunity to strike at her enemy, twice, but, with no reaction from the Asmodean cleric but groans of pain behind her gritted teeth, she surrendered to the truth that Viv was not Sorshen. Oriana collapsed on the ground, in tears and expecting to be put through the sword.</p>
<p>The cleric of Asmodeus took the time to console Oriana and explain to her what they thought was happening: that a succubus had taken over the rulership of the Lady's Light and pretended to be the Runelord of Lust. As she took in the news, the eyes of the Gray Maiden leader grew wide, and lit with a sliver of hope. She quickly offered her help in dealing with the usurper. The Pathfinders accepted the offer as even Oriana's honesty as she condoned Queen Ileosa's rule and the toppling the current, weak rule of Korvosa so the city would not become Cheliax's puppet couldn't convince them that she was evil, simply pragmatic.</p>
<p>Oriana showed the group how they could operate the wheels tied to the serpent mosaic to teleport them to Sorshen's boudoir, where "Sorshen" was spending most of her time. Having been hit by a <i>dispel magic</i> as they entered this level, the Pathfinders decided not to burden themselves with too much protective magic lest it was all for naught. And so they teleported themselves into their enemy's chamber, feeling the tug of the [/i]Shard of Lust[/i], ever closer.</p>
<p>Sorshen was standing next to a grand bed on which laid the brittle, desiccated body of a naked Gray Maiden. The Lady herself was wearing nothing but diaphanous robes, a few <i>potions</i> and a <i>wand</i> at her belt, and had a tall guisarme hooked to her back. As she saw the intruders, she smiled. "Oh, this is a delicious surprise! Greetings, new supplicants, you’ve arrived just in time. My latest lost her allure when she lost her life. Perhaps you can keep me entertained a bit longer?" Seeing Oriana, she even added: "Oriana, my love, this is unexpected. Am I to take your return to my boudoir as indication you’ve had a change of heart after our previous… conversation?" The Gray Maiden blemished under the smile of the runelord, but the words only steeled the Pathfinders' resolve. As she stepped forward, Viv called to Sorshen and challenged her: "You are not Sorshen, the runelord of Lust. But who are you? Ayandamahla? Ashamintallu? Erixadallax? Who ever you are, this will be the end of you."</p>
<p>At the mention of Ashamintallu, "Sorshen" visibly lost part of her confidence and smug attitude. However, that didn't prevent her from casting the powerful <i>confusion</i> spell in the midst of my agents. Spells flew in retaliation, but much of the damage had already been done: Draco and Nasim were locked in a deadly dance of death, while Oriana, unable to resist the powerful magic yet again snaking through her mind and dominating her emotions, collapsed on the group, and repeatedly attempted to kill herself.</p>
<p>Although Viv resisted the multiple mental assaults of Ashamintallu, she was alone in her combat against the creature. Laslo's weak help turned to a threat as <i>confusion</i> overcame him as well. In the end, it is Ashamintallu's overconfidence as she clearly toyed with Viv that enabled my agents to survive. Hurt, not as fresh as just a minute before, Ashamintallu triggered her <i>wand</i> and disappeared, fleeing through a <i>dimension door</i>.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 18 (Quenelle Page, damaging Draco with her longsword).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 7 (Ashamintallu, with a <i>fireball</i> engulfing Viv).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 22 (Laslo clawing a Gray Maiden with a sneak attack).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 27 (Nasim, sizzling Ashamintallu with a <i>shocking grasp</i>).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Unconscious:</i></b>
<br />
- Draco (-5), in the fight against the Gray Maidens
<br />
- Nasim (-8), hammered by a <i>confused</i> Draco in the fight against Ashamintallu</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Death:</i></b> none</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XIII
Lamashan 16, 4712 AR (continued)
The fight with the group of Gray Maiden led by Quenelle Page turned into a bloody mess. At first, the element of surprise seemed in favor of my agents. Viv's fireballs did damage many of the clumped mercenaries, and Laslo's cunning idea of turning invisible before they met the Gray Maidens meant he could attack the officer from the stealth of invisibilty. But the ruthless efficiency of the...Olwen2013-04-07T17:13:16ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#232013-04-07T17:53:02Z2013-04-06T15:12:09Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XII</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 16, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>The group took the time to tie up the unconscious Gray Maidens and hide them in the side bedrooms, along with the bodies of the mercenaries who hadn't survived the encounter with my agents. Taking the time to rest for a few minutes before they furthered their exploration of the Lady's Light, the Pathfinders were taken by surprise by a group of another four Gray Maidens who burst forth from a steamy bathroom, directly connected to the barracks. Driven, the mercenaries fought to the death. They did not renounce their assaults despite Viv's offer of peace. Either they were well indoctrinated, or they were fanatical, or both.</p>
<p>Weary after their latest ordeals, the Pathfinders decided to rest for a little longer before they pushed into the corridors ahead. The rested for at least for long enough so that the alchemists could cook up more of their concoctions, and for Viv to peruse the large bath of scented, clean water. While she did so, apparently oblivious to the bath's location at the heart of the Lady's Light, her companions sure took this opportunity to ogle at her perfect new body.</p>
<p>From the steamy bathroom, the Pathfinders left the door to the south and decided to progress further west. They soon entered a gallery decorated with another set of four statues of Sorshen, with a Thassilonian engraving at their feet:
<br />
<div class="messageboard-quotee">plaque wrote:</div><blockquote>"By my touch may you enter the shining glory of my inner sanctum."</blockquote><p>Three gold platforms were interspersed through the room, and the central one showed the clear marks of use and wear. Focussing his <i>detect magic</i> on that platform, Nasim noticed a strong aura of conjuration magic that led the group to venture that they were, once again, in the presence of another teleportation device. As they decided to follow the plaque's instructions, and in turn touched the hand of each statue, all three platforms turned brighter and brighter. Once they grew no brighter, the Pathfinders hopped on the central platform. But as soon had Laslo stepped on it that he disappeared and the platforms reverted to their original dull gold color. The magic had apparently reset itself automatically and it took the good fraction of a minute for Draco, Viv and Nasim to light the platform again, and again, and again so they could be teleported as well.
<p>In the meantime, Laslo reappeared in an opulent chamber, its domed ceiling a fresco in the image of a starry night sky, eerily similar to the night sky he gazed at on dark night. The constellations, however, looked deformed and sometimes even unrecognizable. Could this be the Varisian sky of another era? He had no more than an instant to think about it before four monstrosities assaulted him. Sinspawns of lust, the creatures that attacked him with their guisarms had the deadly efficiency of Thassilon, with a sensuality that even their monstrous face could not rescind.</p>
<p>The fight was tough but, with Draco's eventual arrival and help, Laslo survived, even though he could barely stand when the two companions finally overcame the beasts of Thassilon. They were soon joined by the other Pathfinders and, after spending the time to heal themselves, they proceeded through a side corridor. Within a minute, the group entered a gigantic ballroom like they had never seen before. The pillars that held the ceiling were carved in the guise of trees, the ceiling itself painted to represent the night sky seen through the trees' foliage. However, what made the Pathfinders hold their breaths was the large crowd of aristocrats dancing to tunes of another age in front of Runelord Sorhen. Runelord Karzoug himself could be spotted in a corner of the ball room!</p>
<p>As the Pathfinders stopped dead in their tracks, Sorshen clapped her hands and started addressing the crowd, her voice seductive and penetrating:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">Sorshen wrote:</div><blockquote>Oh my sweet subjects. Now is the time for us to enjoy the succulent fruits of our labor. I give you license to indulge your appetites, every unexpressed libidinous impulse, for by such indulgences you honor me. Those who would interfere with this sacrament are like the blind chastising the sighted for looking with pleasure upon a rainbow. Why, some in our midst this very moment actively work against us—obstacles between us and the indulgence of our passions. Behold the cold and bloodless prudes who even now stand before us!</blockquote><p>All faces turned to the Pathfinders, their expressions a mixture of contempt and disgust. Runelord Karzoug raised an accusing finger at them and yelled venomously: "The proper place for those without the Inner Fire is the grave! Come, let us drag them there!" At his command, the crowd surged forward, a roaring angry mob that threatened to quickly overwhelm my agents. Their reactions varied, between Draco's frantic gobbling of a <i>shield</i> extract, Laslo's retreat, and Viv's suspicious impression that they might be facing an illusion. An illusion it was indeed and, by the time the crowd reached them, the group had realized so, but they were now scattered through the room. A very real dretch appeared out of thin air, in the middle of the room. Although puny, the demon took the group by surprise and his swift casting of a <i>stinking cloud</i> indisposed both Laslo and Nasim, who, vomiting their latest meal on the beautiful marble floor, could be of little help to Viv and Draco when more fiendish spiders started appearing in the room.
<p>As Draco did his best to slaughter the creatures, Nasim and Laslo what they could to stay out of danger, Viv started intently looking around as she suspected an invisible summoning caster was in their midst. She focussed all her attention on her surroundings and heard faint incantations in a corner of the room, next to the ceiling. Reacting quickly, she channeled the unholy powers of Asmodeus into this area, to little apparent effect. If she hurt something, or someone, the invisible creature's incantation nevertheless succeeded and another dretch appeared. The vile demon added more foulness to the battlefield as it conjured another <i>stinking cloud</i> which, thankfully, had little effect on Viv.</p>
<p>The caster finally revealed herself in her beautiful horror as she teased Viv: "You want to play this game? Let us play this game, then, it'll be enjoyable too," murmured the lustspawn sorceress as she blasted both Laslo and Viv with her <i>wand of lightning bolt</i>. With both Laslo and Nasim incapacitated, Draco hacking his way through the crowd of <i>summoned</i> creatures, Viv was left alone to fight the sorceress of Thassilon. If some of her spells did bypass the creature's magical resistance, her channelling and <i>fireballs</i> were not too efficient in scaring off the lustspawn. Besides, despite Viv's best attempts at staying out of reach, the creature landed just before her and almost hacked her to pieces with a quick succession of thrusts with her guisarme. Favoring survival, the cleric of Asmodeus collapsed on the ground, pretending to be dead so she still has a sliver of hope to pray on her survival.</p>
<p>By then, Nasim and Laslo have finally shrugged off the adverse effects of the <i>stinking cloud</i> and they took up the mantle, bringing the fight to the lustspawn. Draco soon joined them after he decided to abandon the surviving dretch to help his friends. A final <i>lightning bolt</i> from the sinspawn almost killed Laslo but Nasim's arrows and Laslo's claws eventually overcame the very attractive creature of Thassilon.</p>
<p>That had been a close shave with Pharasma, and everyone was suffering from numerous cuts, burns, or other gaping wounds. Viv stood with difficulty as a round of healing was in order. A long debate ensued on whether the Pathfinders should rest, and where they should do so. Their resources were almost entirely tapped, but the attack in the middle of their previous rest was still very present in their minds. The large ballroom in which they currently were seemed to be a dead end and the group was about to rest there when Laslo spotted a secret door. In order not to be surprised by threats coming through it, my agents decided to send the sneaky Laslo to explore through the door. Unfortunately, he quickly came back to report that a group of Gray Maidens, obviously aroused and ready to face an assault, waited behind the only door in the antechamber behind the secret entrance.</p>
<p>The Pathfinder decided to postpone their rest and to confront the Gray Maidens. Despite the attitude of the previous groups of Gray Maidens they had encountered, my agents resolved to convince the mercenaries of their friendly attitude. At first, Viv posed as Sorshen and the Maidens died not see through the bluff. Viv grasped this opportunity and isolated herself with the officer leading this group of Gray Maiden, Quenelle Page. The former aasimar did her best to convince the officer that the Sorshen they were following was not the true Runelord, that they had been deceived, that she herself was but someone with only the appearance of the Runelord of Lust. Didn't Quenelle remember the hollow statue in the tunnels guarded by the boggards, the statue Viv thought had spawned the succubus (or some other creature) that now pretended to be Sorshen? If the officer seemed to believe Viv and pushed to gather the troupe of mercenaries and lead them upstairs to confront the "fake" Sorshen, the Asmodean saw through Quenelle's bluff. Once back in the main room with her underlings, Quenelle tried to sneakily convey a message to her companions, failed miserably, even though its intent was clear to the Pathfinders. In a sudden twist of roles, Viv turned to the other Gray Maidens and, embodying Sorshen in full, she used all the authority she could muster to convince the mercenaries that their leader has gone mad and that Quenelle should be seized. Yet, here as well, the bluff failed and, as Viv's trick was not very convincing, a massive fight between ten Gray Maidens and the Pathfinders ensued…</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 18 (Charuka, the sorcerer lustspawn on Viv).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 7 (Charuka, the sorcerer lustspawn attacking Laslo with a <i>lightning bolt</i>).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 86 (Draco raging, mutagened, power attacking scoring a critical hit with his hammer on a summoned fiendish spider).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 12 (Viv with a channel energy on a summoned spider).</span>
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Death:</i></b> none.</span>
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Unconscious:</i></b> none.</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XII
Lamashan 16, 4712 AR (continued)
The group took the time to tie up the unconscious Gray Maidens and hide them in the side bedrooms, along with the bodies of the mercenaries who hadn't survived the encounter with my agents. Taking the time to rest for a few minutes before they furthered their exploration of the Lady's Light, the Pathfinders were taken by surprise by a group of another four Gray Maidens who burst forth from a steamy...Olwen2013-04-06T15:12:09ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#222013-04-07T17:52:59Z2013-04-04T16:52:53Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XI</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 16, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>My Pathfinders felt secure enough to rest on the stone platform, facing a gigantic underground lake they couldn't see the edge of. They nevertheless applied the basic precepts of dungeon exploration and, at all times, had one of them stay awake to guard the surroundings. And it's good they learned their lessons well in Absalom for, in the middle of their rest, as Laslo was testing new chemical formula while watching the dark waters of the lake, a group of lacedons (aquatic ghouls) invaded the platform. Taken by surprise for a split moment, Laslo quickly cried for his companions to wake up and, at the same time, started hacking at the reeking undead whose long arms ended in deadly, paralytic claws. Although Nasim and Draco quickly rose to defend their lives, Viv was deep in the realm of Desna and quite impervious to the threat to her life. Nasim moved to protect the sleeping cleric of Asmodeus, under the direct threat of two lacedons who must have thought the listless body tempting but, before he could reposition himself, a pair of claws slashed him and their paralytic curse overtook him. It was down to Draco and Laslo to defend their two helpless companions against the horde of eight lacedons!</p>
<p>The combined powers of the alchemist and the barbarian, strategically preventing the ghouls from attacking their companions on the small platform and soon joined by a groggy Viv, were enough to rout the frail undead creatures. It had been close, though, and they would have certainly all died, eaten alive by the lacedons, had they not guarded their camp. Soon, even Nasim could start moving again, cursing at the unfairness of the sneaky attack that had paralyzed him. Given the assault in the middle of their rest, the Pathfinders decided to stay there as long as needed for the arcane spellcasters to relearn their daily spells. If this attack was testament to what was awaiting them on this level, they would certainly need them…</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>(The PCs rise to level 6)</i></b></span>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Once rested, the Pathfinders crammed themselves into one of the boats attached to the platform while Laslo started flying with his newly acquired mutation bat-like wings. They cautiously followed one of the walls of the gigantic cavern hosting the underground lake and soon reached a stone platform; the flow of water transforming into an underground river continued towards the west. Hopping on this other platform, my agents realized it hosted another one of these red djezet-alloy doors, its face engraved with numerous scenes depicting a beautiful woman on a throne as numerous strange monsters (including giants, dragons, neothelids, sea monsters, mobogos, and the like) bowed before her. Pressing the central button, as before, caused some Thassilonian writings to glow softly ("And so do the mighty Architects serve eternal," it said) before the door opened on a giant-sized hall.</p>
<p>As they proceeded cautiously, the flames in crystal balls that were suspended from the ceiling revealed the other end of the hall, where a stone throne was raised on a dais. A cave giant was sitting on the throne, two large lizards sprawled on the floor beside her, next to half a dozen treasure chests. As she saw the Pathfinders, she stood up and screamed, her booming voice echoing through the chamber: "You dare enter my throne room, little mortals! If you kneel to me now, I, Sorshen, shall call off my pets and eat only one of you!" But the pets did little of that and my agents quickly decided to deal with both the monitor lizards and this obviously crazed cave giant. An impervious Viv coldly mentioned that she didn't take kindly to impostors in her domain, casting a death sentence on the giant. As the Pathfinders carved their way through the lizards, the cave giant hurled many of the chests on them. To the Pathfinders horror, these were full of bits of rotting flesh. In reply, <i>fireballs</i> were hurled while the screams of "Kneel, little mortals, I am SORSHEN!" were echoed by Viv's icy comments on the short lifespan the giant had left. The fight soon transformed into a battle of titan as a raging, mutagened Draco reached the towering cave giant. Powerful blows replied to other powerful blows and, after every attack, it seemed one of the two opponents would be cleft in half. Yet, they stood, until the barbarian had the last word and literally skewered the giant with one particularly powerful blow of his lucerne hammer.</p>
<p>While Nasim was rummaging through the bits of rotten flesh to find at least something of value (and he did for one of the chests contained the cave giants treasures), the rest of the Pathfinders found an intriguing consecrating platinum plate behind the throne. It read:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">consecrating plate wrote:</div><blockquote>A gift for my Mistress Sorshen from her humble servant Ayandamahla, dedicated this celebrated day, the 25th anniversary of her ascension to rulership in Eurythnia. Present—Runelord Sorshen, Ayandamahla and her daughters Ashamintallu and Erixadallax, Lord & Lady of the Burning Bright, the Sisters of Charming & Delectation, and the Baron of Calamities, along with all slaves, servants, and supplicants in this, the Lady’s Light. May she reign unchallenged forever.</blockquote><p>The ramifications of this discovery were unclear but would prove very valuable to my agents later on (proving the usefulness of cautiously searching for clues in a dungeon, any dungeon!). Viv nevertheless remembered that Eurythnia was a former Thassilonian province, and she even ventured it could have been Sorshen's. Of course, she was right, as we all know. They pried the plate from the wall so it could be consigned in the archive and listed in the Chronicles.
<p>A thorough search for secret doors, including through the use of their <i>wand of detect secret doors</i>, revealed no exit from this room, so the group went back to the boat and proceeded further down the underground river. As the river narrowed, the Pathfinders could see the natural walls of the chamber had been carved with multiple alcoves that hosted manacled humanoid bodies in advanced stages of decomposition. Despite Viv's temporary visions, the skeletons were no threats, but the two giant undead bats that assaulted them certainly were! These skavelings almost proved to be the group's undoing. Squeezed on a boat, their movements limited with only Laslo able to fly, the undead monstrosities played with the Pathfinders' lives. Nasim's cunning use of a <i>web</i> spell was able to stall the creatures for a moment, but not long enough to make it a significant advantage. Soon, the rocking boat made any movement or casting of a spell difficult, especially after Draco's fall in the water that threatened to topple the boat entirely. Laslo's new ability to fly seemed a boon at first as he was able to reach the skaveling, but he quickly realized that he was no match to their paralytic assaults. Although their curse did not overtake him, he soon retreated after a particularly nasty bite, barely alive. The bats flyby attacks on Nasim and Viv were deadly and, although they both tried all they could to damage the undead, their options were limited since Nasim's scimitar was very inefficient against them, and Viv's Asmodean channeling completely ineffective. Eventually, Draco swam to one of the alcoves in the wall and, grabbing the rock he always carried with him, he hurled it at one of the skavelings, seriously damaging it. From there, the tides turned and the four companions were eventually able to destroy the flying monstrosities of another age. It had once again been very difficult and it was clear that my Pathfinders hadn't been prepared for such powerful flying enemies. Yet, every one of these failures is steeped with experience and mistakes that shan't be repeated.</p>
<p>The walls' alcove contained only the dead manacled bodies, and nothing of value, so my agents proceeded forward downriver to soon reach another gigantic underground lake. Phosphorescent lichen and fungus clung to the stalactites above, reflected by the waters below to make walls of the cave dance with a pearlescent shimmer. Soon, all the companions started hearing seductive whispers in their mother tongue, just at the edge of their perception. An overwhelming sense of need and longing quickly pounded in the Pathfinders' chests and they felled compelled to undress and dive into the lake, towards its northeastern edge. Viv and Draco resisted but both Nasim and Laslo started undressing like clockworks. In the boat, with his two companions, Nasim was restrained by Draco before it was too late and bound by a rope, but the flying Laslo was out of reach of his companions. As he dived into the lake, two giant moray eels that dwelt there must have figured he would make for a tasty snack as they quickly attacked. Chaos replaced any sense of strategy when the only two sensible heroes did all they could to help the magically compelled Laslo. Draco dived into the lake to wrangle one of the moray eels and, as the second one had latched onto Laslo and was quickly killing it, Viv went as far as to play bait in front of the giant fish (and almost died in the process!). They eventually overcame the animals and the sorry band paddled to a small cave and a shore of white sand to the northeast. Nasim, who had almost succeeded in freeing himself from his bounds was secured again, along with Laslo, by a rather irritated Draco.</p>
<p>From the beach of white sand opened two natural tunnels, but the Pathfinders took the time to heal with <i>infernal healing</i> before they let the compulsion run its course and take Nasim again. To their surprise, he didn't dive into one of the tunnels, but started scratching one of the cave's walls. Paying more attention to this wall, my agents found a secret door that led into a simple, tiled room harboring crude fishing implements. A single, closed door exited this room. Opening it, the Pathfinders reached quarters where half a dozen Gray Maidens, the first ones they encountered in the Lady's Light, were playing cards at a large table. Multiple crates were scattered around in the room.</p>
<p>As the Gray Maidens reached for their weapons, the Pathfinders were quick to react and, employing their now usual deception, Viv pretended to be the Runelord of Lust. The effect was immediate on the Korvosan mercenaries and the bluff worked. The Gray Maiden asked "Sorshen" when they would be ready to march on Korvosa, explained that a certain Quenelle had come up with detailed plans of invasion. They seemed very eager to take back the former city of Queen Ileosa, but Viv was able to talk her way out of this situation. Or so it appeared until one of the Gray Maidens asked the Asmodean cleric when they would be given the magical shields they were promised. Although the fake Sorshen did find the question a little fishy, she decided to play along and fell for the trick question. A brutal fight ensued during which the Pathfinders efficiently dispatched the group of Gray Maidens. Despite their qualities, the mercenaries were no match to the skilled, and well-trained, Pathfinders. In a single blow, Nasim could swiftly severe one of the Maiden's head while Draco and Laslo would savage two others, and Viv would wreak havoc in their ranks through the channeling of the fiery tentacles of Hell. The mercenaries did not respond to calls of surrender and three of them bled to death before they could be stabilized by the Pathfinders. The job done, Nasim rifled through their possessions and the many crates, neatly stacking the many full-plate armors and weapons in a corner of the room for a later pick up.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 39 (a critical hit from a skaveling's bite on Laslo).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> none.
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 52 (Draco raging, mutagened, power attacking scoring a critical hit on Mochtau the Cave Giant with his lucerne hammer).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 17 (Nasim with a <i>shocking grasp</i> on a Gray Maiden).
<br />
<b><i>Death:</i></b> none.
<br />
<b><i>Unconscious:</i></b> none.</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter XI
Lamashan 16, 4712 AR
My Pathfinders felt secure enough to rest on the stone platform, facing a gigantic underground lake they couldn't see the edge of. They nevertheless applied the basic precepts of dungeon exploration and, at all times, had one of them stay awake to guard the surroundings. And it's good they learned their lessons well in Absalom for, in the middle of their rest, as Laslo was testing new chemical formula while...Olwen2013-04-04T16:52:53ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: Kingmaker - anybody play it all the way through?Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pk7d?Kingmaker-anybody-play-it-all-the-way-through#292013-04-04T07:12:34Z2013-04-04T03:43:32Z<p>I don't know if you're still looking for more information on how people used the kingdom but, if so, my group and I summarized our take on it <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2owky?A-finished-Kingmaker-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> after we finished the campaign last fall.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that the kingdom building, just like the exploration, was fun for a while until it got somewhat boring and we pushed it to the background after a couple of books of play.</p>I don't know if you're still looking for more information on how people used the kingdom but, if so, my group and I summarized our take on it here after we finished the campaign last fall.
The bottom line is that the kingdom building, just like the exploration, was fun for a while until it got somewhat boring and we pushed it to the background after a couple of books of play.Olwen2013-04-04T03:43:32ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#192013-04-02T18:21:13Z2013-04-02T14:54:55Z<p><i><b>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter X</b></i></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 15, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>True to their duties as Pathfinders, my agents could not let the sarcophagus untouched. Opening it proved much easier than they had expected as the stone coffin was not protected by any trap. To everyone's utter surprise, it contained the sleeping body of Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust herself. Through his <i>detection of magic</i>, necromantic magic, Nassim however realized that this must be a <i>clone</i> of the runelord, and not the runelord herself. But the <i>clone</i> was warm to the touch, and therefore "alive," and if it was so, it means that Sorshen is alive somewhere! Since I heard of this gloomy news from my agents, I conferred with Master Leis Nivlandis, founder of the Stone of the Seers, and we cannot find another explanation: Sorshen, just like Karzoug before her, survived the Earthfall and likely awaits to wake from her slumber. The good gods have mercy of our souls if this happens in our lifetimes… Little would protect Varisia against such a powerful runelord. Only the heroes of Sandpoints were able to stall the rise of Karzoug, and Sorshen is said to have been even more powerful than the Runelord of Greed. We are utterly defenseless. We <i>must</i> reforge the <i>Sihedron</i>, if only so it could be used for our defense if such a tragedy were to happen. I see no other option.</p>
<p>In the Lady's Light, the group also conferred about the ramifications of their findings and decided that, for the meantime, at least, they couldn't do much about it. Before moving on, they decided that it would be futile to leave behind the jewelry and gems the <i>clone</i> was wearing. As Viv reached for them, her eyes grew wide and her face froze, her heart stopped, and her body collapsed on the ground, dead. Her companions did not have the sliver of a chance to react as the magic that overtook their friend was instantaneous. To make matters worse, Viv's body had barely touched the ground that the body in the sarcophagus stirred, awoken from its millennia-long slumber! It threw off the surviving Pathfinders as they frantically cast defensive spells, even though they knew they would not survive a mere second in front of the Runelord of Lust. But Sorshen seemed to pay very little attention to the Pathfinders as she started laughing maniacally, looking behind her and muttering: "Gone! They are gone! Yes, they are gone!"</p>
<p>The confusion past, it quickly became evident that Viv's mind had transferred into the <i>clone</i> and that it wasn't the Runelord of Lust they were facing, but only their companion who had switched bodies. Proper answers to a set of specific questions only Viv could answer finished to convince Draco, Laslo, and Nasim. Viv decided to keep her former body in case it became useful later (for a resurrection?), and protected it with <i>gentle repose</i>. She then moved on to dress herself with more than the diaphanous robes the <i>clone</i> was wearing. Her breastplate proved a little tight for her now much more voluptuous body, especially her much larger breast, but she seemed overjoyed her wings were gone. As she undressed, Viv's companions certainly took this opportunity to ogling the most beautiful woman of her time in the flesh, a title that apparently wasn't usurped.</p>
<p>Once they had overcome the shock of this unexpected turn of events, the Pathfinders followed one of two pillared hallways to a wall made of djezet skymetal. A little more attention confirmed that this panel was in fact a door of the red metal, with panels that could be pushed like buttons. These panels showed Sorshen infusing objects and locations in the Lady's Light with succubi, likely to power magical effects, traps, so they serve as guardian, or simply to punish the demons. Pushing the central panel that represented Sorshen binding a particularly powerful-looking succubus to the Lady's Light scepter opened the djezet wall while a sentence in Thassilonian slowly glowed:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">inscription wrote:</div><blockquote>"Ayandamahla is bound to the Light for all ages."</blockquote><p>Beyond the door flowed an underground river. Boats were tied to stone poles on a beach of white sand nearby.
<p>The Pathfinders huddled in the boats and flowed downriver to reach a magnificent underground lake. At its end, a roaring cascade was crashing down into a lower cave and, at its center, a seven-sided basalt monument stood, holding a three-meter tall glass statue of Sorshen ready to leap into the water. The group decided to leave the statue alone as they fought the current to reach another white sand beach to the south, with a carved stone door in the cave wall. Passing through it, they entered a room that was a stark contrast to the natural cave. Its walls were covered with lascivious mural depicting wanton acts involving otherworldly beings of every description. The Pathfinders however noted subtle suggestions of deep spiritual rot and decadence throughout the mural. They were also able to spot the well-hidden name of the artists who had painted the erotic murals: Amivadeus Yasrin.</p>
<p>As they continued forward through the only corridor out of this room, my agents reached an iron gate behind which opened a hallway, its ceiling supported by columns carved in the guise of Sorshen. There, a pale-looking man wearing red (a dhampir, they later realized) smiled at the Pathfinders and queried: "Friend or foe?" However, upon seeing Viv, who had decided to play along with her new body Sorshen and pretended to be the Runelord of Lust, he muttered an apology, quickly bowed, and opened the iron gate. In the following discussion, Viv bluffed all she could to gather as much information from this Gnaeus, who himself did all he could to satisfy his mistress. Although he appeared confused multiple times by "Sorshen's" questions, he was able to tell the Pathfinders that he had been guarding this room for some times (days, maybe weeks), and that the Gray Maidens had passed through before that time.</p>
<p>When Viv asks Gnaeus to open the door forward and lead the way, he looked utterly confused at the order, as if it was completely inappropriate. Nasim, Laslo and Draco eventually went ahead ("a test for the new minions," confirmed "Sorshen") while Viv stayed behind with Gnaeus. Statues of Sorshen decorated the corridor ahead, but their heads quickly animated to attack the Pathfinder. As the fight went on and the nimble Thassilonian sentinels slashed at Laslo and Nasim, Viv pushed her luck a little too far and asked Gnaeus to help the Pathfinders. This is when the dhampir realized something was utterly wrong. Stumbling backward, muttering this wasn't possible, that Viv wasn't his true mistress, he became <i>invisible</i>. Seconds later, as her companions were busy surviving the sentinels, Viv heard him incant. Wanting to take no risk, she spammed a <i>fireball</i> and channeled the room to damage him, apparently to little effect than sniggering. In the meantime, the other three Pathfinders were fighting the razor claws of the sentinels. Nasim almost dropped from blood loss as he suffered the brunt of the constructs' assaults. He attempted to unleash his <i>shocking grasp</i> assault on the statues' heads but it had no effect on them. While he retreated and healed, Laslo and Draco finally destroyed two of the three constructs.</p>
<p>In the hall, Gnaeus reappeared, <i>displaced</i>, and spellstroke the fake Sorshen with an particularly powerful <i>shocking grasp</i>, almost outright killing Viv! She would have surely died had she not benefited from now being a sturdy pure-blooded Azlanti. Gurgling blood, she was still quickly sliding to Pharasma's realm. Seeing this, Draco abandoned the last Thassilonian statue and charged back into the room to save Viv, quickly followed by Nasim after he had healed himself with a potion and further protected himself with <i>mirror images</i>. Laslo held back and destroyed the last sentinel, pummelling his fist into the wall in the process. He then also rushed back to help his friends. Facing three determined and infuriated enemies, Gnaeus didn't survive much longer. Although he severely weakened Draco with a well-placed <i>vampiric touch</i> that also healed him, he wasted a <i>shocking grasp</i> on one of Nasim's figments. He was eventually brought down by the combined efforts of all three Pathfinders.</p>
<p>Upset at what he took as a betrayal, Nasim decapitated the dhampir and thoroughly looted him. Taking a break, the group took more than ten minutes to recover and heal themselves before proceeding further down the corridor. It was decorated by another set of magnificent murals depicting a throng of people assembled in a grand hall, Sorshen standing on a dais, arms outstretched as she addressed the hundreds of spectators gathered. Paying too much attention to the mural, Nasim, Laslo and Viv didn't realize they were standing on a trap that opened under their feet. Laslo was deft enough to avoid tumbling down the pit, but Viv and Nasim fell towards nasty spikes below. Nasim hurt himself from fall and the spikes while Viv slowly <i>feather fell</i> down but still impaled herself on a spike. Cursing at their lack of attention, the companions healed themselves yet again.</p>
<p>The corridor reached another hall, decorated by more columns sculpted in the shape of Sorshen ("I feel objectified" would later mention Viv) and a mural of her standing atop a towering pyramid. The walls and floor of this room were splashed with old (week-old?) blood, and guarded by an incubus. The group again pretended to be Sorshen and her minions and, this time, it worked as the incubus let them pass with deference. Through the only door, the Pathfinders entered a large chamber with white marble walls and ceiling. Two consecutive platforms led to a dais with a fire pit holding a gray flame. The eastern wall had a block of gray stone with an unlit torch in a sconce, while a western alcove hosted a door.</p>
<p>Figuring the torch had a specific purpose, Laslo grabbed it to light it in the fire pit. But, as he got closer to the top of the dais, four furious cacodaemons appeared, conjured into this room by magic of old. The ensuing fight was truly annoying as the daemon couldn't do much damage to the Pathfinders but they would in turn become <i>invisible</i>, were mainly impervious to Viv's fire assaults, and they even temporarily <i>confused</i> Laslo. They would eventually all be killed.</p>
<p>Lighting the torch with the cold gray flame and placing it back in the sconce had the block of gray stone slide outwards to reveal a set of stairs heading down. Forty feet below, they reached a platform and a dead-end where the wall opposite the stairs had a mural of Sorshen, arms outstretched as if to welcome one into an embrace, her lips twisted in a faintly cruel smile. A phrase was inscribed in gold across the top of the mural. In Thassilonian, it read:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">mural wrote:</div><blockquote>Prostrate thyself and demonstrate proper devotion, my sweet slave, if you wish to enter my domain.</blockquote><p>Nasim noted that the image's feet displayed more wear than the rest of it so, one after the other, the Pathfinders bent forward and kissed the mural's feet… to be teleported onto a platform overlooking another large lake, a cascade this time crashing down onto it. They figured this lake must be below the previous lake, even though the shard tugged Nasim "upwards" for its successor. Boats were attached to the platform but the companion decided to first rest from their past ordeal and replenish their magical power. The platform seemed isolated enough to provide them with a secured location to set up camp…
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 9 (the claws of a Thassilonian marble sentinel against Nasim).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 39 (Gaenus's empowered <i>shocking grasp</i> on Viv).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 20 (Draco with a raging, mutagened, lucerne hammer power attack on a cacodaemon).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 6 (Viv's <i>fireball</i> engulfing Gnaeus).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Death:</b></i> Viveltre, killed by the <i>phantasmal killer</i> protecting Sorshen's <i>clone</i>.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Unconscious:</b></i> Viveltre (-10), from Gaenus's spellstrike with an empowered <i>shocking grasp</i>.</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter X
Lamashan 15, 4712 AR (continued)
True to their duties as Pathfinders, my agents could not let the sarcophagus untouched. Opening it proved much easier than they had expected as the stone coffin was not protected by any trap. To everyone's utter surprise, it contained the sleeping body of Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust herself. Through his detection of magic, necromantic magic, Nassim however realized that this must be a clone of the...Olwen2013-04-02T14:54:55ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#132014-02-04T15:20:20Z2013-01-28T20:40:01Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VIII</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 8, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>Big transition session this time around. Lots of exposition and unfolding PC's personal hooks.</span></p>
<p>Debriefing my successful agents took a good part of the night. As did writing up their discoveries and its ramifications. When we were over it, at the heart of the night, I retired to my room to write these Chronicles whilst I know the Pathfinders went to celebrate their victory over adversity in the garden. I told my majordomo not to bother them and I know they spent what was left of the night enjoying each other’s company near a gigantic bonfire (Viv must have had something to do with this). I suspect I smelled the distinctive tang of flayleaf, and their racket must have been enhanced by alcohol or other drugs. I guess I shouldn’t be too strict about this, as long as they do not turn this into a way of life. I know it is necessary to relax as much as one can after difficult missions and proud victories.</p>
<p>The morning was far into the day when they woke up and I could share with them that I had received the <i>ioun stone</i> I had gotten fetched so we could put the curse of the <i>Shard of Greed</i> to rest. The pale blue rhomboid snug nicely into the <i>Shard</i>'s depression. Less appealing was a letter from the Vanderale family addressed to Viveltre, summoning her to the court of justice so she be judged: her parents, in retaliation for the "abandonment of her duties to the family so she could go gallivanting through sewers and caves" were asking for her to repay all the Vanderale had invested in her education. Furious, Viv wouldn’t let this pass. She was ready to defend herself at the court the next day. Laslo offered his scholarly knowledge and I allowed him to use the Lodge’s library for research before the trial.</p>
<p>Throughout this day, the first echoes of the Pathfinders’ discoveries started to reach us. The Council of Ushers was furious that simple "adventurers" would go about exploring Thassilonian ruins in search of artifacts. The fact that these weren’t mere adventurers but Pathfinders did little to staunch their outrage and they took this opportunity to remember everyone of the waves of shriezyx that the Irespan disgorged sixty years ago. But how are we to defend ourselves against the mounting threats against Varisia if we do not know of the power of old? Weren’t the derros proof enough that we are not well armed against threats? Although I wish I were in the field with my agents, it’s my duty as a venture captain to protect them through politics whilst they expand the knowledge of the Society. Here again I was able to quench the Council’s anger with the promise that the Pathfinder Society, after a short period to study the Crow in detail, would not interfere with the authorities regarding the Crow, and that the Irespan’s pillar would de facto be under their jurisdiction. Beyond the Council (mainly toothless anyway), it was reported to me that Mayor Grobaras, although satisfied with my agents putting an end to the kidnappings, was rather unhappy at the existence of a direct way from the Darklands to the Magnimarian harbor. It’s my understanding he ordered the best wizards of the city to block this passage with magical walls and wards, and dispatched a constant troupe of guards to ensure no horror from the world under the world would pass through to the Crow.</p>
<p>The Pathfinder spent most of their day at the city’s crafters and artisans, cashing in a good part of the treasures they had uncovered in the Crow. I am sure they also took this opportunity to bask in their new fame! After all, they <i>are</i> the discoverers of the Thassilonian hallways inside the Irespan’s pillar, and the heroes who solved the recent kidnappings. I heard Nasim was thanked by Sabbriya Kalmeran, the ruler of the Bazaar of Sails (there must be a Qadiran connection between these two), for enabling the discovery of her father’s remains. The man had disappeared more than twenty-eight years ago but his skeleton was found in a secret cache on a level the Tower Girls had claimed. Apparently, neither the Sczarni gang nor my Pathfinders were the first to find their way into the Crow.</p>
<p>For the first time in the week since I had sent them on their mission, my new recruits and I could share a comfortable dinner, and so we did. The Lady’s Light isn’t far from Magnimar and can be reached within a day by boat, or three on foot. I did not favor any of the two routes, but pointed the group to an eccentric man, Jasper Kandamerus, who I knew had explored the Lady’s Cape a couple of years ago. Last I had heard, the rather deranged man (a pleonasm for a follower of Groetus) spent most of his time on the seedy side of Beacon’s Point, rambling about the upcoming end of the world to whoever would listen to him. As he has now been doing so for years, it is hard to put any faith in his claims… I warned them that they would need to find a way to calm the man down before he could be of any use.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 9, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>Viv woke up feeling unwell, which was assumed to be due to her upcoming trial. At the court, she valiantly defended her independence from her family and how, if anything, her recent exploits were more in line with the great deeds of her great grand-father and uncle. But the court wasn’t entirely swayed by her arguments. If the judge did not ask her to pay the more than 2,000 gp demanded by her parents, Viv was nevertheless condemned to pay more than 200 gp and she was prohibited from using her name as long as her parents lived. Although things could have gone worse, she sure was fuming. I know not what she and Laslo conspired about in the library of the Manor, but I don’t think it bodes well…</p>
<p>Later that day, Laslo was accosted by a shadowy character who explained to the Ustalavian that his action (and how misunderstood he had been in his home country) had not gone unnoticed and that some people could soon be ready to use his talents. Faced only smiled when faced with Laslo’s cold behavior and his blunt comment how he didn’t like to be used as a tool. Before disappearing in the shadows of a dark alley, he added: "But the sharp scalpel of a god?…" My agents later ventured whether this man could have been a member of one of the cults venerating the Reaper of Reputations. Rumors have it that a few of these have taken hold in Magnimar like in other places, remote or close (Gwendor comes to mind here).</p>
<p>In the evening, the Pathfinders headed to Beacon’s Point to find Jasper. As they passed Washer’s Row, they were surprised to stumble on Dalveni Ornando, the Varisian they have saved from the derros’ clutches. He was apparently looking for my agents to tell them that their involvement in solving the kidnappings was greatly appreciated by the Sczarni gangs and, even though they had literally sold one of the gangs to the City Guard, the other gangs would not retaliate against the Pathfinders. Dalveni was warmly thanked by the group.</p>
<p>It is on a small square that they found Jasper Kandamerus. The priest of Groetus, god of destruction and the end of the world, stood on a barrel, screaming his ravings at the crowd:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">Jasper Kandamerus wrote:</div><blockquote>Woe! Woe unto thee, O Magnimar, for oblivion approaches and thy lamentations shall drown out the sounds of the sea! The Great Whore straddles a two-headed beast and rides this way, sowing the contaminated seeds of her blasphemies as she draws nearer. Weep! Weep, O Generation of the Damned, for none shall escape the pitiless scythe of oblivion. Heed my warning and turn to Groetus! Grasp this mortal hand I offer and we shall march into the void together!</blockquote><p>As soon as he saw my agents, his gaze gained a new intensity and, looking straight at them, he howled:
<div class="messageboard-quotee">Jasper Kandamerus wrote:</div><blockquote>Behold! The Blessed Ushers of the End Times! The Holy Escorts of Oblivion! Soldiers of the Void, champions of mighty Groetus himself!</blockquote><p>The Pathfinders got closer, with Viv ready to cast <i>calm emotions</i> on the priest of Groetus if he proved too unruly. Yet, before they could get much closer, a group of thugs showing the clear signs of drug addiction jumped on the disheveled man. As they mugged him, screaming for him to stop bothering the neighborhood, Jasper did little to retaliate against their assaults and soon fell unconscious. My agents reacted quickly and before long, the thugs were disbanding, running for their lives or bleeding to death in the gutter.
<p>The action over, Viv healed Jasper under Laslo’s supervision, as Nasim and Draco were dragging back an unconscious thug. In front of the priest’s agitation, Viv complemented her healing with a <i>calm emotions</i> spell. After this, Jasper made much more sense as he explained he had gone to the Lady’s Cape (the marshes around the Lady’s Light) in search of the "Doomsday Door," which he hadn’t found, and may in fact have been sent drowned by the Skyfall. He had little more details to add to this, but he did mention that the Pathfinders should stop by Maroux the witch, a half-orc witch who lives on the Lady’s Cape. Although grumpy and not welcoming to visitors, she would likely accept their visit if they told her Jasper had sent them. Besides, she would most certainly have information on the state of the Lady’s Light and how to best reach it.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 10-11, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>The next day, it was time to depart for the hunt of the Shard of Lust. Viv hadn’t gotten any better, though, and Lalso’s examination of the symptoms led him to believe that the aasimar was afflicted with devil’s chills, a likely consequence of their late encounter with Lord Baz. They decided to depart anyway, betting on the Asmodean’s magic for healing the next day. The trip by foot took three full days and was eventless, although difficult through the swamps. The only action during these three days happened when they fell for a manticor’s ambush. The creature was able to transform Viv into a porcupine, rendering her unconscious, before an <i>enlarged</i> Draco could subdue the beast. Cowering under the barbarian’s stone and hammer hits the manticore surrendered and, in exchange for his life, guided the Pathfinder to the Lady’s Cape.</p>
<p><i>Lamashan 12, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>At the neck of the Lady’s Cape peninsula, the Pathfinder found the bridge to Maroux’s Isle, protected by grim trinkets made of bone and covered in blood. At first, the witch showed no sign of warming to the visitor but, before long, they were all sitting in her hut as she shared her dinner with them. She later explained the current situation at the Lady’s Cape, with the recent visit of a group of woman mercenaries, the Gray Maiden, and how that had disrupted the frail peace between the local tribes of boggards and trogs:</p>
<div class="messageboard-quotee">Maroux wrote:</div><blockquote><p>The xulgaths (who you city folk know better as troglodytes) and boggards have bickered over control of the Lady’s Cape for years. They’re pretty evenly matched if you ask me. I’ve bloodied their noses when they’ve stuck them in my business, so for the most part they’ve let me be—that’s what the skulls and artwork on my bridge are for.</p>
<p>But then, a few months back, we had some new visitors. A troop of women knights or something, clad in plate and wearing red-plumed helms. Their leader was a woman named Oriana—pretty enough, at least till she took her helmet off and showed off her scars. She sat down to dinner with me just like you did, only she gave me a fine magic wand as a bribe, so I didn’t feel the need to send her off to gather seaweed. Anyway. She told me she and her sisters were from Korvosa, soldiers of the rightful queen who’d been tumbled off the throne a few years back. They’d had to flee the city once their queen wasn’t in charge, and fell into mercenary work until Oriana got the idea to plunder the Lady’s Light for the treasure they think’s hidden inside of it. Made me chuckle a bit, since I’ve heard there’s secret rooms in the Lady filled with treasure too. I’ve tried to find a way into the place before—there’s caves under the area that are supposed to connect to the chambers below the Light, but those caves belong to the trogs and frogs and bigger critters. I didn’t get far, and since then I’ve steered clear of the Light—the b%&%! gives me the willies, anyway. Some powerful magic going on in there.</p>
<p>Anyway, Oriana was intent on getting under the Lady’s skirts, and she asked me if I knew a way in. I told her about the caves and warned her of the trogs ’n frogs, but that didn’t seem to bother her. Unlike me, she had herself a whole group of ironclad soldiers to back her up, after all. So off she goes, and damned if she and her mercenaries don’t make friendly with the frogs! Got them some better weapons, gave them some fighting tips, and then helped them launch an attack on the trogs. In return, the frogs gave her permission to use their tunnels.</p>
<p>But here’s the kicker. Oriana found a way inside the Lady—or at least she says so. She came my way ten days ago with a story that she’d found none other than the Runelord of Lust herself in there, and that the runelord had recruited Oriana to help her reclaim her lands and rebuild her kingdom! Oriana asked me to join their crusade! I politely refused and wished her well and she went on her way. Gods above an’ below, I couldn’t get her out of my hut quick enough!</p>
<p>The way I see it, there’s three possibilities. First, Oriana is lying, for whatever reason. The second, Oriana, sad child, is off her nut. And the third, someone or something in there is masquerading as Sorshen the Grand Whore of Thassilon and has tricked Oriana into being her minion. Well, I suppose there’s a fourth possibility—that Sorshen really is alive and well in the Lady’s Light, but if that’s really the case, then we won’t make the slightest difference and the Varisia we know will soon be destroyed!</blockquote><p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</b></i> 10 (a manticore hurling a spike at Viv).</span>
</p>
<span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</b></i> none.</span>
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</b></i> 26 (an enlarged Draco hitting a manticore with his lucerne hammer).</span>
<br />
<span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</b></i> none.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Unconscious:</b> Viveltre (-4), from a barrage of manticore spikes.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b> 16,539 XP total (level 5)</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VIII
Lamashan 8, 4712 AR
Big transition session this time around. Lots of exposition and unfolding PC's personal hooks.
Debriefing my successful agents took a good part of the night. As did writing up their discoveries and its ramifications. When we were over it, at the heart of the night, I retired to my room to write these Chronicles whilst I know the Pathfinders went to celebrate their victory over adversity in the garden. I told my...Olwen2013-01-28T20:40:01ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#122013-01-29T18:30:26Z2013-01-26T15:10:28Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VII</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 7, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>The level was much quieter now that the devils' feud was over, giving the Pathfinders more time for exploration. Back in the storeroom, the group rewound the clockwork servant with the noqual key found earlier in the fount. Naught happened except building frustration at the construct did not react to any command until Viv, exasperated, left the room and the clockwork dutifully followed her. My agents decided to fully explore the rest of the level before heading back down to the "voice." They found a rift syphon which connected directly to Hell, probably since the Thassilonian days. They ventured this could be the reason for the presence of all those minor devils on this level, including the hell hound they fought in the labyrinthine siphon. A set of another three rooms followed, with one hosting a sign warning to "not leave the cages open." Obviously, they were, as the group fought three (rather weak) monstrosities of dangling flesh, lost in these destroyed rooms for millennia.</p>
<p>One level down, the "voice" revealed itself as Lockerbie Brast, the former captain of the <i>Liza Jane</i>, and now an undead monstrosity, a lacedon. The former captain's current condition didn't deter my explorers, though, and they reached an agreement with Brast: they agreed to bring the broach back to his wife, and report he had died in his boat's sinking. In exchange, he would go as far as to accompany them forward into the sewers and show them the lair of the "blue dwarves" who, he thought, the Pathfinders had come down here to hunt. Even though this wasn't the case, my agents thought that if they could kill two birds with one stone and earn the mayor's reward for dealing with the abductions, they should as well do so. The presence of crazy derros would sure go far to explain the numerous disappearances plaguing Magnimar of late!</p>
<p>The stealthy group members (Laslo and Nasim), accompanied by Brast, sneaked forward. From a balcony overlooking a huge room whose walls were covered by luminescent blue cytillesh (a blue hallucinogenic mushroom harvest by derros), they spotted a group of three derros arguing between them before retiring to their separate rooms. The Pathfinders let some time pass before they followed Laslo's lead downwards into the derros' lair, as silent as the night's breeze.</p>
<p>Sneaking forward and, for the moment, not minding the derros, nor the gigantic spiral staircase delving deeper into the heart of the earth, Viv felt mentally "tugged" towards a wall behind which the Pathfinders, having now regrouped, found a secret door. Behind it, the webbed shape of a mummified shriezyx scared them for an instant and reminded the Vanderale of her grand-father and uncle, these heroes of Magnimar who had fought waves and waves of these abominations erupting from the depths of the Irespan. Yet this particular creature was long dead. Stairs down led the Pathfinders to the goal of their exploration: the <i>Sihedron Shrine</i>, hosting the <i>Shard of Greed</i>. The very <i>Sihedron Shrine</i> which can be used to reforge the mighty <i>Sihedron</i> once all the <i>Shards</i> are recovered and brought back here! But the Pathfinders were not alone here: two gigantic shriezyx, very much alive, this time, were ready to defend the Thassilonian artifact.</p>
<p>A brutal fight ensued during which Laslo, as furious as the beasts, fell under their assaults. As Draco and the clockwork servant took on the blunt of the assault to protect the fallen tiefling, Nasim unleashed his magic scimitar attack on one of the two creatures, frying it with his <i>shocking grasp</i> entwined scimitar slashes, killing it outright. Viv Vanderale, true to her namesake, jumped on the shrine and, from there, unleashed fiery assault upon fiery assault on the remaining shriezyx. Half-paralyzed by its fear of fire, the beast was destroyed by two final <i>burning hand</i> spells bursting out of the Asmodean's hands. Glad to have overcome the Thassilonian monsters, the Pathfinder dutifully retrieved the <i>Shard of Greed</i> or, more accurately, Nasim snatched it for himself. Despite the lack of the proper ioun stone to tune to the <i>Shard</i>, the Qadiran didn't feel much of a curse wash over him.</p>
<p>Relieved they had finally found the artifact they had been hunting for days of exploration in the Crow, the Pathfinders pondered whether they should just leave the Crow's dungeon or decidedly answer the City Guard's call and sort out the matter of the derros kidnapping Magnimarian. They eventually decided for the latter, thinking that otherwise they wouldn't be able to cash in the promised reward with mere information on the derros' location. Nasim sure was a strong advocate of doing all that was possible to ensure they would be paid more.</p>
<p>Upstairs, in the huge cytillesh-lit hall, the Pathfinders first headed to the southern set of rooms to hunt the lonely derro who had retired there. Behind a simple stone door, a dark corridor led to two small chambers after a bent. All their attention focussed on finding the skinny blue dwarf, neither Laslo nor Draco noticed the darkmantle that fell from the ceiling. As Laslo did his best to prevent the aberration from strangling the barbarian, he was attacked from the rear by a derro wielding an injection spear full of a unbelievably cold liquid. Despite the surprise ambush, the group was able to swiftly deal with both the derro and his darkmantle pet.</p>
<p>Exploring this derro's chambers, they realize one of them hosted a brown mold, exuding enough cold to keep a freaky abattoir running without body parts rotting, testament to the derro's folly. The other room harbored an alchemical lab in which Laslo was happy to find a few decoctions and grim apparatuses.</p>
<p>Back in the great hall, and afraid they would be falling into other ambushes in small corridors, my Pathfinders decided to face the blue dwarves all at once. Screaming to the top of her lungs, Viv called for them to face justice. At first, nothing happened. But, soon, one derro, accompany by a two-legged abomination stitched together from the remnants of many different bodies, entered the hall to silence this threat to the derros' operation. Nasim, Laslo, and Brast took them both on in a swift violent fight. Although the carrion golem looked threatening, it wasn't very efficient against the dextrous tielfings. Before this fight was over, though, the third derro entered from the western rooms, ready for a fight. To everyone's surprise, she was accompanied with an obviously charmed Fenster the Blight. Charmed, and ready to defend his new master. Whilst Draco battled the female derro (who tried to <i>charm</i> Viv, to no avail), Viv focussed on paralysing Fenster with a well-placed <i>hold person</i>. To her relief, she succeeded and the poor Fenster was incapacitated. At least, he wouldn't have to be fought and likely killed!</p>
<p>The Pathfinders had the fight well under control when, unexpectedly, another derro emerged from a small flight of stairs. That's when things took a grim turn as this aklys-wielding derro was clearly much more powerful than the others. A Magister, she turned <i>invisible</i> to prepare herself for the battle as her minions did their best to occupy my agents. Even her two homonculi joined the fray. When she was finally ready, she reappeared, <i>levitating</i> near the ceiling of the main room, and started pummeling the Pathfinders with well-aimed bombs.</p>
<p>The fight wore on for quite some time as the <i>levitating</i> Magister would often turn <i>invisible</i> again after throwing a deadly bomb, remaining too high to be an easy target for the group's melee weapons. Draco resorted to crude battling technique and went as far as to (successfully) hurl one of the dead derros on the Magister, before <i>enlarging</i> himself so he could reach her with his lucerne hammer. Yet that took quite some time that almost proved to be Viv's demise: targeted by a perfectly tossed bomb, the aasimar got splashed with acid. She would have died there and then in a puddle of her melting flesh if not for her natural acid resistant. She fell inconscious, on the brink of death. Brast took that turn of the tide to grab the body of one of the dead derros and retreat from the battlefield. As Nasim healed Viv back to consciousness, Laslo resorted to his (rather inefficient) crossbow, whilst Draco wielded his hammer in wide gestures. After many failures at hitting the deadly Magister, he finally crashed his hammer on her frail body in one particularly powerful blow <span class=messageboard-ooc>[39 points of damage in a single critical hit!]</span>. Barely alive, the Magister was able to turn <i>invisible</i> again. She was about to dash for the large spiral staircase in the middle of the room when a very lucky arrow shot from Nasim's bow skewered her despite her <i>invisibility</i>. That was the end of the derros and their kidnappings!</p>
<p>With no more threats in sight, my Pathfinders tied up Fenster the Blight so he wouldn't be a danger to anyone as the enchantment wore off. They then explored the derros' lair, retrieving quite a few strange items used by the blue dwarfs for their experiments. The large spiral staircase, to everyone's amazement, descended deep into the earth for more than 400 feet before opening in the ceiling of a gigantic cavern filled with all manner of deadly fungi and creeping oozes. It is a new route to the Darklands! Straight from Magnimar! I still cannot help but shudder whenever I think of the threat that poses to us, especially now that we know hordes of Drows dwell underground…</p>
<p>In a set of cells, the Pathfinders freed a handful of kidnapped Magnimarian, including Dalveni Ornando, a Varisian from whom they would soon hear more about. Bringing them back to civilization earned them the 1,000-gp reward promised by Mayor Grobboras. Giving up the location of the Tower Girls' lair to the City Guard further earned them another 4,000 gp. I'm happy I was able to pull enough strings to make this happen: my agents deserved it! They also took the opportunity of being back in town to find Brast's wife. Incredibly relieved to finally know what had happened to her husband, she offered my agents her husband's old magical armor as she thought they would likely make better use of it than her.</p>
<p>So there we were, with two <i>Shards</i> in our hands. Much closer to defending Varisia than I would ever have imagined! Now the next <i>Shard</i> needed to be secured… Nasim, focussing on the <i>Shard of Greed</i>, unveiled it was hidden somewhere close, in, or under the Lady's Light, one of the most prominent Thassilonian artifacts close to Magnimar: a "light house" at the tip southern tip of the Mushfens, beacon of light on the coast and shaped in the beautiful features of Sorshen, the mightly runelord of Lust herself!</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 21 (Magister Khrysm hurling an acid bomb at Viv, with sneak attack and a critical hit).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 11 (a hell hound breathing fire on Draco)
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 39 (an <i>enlarged</i> Draco on Magister Khrysm, with a critical hit).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 14 (Nasim on a Shriezyx with <i>shocking grasp</i>).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Unconscious:</b>
<br />
- Laslo (-5), attacked by a shriezyx.
<br />
- Viveltre (-5), hit by Master Khrysm acid bomb's critical hit.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b> 14,272 XP total (level 4)</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Treasure:</b>
<br />
- 35 gp and 3 small garnets (50 gp each)
<br />
- a set of surgical tools, filthy but of good quality (200 gp)
<br />
- 3 Small light repeating crossbows
<br />
- an injection spear
<br />
- 8 vials of frostspore
<br />
- an <i>extraction scarificator</i>
<br />
- a <i>wand of charm person</i> (17 charges)
<br />
- 3 doses of id moss
<br />
- 2 doses of striped toadstool
<br />
- 10 doses of flayleaf
<br />
- 8 doses of pesh
<br />
- an <i>elixir of love</i>
<br />
- an <i>elixir of truth</i>
<br />
- 2 <i>potions of cure moderate wounds</i>
<br />
- 4 acid flasks
<br />
- a Small mwk leather armor
<br />
- a Small mwk aklys
<br />
- a <i>headband of vast intelligence +2</i> (Craft [alchemy])
<br />
- a mwk alchemist's lab
<br />
- 3 doses of cytillesh extract
<br />
- 232 gp, 1423 sp, 2100 cp
<br />
- a <i>lens of detection</i>
<br />
- a <i>golembane scarab</i>
<br />
- a <i>wand of spiritual weapon</i> (11 charges)
<br />
- Brast's <i>+1 studded leather armor</i>
<br />
- bounty for the Tower Girls minus their share of the treasure (3,600 gp)
<br />
- Lord Mayor Groboras's reward for solving the abductions (1,000 gp)
<br />
- the <i>Shard of Greed</i>
<br />
- a <i>pale blue rhomboid ioun stone</i>
<br />
- a clockwork servant (3,750 gp)</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VII
Lamashan 7, 4712 AR (continued)
The level was much quieter now that the devils' feud was over, giving the Pathfinders more time for exploration. Back in the storeroom, the group rewound the clockwork servant with the noqual key found earlier in the fount. Naught happened except building frustration at the construct did not react to any command until Viv, exasperated, left the room and the clockwork dutifully followed her. My agents...Olwen2013-01-26T15:10:28ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#112013-01-29T18:30:23Z2013-01-03T16:57:12Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VI</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 7, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>Collecting all of the knowledge and information my agents had uncovered for the Pathfinder Chronicles took most of the night. But it had been a while since Canayven and I had seen such promises of wonders. I know that my dear husband, despite his expedition’s carts being loaded at that very moment, even considered postponing his foray into the runewell of Sandpoint so he could learn more about the Thassilonian wonders of the Crow. He knew his duties to the Pathfinder Society, though, and still left the next day, but not before personally rewarding our explorers for some of their extraordinary discoveries.</p>
<p>Rested, we discussed more about the situation before the group headed back to the Crow. The Tower Girls were a clear issue, especially as they were taxing all discoveries within the Irespan’s pillar. My cunning agents—and certainly to no small help from the Keleshite and the follower of the crafty Asmodeus—had already uncovered a loophole in the contract they had signed with the Sczarni: it mentioned treasures <i>in</i> the Crow, and not <i>under</i> it, so they had no intention of being taxed for all their discoveries below the mite’s lair. But I didn’t think the Tower Girls would take kindly to that reading of the contract and convinced my recruits it would be best for all if the Sczarni gang could be removed from the picture by the City Guard. I think I can pull enough strings in this city to convince people in power that a group who is ready to blatantly assassinate a Magnimarian (poor Natalya) and dwells in the hallways of a Thassilonian building known to spew shriezyx should be taken care of. Maybe I will even be able to convince the authorities to rewards my agents for their discovery of where the Tower Girls set up shop.</p>
<p>Bypassing the Tower Girls on the way back into the Crow proved no problem. The Girls and, in particular their leader, Ayala, seemed keen on the Pathfinders doing the dirty work for them. Deep under their den, my agents swam through the pool of murky water that hosted the sinspawns which had been so difficult to defeat but a day ago. Beyond the pool, a sloping corridor led them even further down into the complex. When they reached the entrance of an ancient sewer, they were quite convinced that they were now below the ocean’s floor. An everburning torch ensconced in the wall provided more illumination than Viv’s usual <i>light</i> spell on Draco’s cloth. It revealed three exits to a cistern filled with dark water which seeped through troughs along the three corridors. Timbers bridged the troughs, but when Nasim tried to walk over one of them, it collapsed entirely in the water below. It’s lucky the Qadiran is rather dextrous and didn’t follow the rotten piece of wood! That was testament to these sewers’ old age.</p>
<p>A raspy voice singing (in what Viv realized was Necril) was the only disturbance to the room, emanating from the eastern corridor. Following the song, the Pathfinders soon reached a cistern completely filled with water, with but a stone bridge crossing it to its only exit to the south. What stopped my agents in their tracks was the magnificent mural of the Magnimarian bay painted one of the walls. That mural clearly wasn’t millennia-old and its painter couldn’t have been from the Thassilonian age. Yet, no one was to be seen here, not even the singer who had stopped singing before anyone entered the room… But the raspy voice soon echoed from under the bridge, asking my agents whether they would be willing to help a poor soul. Although the voice’s owner would not reveal itself, it asked the group whether they could retrieve a broach from its boat’s wreckage, laying deep on the ocean floor next to the Crow. In exchange it promised to reveal the dangers that awaited in the corridors ahead. Creepy as it was, the voice seemed honest enough albeit it sure was hiding something. But it also pointed the Pathfinders to a room in the devils’ level of the dungeon where a staircase led to the ocean’s floor so it seemed easy enough to satisfy it, and thee stairs could well be another discrete way out of the Crow.</p>
<p>Back up they went, then, to find and search this wreckage, and they stumbled on another group of nupperibos which seemed to be protecting a door. Behind it was the most unexpected sight: a crying lemure. Much bigger than your normal lemure and incredibly stinky, this one was no less pathetic as it wailed in broken Common that the bullies had hurt it. The devil, which called itself Stink, promised its riches to the Pathfinders if they were to ever kill these bullies (likely some of the other devils dwelling on this level). “What a cute little thing” added Viv, to which her companions answered with dubious expression, and I must admit that I most certainly would have reacted in the same way had I been there!</p>
<p>Further exploration following the indications of the voice led the group to two extraordinary rooms: one with a set of stairs filled with water to the brim, the water blocked by a magical blue veil that was preventing it from flooding the complex (obviously the stairs earlier mentioned by the voice); and, higher up, what was revealed to be an observing dome covered with curtains of algae, overlooking the ocean floor and the sunken carcass of a ship: the <i>Liza Jane</i>. Both Laslo and Draco pushed through the magical veil, their skins tingling with a strange sensation. In the meantime Viv and Nasim observed from the dome, through the algae curtains slowly swept back and forth by the currents over the <i>walls of force</i> that prevented the waters to come crashing in.</p>
<p>The trip to the <i>Liza Jane</i>, a former trawler like many others in the Magnimarian bay, proved cumbersome for Laslo whose inability to swim forced him to walk on the sea floor. The much more athletic Draco suffered no such problems and that was for the best for the wreckage sheltered two nasty reefclaws which certainly didn’t take lightly to being bothered in their den by a group of humanoids! The skirmish was slow and clumsy: everyone held their breath as best they could, hoping for the reefclaws to be dinner food before they would run out of air. Nasim and Viv soon joined their companions under water, sticking to the sea floor and doing their best to reach the melee before it was too late. Laslo was the worse for wear and the awkwardness of underwater combat almost cost him his life. But, just before he was slashed to death by one of the reefclaws, Draco grabbed and pinned the troublesome crustacean. The second beast was taken care of through the combined efforts of all four companions before they rushed back in, gasping for air. There is certainly something to be said about the dangers of underwater combats!</p>
<p>Multiple forays into the wreckage allowed the group to thoroughly search it and find a few treasures: the broach they were send to find (a gold-and-pearl work of beauty inscribed with the letters “L.B.”) as well as more mundane items (a mithral rapier of good quality and a magical <i>+1 buckler</i>). The broach secured, the Pathfinder decided to clean this level before bringing its prize to the voice. A quick succession of rooms led the Pathfinders to a portcullis they could operate with a crane they had previously found. The grinding noise of the metallic apparatus was sure to make everyone on this level aware of the group’s arrival.</p>
<p>Although they didn’t realize it at first, they were now in Lord Baz’s lair… First they found two lemures stuck in a small room. Although mindless and moving to attack the Pathfinders, these seemed to be the two the Suzerain of Little Erebus had sent the group to fetch. My agents closed the door before the lemures could move and reach them, leaving this for later. The other important room in this series turned out to be Loard Baz’s home. The loathsome accuser devil, with the body of a pudgy child and the fangs, eyes, and wings of a disgusting fly, was quick enough to stall the Pathfinders. Telepathically communicating in Celestial with Viv—“the obvious leader of this group since what could a priest of Asmodeus be other than a ruler amongst devil-faced and humans?”— Baz cowardly offered to hire them to kill the Suzerain of Little Erebus and promised them more riches in than the Suzerain could assemble. But there is no point in trying to get a Qadiran, as well as a follower of Asmodeus to break a deal, so the little devil’s attempts at buying his survival proved worthless.</p>
<p>As Viv raised her unholy symbol of Asmodeus to call forth the fiery tentacle of Hell and destroy the two nupperibos blocking the entrance to Lord Baz’s room, the first ones to react were the two invisible imps in the room. Their magic wormed its way through both Nasim’s and Draco’s mind, <i>suggesting</i> they leave and never come back. Despite the obvious danger in such a plan, neither could shake of the enchantment and, thinking it was a good idea, they left this series of room at a walking pace. In a brilliant move, though, Viv had the time to add to the <i>suggestion</i> that they should go in that room they had gone through the day before and that harbored this circle of runes on the floor. If only they could enter the <i>circle of protection against law</i> and dispel the <i>suggestion</i> quickly enough, maybe Laslo and Viv wouldn’t have to battle the accuser devil and the imps alone for long!</p>
<p>A war of attrition begun… Laslo was handling the flying (and sometimes <i>invisible</i>!) imps as best he could, slashing wildly, sometimes hitting, often missing, whilst the imp would hurt him with their poisonous stings. In the meantime, Viv was channeling wave after wave of hellish tentacles, hurting most devils present. Not only was this very efficient against Lord Baz which, invisible, was attempting to <i>summon</i> magical swarms, but it was also a matter of pride to her, so she could show the power of Asmodeus over devils. All devils. After two attempts at summoning, both disrupted by Viv’s channeling, Lord Baz flew into a rage. He reverted to its basic instincts and charged the cleric of Asmodeus. Laslo, having just dealt with the imps, came to protect her as best he could and its the joint assaults of Laslo’s claws and Viveltre’s divine magic that finally overcame Lord Baz’s frenzy, despite a nasty bite on Viv. A few seconds later, Draco and Nasim finally reappeared after having shaken off the effects of the <i>suggestions</i> with the <i>circle of protection against law</i>, much to Nasim’s disgust.</p>
<p>Lord Baz was no more; the Suzerain of Little Erebus and “Stink” would be happy and the group would be paid for this. As Viv put it: “Congratulations, we’ve now all accepted money to kill someone. That makes us assassins.”</p>
<p>On their way back to report to the Suzerain, the Pathfinders found another magical fount which they used to heal some of their wounds, and in which they found a noqual key. It seemed the right size to be inserted into the clockwork servant they had found earlier and rewind it. The Suzerain, now visible as an imp, was overjoyed by the outcome of my agents’ battle with Lord Baz. True to his deal, he tossed the group a bag with mundane riches, and went as far as to give them his current rooms as he moved to Lord Baz’s former rooms.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</b></i> 6 + 5 non-lethal (a reeflclaw attacking Laslo).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</b></i> none.
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</b></i> 13 (Laslo on a nupperibo).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</b></i> 10 (Viv channeling on Lord Baz).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b> 9,572 XP total (level 4)</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Treasure:</b>
<br />
- a <i>scroll of animate dead</i>
<br />
- 117 sp
<br />
- 2 tapestries (500 gp)
<br />
- a <i>wand of lesser restoration</i> (17 charges)
<br />
- a thin noqual key (500 gp)
<br />
- a Thassilonian zither (500 gp)
<br />
- silver coffer (100 gp) with 22 gp, 175 sp, 312 cp
<br />
- a mithral mwk rapier
<br />
- a <i>+1 buckler</i>
<br />
- Lord Heidmarch’s reward (1,000 gp)</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter VI
Lamashan 7, 4712 AR
Collecting all of the knowledge and information my agents had uncovered for the Pathfinder Chronicles took most of the night. But it had been a while since Canayven and I had seen such promises of wonders. I know that my dear husband, despite his expedition’s carts being loaded at that very moment, even considered postponing his foray into the runewell of Sandpoint so he could learn more about the Thassilonian...Olwen2013-01-03T16:57:12ZRe: Forums: Kingmaker: Wrapped Up Yesterday - Final Thoughts on this AP - SPOILERIFIC!Olwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pbli#222013-01-04T12:19:51Z2013-01-03T14:39:00Z<p>Congratulations Magical_Beast! Well done and what a way to end 2012!</p>
<p>Your overall assessment of the AP is pretty similar to the <a href="http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2owky?A-finished-Kingmaker-campaign" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">one</a> I posted when my group and I wrap up the campaign a few months ago.</p>
<p>As you say:
<br />
<div class="messageboard-quotee">Quote:</div><blockquote> Its a sandbox for you as well as the PCs, don't be afraid to play in it.</blockquote><p>:)Congratulations Magical_Beast! Well done and what a way to end 2012!
Your overall assessment of the AP is pretty similar to the one I posted when my group and I wrap up the campaign a few months ago.
As you say:
Quote:Its a sandbox for you as well as the PCs, don't be afraid to play in it.
:)Olwen2013-01-03T14:39:00ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#102013-01-29T18:30:23Z2012-12-11T22:23:06Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter V</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 6, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>The skeletons' remnants scattered on the ground, the group carried on with their exploration of the millennia-old Thassilonian kitchen, hoping to track down the centipede swarm that had been such a danger on the previous day. And find it they did, in a small storeroom, bursting from it as soon as they opened the inconspicuous door. This time, the swarm was little threat to the well-prepared Pathfinders.</p>
<p>Although my agents were disappointed at the lack of treasures in the levels they had already explored, they still pushed forward, deeper into the bowels of the earth. By then it was unclear whether they were only below the Magnimar bay's sea level, or whether they had now delved even deeper under the sea floor. The flight of stairs and the corridors led the group to an octogonal room hosting a striking red statue of Alaznist, the runelord of wrath… and a maggot-like abomination that was thriving in its own pus, spraying maggots around. The abyssal larva didn't pause to puke a putrid flow of vermin on the poor Draco who, on the verge of nausea staggered into the room to face the threat. Nasim quickly followed, lacing magic with scimitar assaults in a deadly twirling dance. Electricity cracked in the room. Laslo's and Draco's additional, combined assaults added to Viv's ranged support, were the plight of the abomination which disolved into more disgusting humors.</p>
<p>The inspection of the statue confirmed its quality, as well as that of its ranseur which quickly found its way to Draco's backpack. Out of three doors, the eastern one led the Pathfinders to a room hosting a couple of nupperibos, these pathetic, lowly devils, toys to other devils (even to lemures!), lacking freewill, and that were no match for Draco's and Laslo's weapons. Nasim, hampered by his heavy equipment, didn't even get the time to reach the devils whilst they lived. What were these devils doing there?! Deciding not to head down a set of stairs—-the only exit out of the room—-the group retreated back to the statue's room and voted for the westward door.</p>
<p>There, they reached a puzzling <i>circle of protection against law</i> in which burned a single flame, mid-air and with no source of fuel. Viv's discomfort at being so close to the magic circle was only balanced by her fascination for the beautiful flame. Not interested in the poetic ramifications of its presence, Laslo was the first one to cross the magic circle's boundary. Reacting to this intrusion, two smaller flames decoupled from the main one and attacked him. These were two fire elementals! Slashing his claws at the outsiders, Laslo fought bravely, impervious to the fire whilst his clothes burned. He was soon joined by Draco, never the last one to join a fight, and Nasim who did his best to help from outside the circle. Viv, very uncomfortable at the idea of attacking fire, expectantly stayed in the back. The fight was soon over, despite a few burns. The study of the flame revealed it was coming from a pinhole between the Material Plane and the Plane of Fire, its purpose lost to the contemporary explorers, but its sheer presence a testimony to the Thassilonian wizards power! But why was there a <i>magic circle against law</i> carved in the ground? To block the devils? To block some other threat?… At least it was, in itself, no threat; just a mere discomfort as Nasim and Viv crossed it.</p>
<p>The first door in the following corridor led to a room whose only exit was covered by a rusted mesh of steel chains and whose walls were covered by charcoal scribblings written in Infernal, repeatedly claiming the place as the "domain of the Suzerain of Little Erebus." But there was no time to ponder their meaning as the two inhabitants of the room, two lemures, lumbered forwards, disembodied moans echoing from their deformed mouths. Despite a few accurate claw gashes, the pathetic devils were, once again, no match to the Pathfinders. Things took an unexpected turn as soon as the lemures collapsed: a high pitched voice excitedly announced that my agents had passed the "first test" and that the Suzerain of Little Erebus would offer them riches and part of his domain if they were to rescue two of his lemures, captured by his hated enemy, Lord Baz, and if they were to kill him/it in his/its lair to the east. The only proof of riches the group could convince the voice to exhibit was the sound of coins. Deciding not to argue with the voice (that of an imp later ventured Viv?), the Pathfinders accepted the deal and continued with their exploration.</p>
<p>In the remnants of an alchemical lab, likely used in the past by the Thassilonians for their flesh-warping magic, two more lemures were quickly fell by the group. These were knocked out, however, hoping they could be the ones the Suzerain was looking for (unlikely) and, if not, that they could be used for the deal. None of the alchemical equipment proved worthwhile, to the disappointment of the group's alchemists. The storeroom explored next hosted a clockwork servant, a robotic construct, which obviously needed to be wound up to be of any use. But there was no sign of any key which could be used for this task.</p>
<p>The group's endeavors led them to a gigantic room, quite obviously set up as a comprehensive laboratory in times past. Sadly, no useful equipment could be salvaged after so many eons. The only thing of interest was the striking, expansive mural showing armies of deformed monsters and demons gathering on the shores of what was obviously the Hollow Mountain, lair of the runelord Alaznist. More worrying, below the mountain itself carved into the features of the runelord, in a gigantic complex of caves and caverns wriggled an immense monstrosity of tentacles, its angry red eye glaring, even through the millennia between the times of the Thassilonian empire when the mural was carved and the present Varisa.</p>
<p>My Pathfinders dutifully sketched a copy of the mural and, in the meantime, the two alchemists (Laslo and Draco) reprepared themselves and their mutagens before the group delved deeper into the dungeon. There, the tiled floors and walls became rougher caverns and natural caves. Puddles covered the floor and Laslo collapsed into one of them after trying to jump over it. But they weren't deep or dangerous, simply full of stagnating water. The massive skeleton of a bullete proved similarly safe and despite its ominous present it didn't move. My agents were so focused on these potential threat that they did not notice the gray ooze lairing in the cave. It proved to be a significant danger as it wrapped itself around Laslo and started to digest him. Its embrace was too tough for Laslo to escape and his companions, scared to damage their weapons against the creature coated in enzymes, weren't much help. Even Viv's fiery assaults were inefficient. In the end, it's only Nasim's sword, temporarily infused with his magus magic, which slew the ooze as Laslo was slipping into unconsciousness from the acid and the pain.</p>
<p>The vivisectionist healed, the group departed from this otherwise empty room and, through their choices of corridors, they reached a room whose pool of murky stagnant water was the only way forward, to another corridor on the other side of the obstacle. After a short discussion focussing on the group inability to swim properly, Viv decide to remove her armor—-leaving her in the thinest white clothes—-and swim through. But little had she started her swim that three monstrous sinspawn adapted to underwater life converged on her from the corners of the room! The difficult situation turned to desperate with Laslo jumping in the water to provide a (very efficient!) diversion and almost dying under the assaults of one of the sinspawn. Eventually, both Viv and the Ustalavian were able to retreat back to their companions, were they slowly dealt with one of the aberrations whilst a raging Draco jumped into the water and dealt with the other two with powerful blows. Nasim's final attacks dealt with the last beast.</p>
<p>Hurt, low on resources, tired, the group decided to retreat back to the magic fount, and rested there before backtracking there way to the Tower Girls' den and then to Magnimar. Before doing so, the Pathfinders made sure to hide most of the treasures they had found under the Crow. As they faced the Sczarni gang again, they made sure to list all the dangers they had so far dealt with, accompanied with Viv's collection of the monstrosities' bits, this had quite an effect on the Tower Girls! But Ayala wasn't too happy that my agents had supposedly recovered so little treasure. They let them pass unharmed, though, and it is with reliefs that I welcomed them back to the Heidmarch Manor after this two-and-a-half day exploration of the Crow.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><i><b>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 16 (a gray ooze constricting Laslo).
<br />
<i><b>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> none.
<br />
<i><b>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 21 (Draco on an aquatic sinspawn).
<br />
<i><b>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 15 (Nasim with a shocking grasp on the abyssal larva).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><i><b>Unconscious:</i></b> Laslo (-5), constricted by a gray ooze.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b> 7,972 XP total (level 3)</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Treasure</b></span>
<br />
<ul><li><i>+1 ranseur</i>
<br />
<li>brass crank with a pearl-inlaid handle (100 gp)
<br />
<li>set a mwk smith’s tools made of mithral (500 gp)
<br />
</ul></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter V
Lamashan 6, 4712 AR (continued)
The skeletons' remnants scattered on the ground, the group carried on with their exploration of the millennia-old Thassilonian kitchen, hoping to track down the centipede swarm that had been such a danger on the previous day. And find it they did, in a small storeroom, bursting from it as soon as they opened the inconspicuous door. This time, the swarm was little threat to the well-prepared
...Olwen2012-12-11T22:23:06ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#72012-11-04T19:18:13Z2012-11-03T18:19:53Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter IV</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 5, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>Leaving to the side the rough corridor from which drifted the sound of picking and hammering, the Pathfinders proceeded ahead through a few steps leading them to a larger room. An alcove in the wall away from the entrance displayed the most incongruous sight: a mite, maybe slightly larger than your usual mite, sat in an overturned ogre skull, exuding a clear sense of self-importance, and made ridiculous by the single bracer propped up on the mite's head in a parody of a crown. My agents could do nothing else than seize the absurd situation before the mite, presenting itself as King Zuuga, asked if the Pathfinders were the heroes it had sent for. Cunningly playing along, the group learned that this "king" offered a diamond the size of its head as a reward if they were to recover its pet Clickylegs that had his spare crown. More curious than anything, they accepted, nevertheless wondering what this pet could be. A spider maybe? But the king said it had pincers in addition to its many legs. A scorpion, then? They would know soon enough.</p>
<p>Leaving this room and its crazy king, my agents explored one of the two recently carved corridors that left the giant black widow's room. Although hidden my a secret door, that one was of such poor engineering quality that it had of secret only the name. Emerging in a tiled corridor, the Pathfinders proceeded further south to a set of shallow stairs which led to a much larger space: the obvious den of the mites, hosting no less than nine of the blue feys, two of them riding more giant spiders. Diplomacy failed, here, and the mites frantically defended their home against my agents' intrusion. The fight was short, though, as the mites fled chaotically as soon as the two giant spiders fell to the defensive strikes of my Pathfinders. That left only one terrified mite in a corner of the room. Focussing very hard on being the least frightening he could, Laslo (the only one who spoke Undercommon), explained in the simplest terms he could muster that the Pathfinders were no enemies of the mites, and that they had been send by the mites' king to recover its pet. Although the mite didn't react much to that fact, it understood it would be better off helping these invaders and agreed to run after its fleeing companions to convince them to leave the Pathfinders alone. It fled through the spiral staircase plunging even deeper under the Crow.</p>
<p>The only room left unexplored at this level hosted half a dozen mites carving a new room out of the Crow. They let the group pass unmolested (or, more accurately, weren't molested by my agents) and were left in peace.</p>
<p>One level down, the corridors appeared subtly different, tiled in an altered manner compared to the previous levels of the Crow. Two corridors opened from the stairs' landing: one heading south which was covered in webbings; one heading west, dusty and web-less. The Pathfinders decided to head west (they'd encountered enough spiders already!) and soon turned up at the crossroad of three corridors of cell blocks, some of their iron doors blocked, others not. At the end of one of these corridors, four of the fleeing mites wrangled a giant crab spider, a scuttling hunter that does not spin webs. These mited apparently did not get the message that the group was no enemy, or simply did not care and, cornered, they frantically defended their lives and den. Somewhat confident, both Laslo and Nasim dashed forward to easily deal with the threat, leaving Viv and Draco to support them from the entrance of the corridor. But they were soon both surprised by three other giant crab spiders scampering forward from the other two cell block corridors. Defensively, Draco swallowed one of his extracts and <i>enlarged</i> himself into a hulking beast, too large to leave any opening through to his companions in the 10-foot wide corridor. In the end and despite a mite-induced feeling of <i>doom</i> creeping into Nasim's mind, neither the spiders nor the mites turned into a credible threat. A thorough exploration of the cell blocks led to no findings, neither loot, nor hidden secret passages.</p>
<p>Carrying on, the group reached an obvious albeit very old torture chamber. Its rotting instruments let no doubt to their original intent, and neither did the abomination hosted in one of two cells with walls of rusty iron bars. Nasim and Viv both quickly recognized the creature, now darting forward and putting all its strength on trying to destroy the rusty bars and reach my agents with its sharp claws: this was a sinspawn, creature of immemorial times when the runelords still roamed the lands that would become Varisia. The iron bars did not yield, and it is from a protective distance that Nasim <i>acid splashed</i> the abomination into a pile of mush.</p>
<p>Leaving a closed door behind them, the group followed the other exit from the room: an open corridor which led them to a small, quiet room harboring a fount of clear water. Nasim's <i>detect magic</i> revealed the fountain exuded an aura of conjuration magic mingled with positive energy. Boldly drinking from the pool, my agents realized that this water had the ability to cure them from their ailments. Further into the dungeons, the corridor led them to the web-covered room that hosted yet another group of giant spiders, as well as more mites. But, here, one of these was doing its best to convince the others that my agents should be left alone. That must have been the mite they had intimidated a floor above. It didn't take much convincing in front of the group's power. The mites with the spiders in tow departed for their den, one level higher, and left the Pathfinders in the empty room.</p>
<p>The group finally reached a kitchen that almost proved to be my recruits' undoing. No threat was obviously apparent and even when one of the old brick ovens started shaking, they simply fanned out around it, likely thinking any danger would be easily dealt with. They certainly did not expect the enormous swarm of hundreds, thousands of centipedes which erupted from the oven! Very quickly it was clear that they were overwhelmed with only Viv able to damage the crawling vermin. But even she was quickly out of spells and channelling. Swords and hammers could do nothing against the small insects but their numbers were submerging them, engulfing and poisoning the Pathfinders despite their fighting retreat. The strategy they had previously used against the bat swarm was inefficient here as playing bait is of little benefit when one cannot damage the enemy! The sticking webs of the spider's room transformed the retreat into a nightmare. Running seemed the only option, but the webs prevented them from doing so and the centipedes were crawling on the ground with more celerity than Viv could afford, encumbered that she was by her armor and shield…</p>
<p>But an idea started to sprout in Viv's pyromaniac mind. As Draco left his companions to rush back to the healing fount (to no effect as he had already been healed by it a few minutes ago), she desperately hurled a lit oil flasks at the centipede swarm, hoping the webbings would burst afire and destroy the vermin. Nasim, Laslo, and later Draco were back to playing bait to stop the advance of the swarm, taking damage, being poisoned. The tieflings' resistance to fire proved a valuable asset in this desperate fight as they could trod through Viv's oil induced walls of fire unhampered. Soon, the whole corridor was on fire, but the centipedes would not stay in the flames and let themselves be destroyed. Laslo eventually collapsed under the swarm's assaults and the vermin's poison paralyzed the frail theologist of Asmodeus. Things were not looking good, but the centipedes had also suffered from the relentless assaults of the Pathfinders and the battle was turning into a stalemate. When they saw an opening, my agents retreated to the fountain room with the paralyzed Viv, in Draco's arms, using the <i>Shard of Sin</i> to create the illusion of a great fire blocking the swarm's advance after them. The centipede, however, had taking enough damage from the fire that it did not wish to pursue its victims. Both opponents retreated to lick their wounds. That had been a close one. The most dangerous encounter so far in the Crow. The Pathfinders hadn't prevailed, but they had survived.</p>
<p>They barricaded themselves in one of the cells of the dungeon—where they had defeated the spiders and the mite—and rested. Refreshed, but unable to decide what time it really was now that they had been in the dungeon for quite a while, the group went on their hunt for the centipede swarm.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc>The PCs move to level 3</span></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 6, 4712 AR</i></p>
<p>They did not find it, but entered a large cave, a former room of the complex where the famed Thassilonian preservative magic was clearly failing. Apart from the statue of a beautiful woman wielding a ranseur (Alaznist, rune lord of Wrath), this was were Clickylegs dwelt, a giant cave fisher who, impervious to my agents kind attitude attacked them. Although they were at first uncertain on the tatics to use so they wouldn't kill the giant creature, once they set their minds to it, the fight was over quickly and it is a bound, unconscious Clickylegs that the Pathfinders brought back to King Zuuga with its leather bag.</p>
<p>To my agents' astonishment, the large mite was not well disposed towards them and screamed for his (invisible) executioner squad to destroy these enemies of the mites. After a moment of utter surprise, my Pathfinders reacted quickly with both Laslo and Nasim diving on the evil fey, Draco staying behind in case this executioner squad really existed and became a threat, and Viv supporting the tielfings' assault from behind, throwing all she could at the king: bolts of fire or a club. Although a king, the mite was still just that, a mite, and Nasim's furious assault of rapier and electricity litteraly exploded the mite with his <i>shocking grasp</i> like it would have an overripe pumpkin. Furious that a contract had not been respected, Viv killed the unconscious Clickylegs and thoroughly looted the room. The companions realized that the king's "crowns" were in fact rather powerful <i>bracers of armor</i>.</p>
<p>Still no sign of the <i>Shard of Greed</i>, so they headed back down to hunt for the artifact, as well as the centipede swarm. Investigating a storeroom next to the kitchen, they disturbed a group of six skeletons which were trivially dealt with, Viv calling on the fiery powers of Hell to destroy half of them in a single <i>burning hands</i> whilst her three companions demolished the other three with hammer and claws. The skeletons' broken scimitars certainly got Nasim's attention, now that he had mastered the Qadrian Dervish Dance.</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an attack:</i></b> 10 (a centipede swarm on Draco).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage taken from an effect:</i></b> 5 (flaming oil on Draco).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an attack:</i></b> 20 (Draco on a giant crab spider).
<br />
<b><i>Largest amount of damage dealt with an effect:</i></b> 14 (Nasim with a shocking grasp on King Zuuga).</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b><i>Unconscious:</i></b> Laslo (-1), engulfed by the centipede swarm.</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b>6,122 XP/PC (level 3)</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Loot:</b>
<br />
[list]<li>a silver statuette depicting a sphinx (175 gp)
<br />
<li>a set of <i>bracers of armor +2</i></span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter IV
Lamashan 5, 4712 AR (continued)
Leaving to the side the rough corridor from which drifted the sound of picking and hammering, the Pathfinders proceeded ahead through a few steps leading them to a larger room. An alcove in the wall away from the entrance displayed the most incongruous sight: a mite, maybe slightly larger than your usual mite, sat in an overturned ogre skull, exuding a clear sense of self-importance, and made...Olwen2012-11-03T18:19:53ZRe: Forums: Campaign Journals: Olwen's Shattered Star campaignOlwenhttps://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p1yt?Olwens-Shattered-Star-campaign#62012-11-04T19:17:55Z2012-10-30T21:42:27Z<p><b><i>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter III</i></b></p>
<p><i>Lamashan 5, 4712 AR (continued)</i></p>
<p>After a morning spent in Magnimar, gathering the required equipment for their foray into the Crow, my latest recruits used the rowboat I had placed at their disposal to reach the remote pillar of the Irespan, rising above the ocean, half a mile from Magnimar's harbor. There, they find a flooded alcove which already hosted three boats. They were not alone in the Crow. Further signs of a presence were evident beyond a wall that has been shattered to reveal a series of rooms inside the pillar. These contained little of interest and the Pathfinders climbed up a set of stairs that raised for more than 150 feet into the heart of the pillar.</p>
<p>To their amazement, the stairs did not reach the top of the monument, but a simple landing much higher up, still inside the building. Beyond the landing waited an incredible surprise: protected by the cover of overturned tables, two Tower Girls waited with Terisha Skiloni, their crossbows at the ready, clearly intended on protecting their home from any intrusion! A tense conversation was engaged, the Tower Girls wishing the Pathfinders gone, and the Pathfinders wanting to proceed further into the Crow. Only my agents' deal with Terisha prevented the Sczarni gang from opening hostilities and, after a few difficult moment, Viveltre's threats of the unfathomable ancient Thassilonian dangers awaiting the Tower Girls in the Crow troubled Terisha enough that she agreed to call for the gang's leader, Ayala.</p>
<p>Still under the threats of the remaining two Tower Girls' crossbows, a few nerve-wracking moments passed before Ayala who, to the Pathfinders' surprise, turned out to be wererat, appeared in the midst of a cohort of at least a dozen of Tower Girls, mainly human, but accompanied by a couple of other wererats, and quite a few donkey rats. The odds were now clearly in favor of the Sczarni gang, but Viv's golden tongue worked miracle and she stroke a deal with the gang leader. A deal that was only begrudgingly accepted by her fellow Pathfinders: if the agents could show their archeological talents, they would be allowed to explore the parts of the Crow the Tower Girls hadn't yet explored. In exchange, the Sczarni would keep a share of a third of the monetary values of all my agents would find. This share would even turn to two fifth if the Pathfinders ever needed to pass through the Tower Girls' den for forays into Magnimar before the end of their exploration, much to Nasim's and Draco's groaning and threats. That was, of course, if they were able to prove their worth and open a Thassilonian door, made of saccitite, which had so far stymied the Tower Girls' progress. Blindfolded, my agents were brought to this set of double doors, a level down in the Crow.</p>
<p>The doors proved no barrier to my Pathfinders, though, as they happened to be secured by a mechanism similar to that of the <i>paradox box</i> they had so easily opened at the manor a couple of days before. Even the siccatite's fire as they touched the doors was no threat for the fire resistant devil-spawns Nasim and Laslo. That sure troubled the Sczarni!</p>
<p>Beyond the saccatite doors, my Pathfinders entered an old, dusty corridor, first of what would be a long series of forgotten locales they would come to explore in the search for the <i>Shards of Sin</i>. The corridor soon led to stairs leading further down into the Crow. There a small crack in the wall led them to a web-covered room opening onto a shaft. Two giant water spiders ambushed them in this room, the first of many a vermin infesting many a dark cavern they would survey. Despite their surprise, the group dealt with the spiders and even though they were bitten a few times they resist the spider's poison, their most dangerous threat. Apart from the shaft opening onto the sea with the promise of an alternate route out of the Crow, this cave was of no interest.</p>
<p>Deeper into the long-forgotten corridors, the Pathfinders discovered an ancient bath, populated by a couple of giant amoebas who didn't take kindly to the disturbance. They were no match for Draco's hammer, though. As this fight raged on, my agents scared a lonely mite who had been standing guard on a set of stairs delving deeper down into the Crow. The blue pest rushed down, screaming. So much for stealth and surprise! Instead of rushing after the fey, the group decided to thoroughly search this level so as not to leave threats behind them. In doing so, they disturbed a swarm of bats. If the giant spiders or amoebas were no threat, it wasn't the case for the swarm given how little my recruits could do against it! Only Viv could damage the swarm by calling forward the fires of Hell. Both Draco and Nasim had no other option than to play bait while the cleric of Asmodeus slowly, but surely, dispersed the bat swarm. In addition to this humbling lesson, the group discovered a window to the outside world, overlooking the ocean, hidden from outside by an <i>illusory wall</i>. Maybe the Crow wasn't completely closed after all and maybe it wouldn't be necessary to go back to the Tower Girls's den to leave the Thassilonian building…</p>
<p>Cautiously, the group decided to proceed further, down the stairs the mite had fled through. After a long corridor, the Pathfinders reached a room hosting six incongruous earth and stone mounds. What these were became readily obvious as one, two, three, four, and now five giant ants consecutively emerged from the mounds to defend their den! The Pathfinders were lucky the ants did not emerge all at once as they proved quite resilient, and their bites quite painful. But the Pathfinders prevailed and, after the fifth bug died, no other monstrosity followed. What sure troubled my agents was the size of every single beast in these Thassilonian dungeons. Exploring the room, Laslo found that one of the mounds, erected next to a wall, hid a small crack in the southern wall. Obvious mite tracks let to it. At the same time, Nasim found that one of the many (empty) alcoves that decorates the walls hid a secret door that opened on a wide set of shallow stairs.</p>
<p>Not very keen on squeezing in a corridor potentially full of mites, the Pathfinders left behind the obvious exit to the room and the small crack in the wall to advanced through the secret door. The cave it led to was roughly octagonal in shape and shrouded in thick sheets of tangled webbings. Despite the spider ambush they had fallen for less than an hour ago, my recruits again fell prey to another giant spider, this time a gigantic black widow spider, the size of a large horse! This combat was epic and let quite a few marks on the Pathfinders as they battled the ridiculously large vermin whose bite could have skewered a boar. Luckily, my agents were more agile and better protected than boars and, although both Draco and Laslo came very close to falling unconscious from the pain of torn muscles and flesh, the group's combined effort allowed them to prevail. Nasim, wielding steel and magic through spellstrike in the same assault through struck the final blow, leaving only the Pathfinders' panting breaths echoing through the cave. That, and the regular sound of distant picks hitting rock…</p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>Largest amount of damage taken:</b> 12 from a giant black widow spider on Draco.
<br />
<b>Largest amount of damage dealt:</b> 16 from Draco on a giant black widow spider.
<br />
</span></p>
<p><span class=messageboard-ooc><b>XP:</b> 4,636 XP/PC (level 2)</span></p>The Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, Vol. 7, Chapter III
Lamashan 5, 4712 AR (continued)
After a morning spent in Magnimar, gathering the required equipment for their foray into the Crow, my latest recruits used the rowboat I had placed at their disposal to reach the remote pillar of the Irespan, rising above the ocean, half a mile from Magnimar's harbor. There, they find a flooded alcove which already hosted three boats. They were not alone in the Crow. Further signs of a presence were...Olwen2012-10-30T21:42:27Z