Orthos's page

NG is no more beholden to "the rules" than CG as far as I am aware. CG indeed often seeks out opportunities to break "the rules", whilst NG merely obey the rules as it best suits the 'greater good'.

Hmm, good point, no shift necessary it seems. I'll keep that in mind. :)

Other than that, it sounds like you have quite the haul in front of you for your group - which will be fun I think given their willingness to dig for dirt, establish connections with NPCs and generally open things up for you to extrapolate and build upon.

Quite so! I personally find it fairly amusing, and after having to ad-lib through parts of the first few sessions I've finally gotten it through my thick skull to make some excess preparations in advance ;)

Most Adventure Paths assume a mere six months' game time passes - the later ones seem to vary from this - Legacy of Fire has a year of game time pass between the first two chapters for example - but I do believe the STAP was originally intended to take a mere six months' game time. Naturally, plenty of groups took several years' game time to play it out - mine took four or five years for example.

Yeah, I don't think we're gonna be anywhere near that fast. It took us two days IG to deal with Vark, and three days after that to find Shefton Rosk, then left for Parrot Island the day after that; out of game it's been a month and a half just to get to Veldimar Krund, considering we game only once a week and there has been at least one week we had to cancel for various reasons. We'll see what happens at this point. ;)

That said, on to...!

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SESSION TWO

The group met at the Drunken Bear to share their gathered information; while debating their next course of action, Yuri and Gin discovered one of Vark's men had trailed them and was standing outside the meeting room eavesdropping. The group fed him some misleading information then tailed him back to the Azure District, where Yuri solicited the aid of Captain Malachai Arnos, the shipmaster who brought her to Sasserine. Captain Arnos lent the group a rowboat, which everyone except Yuri and Jenny climbed into.

The two girls swam behind the Blue Nixie, sneaking aboard from the far side while the rest of the group in the boat distracted the two men Vark had put on watch. When they were disabled the group - mostly Jhered - caused a ruckus as they came aboard, alerting the rest of the Nixie of their presence. Vark's men, and later Vark himself, attacked but where cut down in short order.

During the skirmish Vark ordered someone below to burn the contents of the hold; the fire roused one of the smuggled animals, a spider-like Rhagodessa, which attacked and killed the last of Vark's men before turning on the group. Luckily, the party managed to slay the wild beast before it devoured anyone further. Some smooth talking by Yuri - along with sending Gin, Jenny, and Rin down into the hold to search for Lavinia's missing belongings - managed to keep the group from getting arrested.

Further examination of the ship found not only the missing platinum Lavinia had paid Vark, but also the ring the group had been sent to find and a piece of paper containing a coded message. These were all returned to Lavinia by Yuri, and the group was paid 200GP apiece for their services, as well as given a job offer to work directly for Lavinia, for 500 GP a month; all accepted. Their first task in this capacity was to be undertaken the next day at noon.

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This was really the session that started to solidify people's places in the group. Yuri became the Face (extremely amusing, as being a Scorpion she's always wearing some kind of mask), while the Monks put themselves forward as the Moral Compass (and thus were banished to the hold with Rin, whose out-of-place modern references might have put a delicate situation more on edge, while Yuri palavered with the watch) and Jhered kind of became an Enforcer type, hit first and ask questions later.

No fatalities, sadly; the closest was the Rhagodessa knocking Jenny into negatives. The players were smart enough to draw the beast away and distract it while Rin healed her. If I'd read Turin's journal before running this session I definately would have considered sticking a second Rhag down there, though... I gave the one a few extra HD to compensate for the Gestalt, so while it didn't manage to kill anyone it did take a good while to get down and inflicted some damage in the process.

Special note should be made for some of the more interesting portions of the combat for the session... notably Vark going to gut the healer and knocking him to 1 HP only to be killed D-E-D Deader Than Dead by a lucky Crit+Skirmish from Cordor's scythe - "sliced open like a frog in biology class" - or the memorable mental image of Gin using Throw Anything to hurl a thug's corpse at another thug, dubbed "kill a pirate with another pirate". (Various debating commentary about ninjas followed, mostly as to whether or not the Monks qualified, as expected.)

Though it was missing from the first session (there weren't many opportunities), my group has taken to collecting quotes, after several campaigns with some unforgettable one-liners - one of these days I'll have to explain the stories behind things like "Prepare to face the just actions of your rewards", "You/I see Fish", or "I think-talk to the rock", which have achieved near-meme status among my gaming group. So for your amusement, Session Two's memorable unpolished gems:

Discussing the plan to board the Nixie:
Yuri: "I am needed to distract Vark."
Gin: "How do you know that's where his tastes lie?" *STARES at Jhered*
Yuri: "Well I presumed his tastes lay in GOLD. But if you think my womanly charms would be better we can try that as well."
Gin: "Like I said, how do you know that's where his tastes lie?" *still staring*
Mala: "How do you know his tastes don't lay in little people?!"

On not getting caught (AKA Yay for verbal dyslexia!):
Gin: "But you were seen on the docks."
Yuri: "No, a virgin of me was seen on the docks."
Gin: "A virgin of you!?"
Jhered: "Been busy?"

Apparently nobody uses that skill these days:
Yuri: "Do you people not have disguises in this land!?"

When entering posts, be sure to select all + copy your entry, then click "preview". If the preview bounces you out to the main page, come back in, make your entry and then paste your post back in. That should take care of the "posts being eaten" problem.

That it did. Normally I do so, I neglected to this time unfortunately and suffered for it, heh. Thanks for the reminder, though.

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SESSION ONE

The party met with Lady Lavinia and enjoyed dinner in her estate. After the meal, she explained her dilemma - fees, dues, and taxes left over from her parents' deaths had fallen to her to solve, and without access to the family vaults she cannot pay them. The ring that serves as the key to the vault is currently on the Blue Nixie, Lavinia's ship, which is held in the city port until dues are paid. Lavinia paid the man holding her ship, Soller Vark, but Vark then denied ever receiving them and refused to release the ship. The party has been hired to find out what Vark is doing with the ship and possibly to retrieve Lavinia's stolen money.

The group investigated the docks and discovered the Nixie was not docked at the pier as expected but rather moored some distance out into the harbor. Furthermore several people were moving around on deck or standing watch. Further investigation later into the evening revealed several crates being moved into the ship's lower decks, and odd animalistic sounds coming up from below. Vark himself was seen as well, though he never left the ship and disappeared back into the belowdecks eventually.

Come the next morning Gin reported back to Lavinia to inquire if the Harbormaster was allowed to use her ship in any way while it was impounded; Lavinia seemed surprised and asked him to inquire further, as well as planning to speak with the watch about Vark having a license to transport animals.

At the beginning of next session the group plans to meet at The Drunk Bear around noon.

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That was the "player summary" I wrote for the first session, about a month ago now. (It was actually the second, but the "technical" first had been delayed by scheduling issues and distracted players and ended up being nothing more than a prologue of meeting Lavinia and having dinner, and agreeing to her request.)

Compared to some of the other journals I've read on STAP here and on other forums and various blogs, my group was surprisingly inquisitive. They didn't just charge out and assault the ship, planning on kicking arse and taking names, which seems to be what the AP guide was written for - it seems, reading through the guide, that it was written with a combat-enthusiastic CG party in mind. So instead of spending the first session killing smugglers the players split up and went investigating. I wish I'd learned then what I learned recently at Session Four: the party splitting up is a TIME CONSUMER and a headache for the DM. Thankfully Session Five was significantly less of a headache with Parrot Island.

That said... Session One pretty much ended up being several hours of rolling social skills and Stealth/Perception while sneaking about gathering information on Vark and the current situation in the Azure District. Luckily Jhered and Rin - the two NOT-sneaky party members - managed to keep themselves busy with other things in the meanwhile.

It's also probably notable that I changed Lavinia slightly... by the next session (or if not that, definitely the third) she was getting played as more willing to bend the rules a bit if it would be advantageous for their situation, perhaps more so than she was written to be, so I shifted her from NG to CG. Don't think that'll break anything, unless I forgot something that happens later....

... because as I said before, YES, I AM crazy enough to give myself even MORE of a headache while running this thing. :P

So after at least three failed Play-by-Post internet campaigns and one failed Neverwinter Nights adaptation, I started a PnP Gestalt STAP about a month ago, connecting my now-scattered player group through the wonder that is Ventrilo. We're using a mishmash of 3.5 and Pathfinder along with a few houserules, scaling along Pathfinder's Medium XP progression.

The following are my victims... I mean players:

Gin and Jenny Woodstock: LG Dvati Monk|Fighter
A set of opposite-gender Dvati twins, a rarity that was feared by their race so the twins were abandoned at separate monasteries; thanks to their mind link they eventually discovered one another and left to meet and travel the world together. So far they seem to be serving as the party's moral compass, which tends to bring them into frequent conflict with Yuri and Mala. Jenny doesn't talk much, and tends to play watch during group meetings and such while Gin attends and passes messages.

[Note: They're using the Pathfinder Beta version of Monk and Fighter, but as a houserule I've given both classes a Paladin/Ranger like progression of Maneuvers - Monk chooses from the Swordsage list, Fighter from Warblade's. I allow the same thing for Paladin as well, letting them choose between getting spells or Crusader Maneuvers.]

Rokugo Yuri: TN River Spiritfolk Binder|Rogue/Psion (Telepath)
A Scorpion Clan member exiled from Rokugan for communing with the Dark Powers. [Nobody likes Binders, not even in Rokugan ;)] She's the most direct and charismatic of the group and has sort of become de-facto leader, and already looking to gain influence in Sasserine. Plans to go into Shadowmind on the Rogue side.

Cordor Chainror: CG Human Scout|Warblade
Cordor's player is the newest to my group, so he's playing a fairly common concept - an ex-farm boy on the run from a tyrannical king to the north after his family was killed for a reason he doesn't know. Kills things dead with a scythe. He's missed about half the sessions so far though, so he's not as fleshed out as the others yet.

Rin Gold: TN Human Ardent|Psion (Nomad)
This guy's my resident "weird concepts" player. He's essentially a nerd from a more mundane world who's been dropped into the land of his fantasies and given weird powers in the process. He constantly makes real-world references that the others don't follow, and his Psycrystal tends to put him on Autopilot during combat situations. He's the closest thing the party has to a healer. (I might have been too lenient with allowing this concept, as it's starting to drive a few of the other players nuts...)

Mala Shrenan: LN Whisper Gnome Lurk|Wilder
A super-stealthy assassin-for-hire type with a case of Laser Guided Amnesia. Unfortunately the player has some really bad luck with dice, so up until the most recent session she was constantly getting one-upped at her own game by Yuri. Also has a bit of a Napoleon complex, which Jhered and Cordor get some amusement out of exploiting.

Jhered Nightwind: NG Star Elf Duskblade|Bladewind
The closest thing this party has to a Tank. Bladewind is a custom class made by someone on the WOTC forums, modeled after the character Joachim from Castlevania (Google him if you want), and tweaked by myself and two of my players; Jhered's putting it through one of a few playtests. Strong, silent type with a dry wit. Going for Anointed Blade on Duskblade side I think.

So far we're halfway through "There Is No Honor", they took down Veldimar Krund last session and we quit just outside the door to Penkus's room. I'll post summaries of the first four sessions tomorrow... after Paizo ate my first attempt at this post I need sleep. :P

I vaguely remember something along that line.

You're right about the lower eight Archfiends, but Bel and the Dark Eight on the First would be reeeeeeeeally interested in the effects of this war. Or perhaps even Zariel, or a rogue servitor of hers, hoping that they might be able to use this somehow to unseat Bel and put her back on the throne. (Actually, now that I've thought of that, I may use it myself...)

Even ruling out everyone from Dispater down you still have quite a few options.

I would suggest having him "play innocent" so to speak as far as motives and alignment, pretending to be a knight of righteosness and such so that his "allies" accept him and he can keep an eye on him.

Or heck, just act like a mercenary, play Neutral. A lot more believable for an Evil character, and a lot easier to pull off ;)

That was one of my big wonderings as well... a massive shakedown is going on in the Tanar'ri hierarchy and zero Archdevils are making a move?!?

The only people who really suits their intents in my party would be the LN assassiny-type Whisper Gnome and the TN Scorpion Clan Binder, the rest of the party is either Good or Chaotic; I just need to figure out who would be the one to contact them. Asmodeus comes to mind immediately for the Binder, given her tendency to talk around things with Bluff and Diplomacy... he could work for the assassin as well I guess...

Let us know how it goes :) Might borrow a few tricks from your book, heh.

Sure, if they have access to lots of splatbooks and expansions. But what of the DMs that limit their players to Core-only?

You can always make encounters harder. It's very difficult to make them easier. I get the impression that things like this are written for the baseline - Core only, or Core with only a few expansions - and if that's not enough for their groups DMs are encouraged to scale things up.

(That and we're getting into the Fighter thing... but I'd rather not jump into that pool of worms again. Bleh.)

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I've got absolutely nothing against optimization. One of my players even hung out on the CharOp boards on the WOTC forums for the longest time, and he was easily one of the better roleplayers in my gaming group and is sorely missed now that he's off in the military. I've lost count of the times I've gotten in arguments with "roleplay versus power elitists" as I've come to call them and fought until I was blue in the face to try and convince these people that having a powerful or well-designed character does not automatically make you a powergamer and having a weak or poorly-designed character does not automatically make you a good RPer.

From what I read of Kedward, yeah he could do with some redesigning, but for a group running purely on Core material he might still be a challenge, especially if they're a bit behind in level. Besides, as the OP said, this is intended to be a sidequest sort of thing - I have a feeling that the author in question didn't put a lot of time and focus into his statblock because he's not necessary to the main plotline.

they don't account for party being even mildly optimized (and I end up modifying almost every enocounter). I'm not sure whether they intended for some encounters to be cake-walks, or just aren't familiar with concept of optimization.

My impression is that encounters are always written that way. Optimizers are still the minority, if you're not aware.

... because YES, I AM crazy enough to give myself even MORE of a headache while running this thing. :P

So after at least three failed Play-by-Post internet campaigns and one failed Neverwinter Nights adaptation, I started a PnP Gestalt STAP about a month ago, connecting my now-scattered player group through the wonder that is Ventrilo. We're now about halfway through There Is No Honor - the Iron Cobra encounter took place last week, most of the group save the one who missed the last session just reached level 2. We're using a mishmash of 3.5 and Pathfinder, scaling along Pathfinder's Medium XP progression.

The party includes:

Gin and Jenny Woodstock: LG Dvati Monk (PF) 1|Fighter (PF) 1 (Dvati is ECL +1)
Rokugo Yuri: TN River Spiritfolk Binder 2|Rogue 1/Psion (Telepath) 1 (Scorpion Clan, going for Shadowmind on Rogue side)
Cordor Chainror: CG Human Scout 1|Warblade 1
Rin Gold: TN Human Ardent 2|Psion (Nomad) 2
Mala Shrenan: LN Whisper Gnome Lurk 2|Wilder 2
Jhered Nightwind: NG Star Elf Duskblade 2|Bladewind 2 (Bladewind is a custom class our gaming group put together for a now-defunct Play-by-post forum, based on Joachim Armster's fighting style; going for Anointed Blade on Duskblade side)

I may put up a journal thread eventually if I feel like getting around to it, as the one I write up for the players is on a password-blockaded forum.

The main purpose of this thread is to tinker out some of the later encounters and to take some suggestions on interesting Gestalt combinations for major NPCs or antagonists. Most of the early classes already have theirs - Lavinia for example is going to be Swashbuckler|Courtier now, reflecting her focus on Diplomacy and such; and Javelle is a nasty combination of Swashbuckler/Rogue|Scout, making her a really vicious high-mobility combatant.

So I'm mainly interested in unique or interesting concepts people have that I might not have thought of, suggestions of how to do certain things better, that sort of thing. And of course commentary from anyone else was crazy enough to try this before me. ;)

And yes, for the curious, I still plan on throwing the Broken Souls villains at the party yet again. *evil grin* Gestalt Nurn is eeeeeeevillll...

Here

"This Module is not Active"? :/

Lost all my late-end STAP stuff in a crash, looking to start building it up as I start the game again...

Here ye go.

Original Lavinia/Vanthus thread

There's a link in there somewhere to the Vanthus stuff... also there's the guy emailing it out, he'll gladly provide it if you give him yours.

Several people have considered it, and there's been more than one topic on the subject (although I could only find this one at the moment), however I don't think it's actually been done yet.

That's crazy, Turin O_o I'm so very much stealing most of these in one form or another when my game gets this far. :D

I'm of the same mindset myself. I tend to be a bit lenient when I feel a death would be overly disruptive of the storyline - meaning I tend to go easy on players for the first six or seven levels, STAP is going to be quite a shift from that I think - and I tend to power-up enemies who prove to be getting beaten far too easily, especially if they're an important plot foe who's not supposed to go down without a fight. (Then again, there is something dramatic about the fighter critting on the first swing and drawing "Decapitate" from the Crit Deck, or as in my last PbP session the VoP Swordsage nailing the colossal dragon with Touch of Golden Ice and me rolling a 1 on the Fort Save... but I digress.)

I put it this way. If a near-death encourages your players to keep pressing on more than an actual death would - which is the vibe I get from this group - then by all means feel free to fudge the dice a tad, just don't let the players know. ;)

Nurn: One-Slaad two-headed demon lord management crew for hire.

I love it. Thanks a ton. Now for the daunting task of converting those two into 3.5 (Nurn was easy, just take the MM Slaad and level it up; Cath and Ammet are slightly trickier due to templates.)

Just want to add my own sentiments as well, this is an awesome project, extremely well done. I wasn't considering doing a blog of my own STAP run until I read this. Much kudos.

BZZZT, Revive. Starting up a Play-by-Post STAP with a whopping EIGHT players.

1. Ten'gil, M Human VoP Monk: Recently-returned thought dead local now preaching the virtues of goodly enlightenment. Really playing up the RP behind the "Nymph's Kiss" feat. Humorously referred to as Heroboy.

2. Kestra, F Human Monk/Cleric of Cuthbert: Lady Dredd from Cauldron. Followed around by a strange spirit that speaks Elven that only she can see and hear, who goes by the name "Andras".

3. Tyrian, M Halfling Hexblade going Luckstealer: Loves gambling, thinks Dallah Thaun has blessed him. Rest of the party hasn't figured out what he is yet.

4. Yuri, F River Spiritfolk Binder: Exiled Scorpion Clan, House Bayushi courtier from Rokugan, kicked out for "practicing Shadow Magic and consorting with demons" (got caught summoning Naberius). Calls everyone else in the party (and anyone else, except Lavinia so far) "Gaijin" all the time. Wields fans and wears masks, thus easily winning "coolest looking party member".

5. Light, M Azurin Beguiler: Sasserine street magician turned adventurer, hails from Merchant's District. Mostly illusionist/battlefield control type.

6. Kailena, F Half-Elf Sorceress: Troublesome orphan born and raised in Cauldron, recently "given early graduation" from a wizard's school, probably due to troubles with the headmaster's daughter. On "extended leave" from the guild and in Sasserine mostly to keep a low profile... for now.'

The two others haven't decided specifics yet, one will be a Rogue/Swash of some sort, the other is thinking a heavy armor type, neither has decided a race so I'll be back and update when that's all said and done.

Ah yes, I hadn't forgotten about Nurn at all - in fact, he's been advanced a bit past his base 5 levels of Rogue. :) It'll be a blast to RP him again... I always played Nurn as very suave and well-spoken, it blew my players' minds when they found out what he was. I believe the exact quote was, "Waitasecond, Mr. Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste is a freakin' SLAAD?" If I toss him out with the Aspects he'll probably do the whole "Ah *&#%@, dying here" -Teleport- schtick until the grande finale, or until someone gets lucky. ;)

When I ran BoBS, Cath and Ammet teamed up after the party killed Ashardalon, then proceeded to lay into Big D's hench-demons in the area (convenient plot excuse for the PCs and Nurn slipping away to retreat unharmed, they were pretty thrashed after Ash). So I kind of figured they'd still be partnered, with Ammet wanting to carve out his own little Abyssal kingdom and Cathezar serving as his general. However I like the idea of Ammet in the Wells (if for no other reason than it gives my players a new custom Vestige to create, a pasttime that's become common among my group) - got in a little over his head I'd wager. Plus, I don't know if lore says anything about the two of them after that... BoBS simply stated that if Cathezar lived that long she'd offer her services to Ammet, and the two of them would poof off to the Abyss.

I definitely like the idea of Cath showing up to fight against Demogorgon in the last battle, that'll certainly seem like a role reversal, and might give me a chance to replay the big Nurn v. Cath fight I threw into the end of BoBS for dramatic battle purposes. :D

I as well please, edge.of.oblivion(at)gmail(dot)com

First off, new to the forum due to some recommendations around-about while researching during pre-game prep... this is my third attempt to run Savage Tide, following two failed Neverwinter Nights adaptations (couldn't manage to keep a group past Parrot Island) I've decided to try going the Play-By-Post route. Got a bunch of good roleplayers with a good-looking roster of characters - two Monks (one planning on multiclassing into Cleric), a Hexblade, a Binder, a Beguiler, a Rogue/Swash, and one as of yet undecided. Expect to see them popping up in the Glories/Obits threads as the storyline advances in the near future. ;)

So onto the real subject: two of the eight players in the PbP are also members of my normal, offline PnP group, and thus are likely to still have "fond memories" of Bastion of Broken Souls... so with another storyline heavily featuring Big D, I was strongly considering having Ammet and/or the Cathezar pop up somewhere in the later chapters. My question is where might be the best place to have them make an appearance? Doing it mostly for excitement and the "WTF!? Factor" for the players who have encountered the pair in prior campaigns [which may or may not be limited to the two I've DMed for before, considering BoBS has been around for a while ;) ]. Thoughts?