The Dread Pirate Hurley's page

Shackles of Fate
Part 1: The Final Piece

Somewhere in the Shackles

A bright full moon shines down on a placid jungle island. A two-masted ship sits anchored in the bay, sails furled, and rowboats dot the shore. Tracks in the white sand lead from the boats into the dense trees, palm fronds swaying in the gentle breeze.

There is a disturbance at the jungle's edge. A man charges through the brush, long dark hair whipping behind him as he makes a break for the rowboats. Captain Tremain, pirate caprain and treasure hunter extraordinaire! The men of his crew follow behind, blackguards and blackhearts the lot of them, and the calm of the night is broken by the sounds of struggle.

Back in the jungle, a squad of men brings up the rear, charging desperately through the underbrush. Terrified, they stumble through the dark tangle of trees and ferns and vines. One falls into a pit trap, impaled on spikes. Another runs neck-first into the coils of a hanging snake. Behind the unfortunate stragglers, a surging horde of viny green humanoids chases them, carrying torches and bone-white spears, eerily quiet as they move through the jungle to overtake the men.

"There's too many!" whimpers one of the men. "We'll never make it! Sovukh, what do we do?" All eyes turn to one among them with skin as green as their pursuers - Sovukh Serpent-Eye!

This is the discussion thread for Shackles of Fate, part of what I hope will be the first part of my Golarion FATE project. While Pathfinder used to be my go-to system, I have moved on to game systems with narrative-forward mechanics. However, I still love the Golarion campaign setting, so I'm hoping to have my cake and eat it to by running a FATE game set in Golarion.

The player and I have a Discord that will likely be our main OOC channel. This thread is to serve as an explanation for anybody else who happens to read along so they understand what's going on, and for whatever use I come up with for it down the line.

Gameplay thread open for dotting. First gameplay post to be up by Tuesday.

Discussion thread open!

This will be open for OOC discussion not directly related to the game, as well as for anybody reading along with us to play peanut gallery.

I hope to have a gameplay thread open this weekend, but we'll have to see how things pan out. Before we get too far into the game, I also hope to have a timeline up in the Campaign Info tab that includes the dates of some important events that modify the setting just a little bit. I'll also have a link to the map of Caliphas up, and eventually a roster of supporting cast NPCs as they appear.

For now, I bid you welcome to...

Caliphas Noir!

Link to Last Light of a Dark Future recruitment thread

So far it looks like the consensus is all-or-nothing; I think we're just waiting to hear from Daen. I'm going to apologize in advance for the wall of text; I'm just trying to jump start the discussion so we can figure it our quickly. We stand a better shot if we don't hold up the recruitment longer than the DM was intending.

*I'm all for Rataji jumping in.

*I imagine it's been a year or two since we finished training at the Bonewatch, so maybe two to four years since The Last Vigil? This is a new DM, so it seems best if we ignore DMRaven's plans for what would have happened. I'm thinking we finished training and were sent out as Knights and any interesting adventures we might have had are mostly directly after the Bonewatch.

*As for Allie, I'd prefer it if her fate was left vague in case the DM wants to use her as an NPC or if something happens and she might perhaps join the party later. MIA, presumed dead maybe?

*Assuming this is some time after training, there are different ways we can play this:

Scenario One: we all finished training, we're all Knights. Other details to be filled in.

Scenario Two: Zohruk got caught sneaking around but Grimold got away. Zohrok is cut and does his own thing, the rest of us are Knights. We can figure out how Zohruk gets back in later, if we decide we like this scenario best.

Scenario Three: Both Zohruk and Grimold were caught and cut, Daen and Kassie finish and become Knights. Zohruk and Grimold do their own thing in the interim but return to aid in the Bright Crusade and end up joining a unit being headed by Daen and Kassie.

Scenario Four: ??? If anybody has a different suggestion than those above, I'm all ears.

The Wormwood Mutiny micromanages the timeline throughout the adventure, but as soon as Book 2 starts, the nature of the game changes completely. All of a sudden, the players are thrust into a potential sandbox. Even with a train conductor of a GM, the transition from day-to-day play is problematic.

My biggest concern is what to do concerning the pacing of the game? Do you play out some of the shipboard scenes between destinations? Do you skip right to the destination? I'm worried that the game will quickly become Adam Sandler's Click: The Musical RPG, with months passing by in seconds. But the other end of the spectrum is to continue to play out every single day, which was bad enough for the first twenty-one. In your game, what, exactly, happens after the captain says "Set sail for Port Peril/Quent/Tortuga!"?

Does anybody have any suggestions for reading material? European high fantasy is common enough, but aside from the 1001 Arabian Nights, I'm at a bit of a loss for middle eastern fantasy literature. I'm looking for stuff that digs into the everyday feel of the setting, at least as much for familiarity with the vocabulary as for inspiration.

I don't know if others are aware of this; upon discovering it, I did a search and found nothing on the blogs or forums about it, so I'm assuming it hasn't been well-publicized.

In any case, there appears to be some kind of 10th anniversary sale and some products. From my browsing, I saw that both Legacy of Fire and Second Darkness were available at $5.00 apiece for the print versions. The first half of CotCT were at the usual $20 but parts 4-6 were on sale for $8. I ordered all six parts of LoF, and in my order summary, it said that a special 10th anniversary sale promotion was applied. I clicked the link, but it led me here.

So yeah, $30 bucks for an AP, plus a bit over $10 for shipping. Just sayin'.

EDIT: Some more browsing shows that all of the 3.5 Gamemastery modules aside from Crown of the Kobold King are to be had for $3.00 apiece.

I've been itching for a tabletop RPG experience that incorporates elements from the Diablo franchise for years, and lately I've been wanting to run a campaign set in Mendev. Last night, I realized that the two ideas mesh pretty well.

For those not in the know, Diablo is a hack-and-slash computer RPG franchise by Blizzard based in a typical fantasy world being invaded by the forces of the Burning Hells. For more, see here.

At the end of the second game, the archangel Tyrael destroys the Worldstone, which had been corrupted by the demon Baal. Twenty years later, during the third game, a meteor falls from the sky, heralding the end-times; meanwhile another demon lord spews from the rent in reality that Mount Arreat has become.

So here's what I'm thinking (so far):
Mount Arreat : Sarkoris, now the Worldwound
They were both home to proud barbarians, both now lay in ruins with demons spewing forth invading the rest of the world.

Meteor : Possibly the aftermath of the Second Darkness AP, or otherwise a plot to damage the wardstones that keep the demons contained (more-or-less) to the Worldwound

Azmodan : BBEG (possibly a nascent demon lord, lieutenant to Deskari)

Tyrael: Some powerful sngelic ally that can't get (even more) directly involved (possibly a planetar or star archon)

This is still a really rough idea, just thought I'd see what everybody thinks.

Disclaimer: I'm aware that the AP hasn't actually even come out yet, so I'm not expecting any extremely in-depth replies.

I'm interested in integrating a Red Mantis-related aspect to the game. I'll be a player, but working closely with the GM to flesh out the under-plot. I call it an under-plot because it's a plot that spans the entire AP, but exists under the surface, kind of like a reinterpretation.

I need to go back and re-read their article in Escape From Old Korvosa, but to my understanding, the Red Mantis Assassins are a religious order whose religion focuses on assassination. As such, they don't seem to be an extremely political entity. However, as I understand it, they played a very important role in the intrigue of CotCT.

Assuming they engage in their fair share of political maneuvering and intrigue, what sorts of interests might the RMA have in the Shackles region? Obviously, their island headquarters is located in the Shackles, and Ilizmagorti is a fairly important port for the pirates. At this point, I'm thinking of using them in relation to the climactic battle at the end of the AP, but I have no idea how, at least not yet for obvious reasons.

Traditionally, the RMA don't assassinate legitimate monarchs (but yet they work around that loophole by providing others with the means to dispose of said monarchs, a la CotCT). How do you think that code functions in the Shackles, being a largely republic meritocracy? Is the Hurricane King a "legitimate monarch", immune to formal contracts? Do you think the RMA have any interest in controlling the region politically? Or do you think the RMA don't really have a place in this AP?