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Valryn's Edda
by B.E.S. McMillan (edits by Eric France)

In Atala, fair Atala
There lived a handsome boy
And he was noble, through and through,
His parents' pride and joy.

Thus Valryn grew up proud and strong
His father governed wise and long
Until a grievous secret wrong
His fine home did destroy.

South and south, though Valryn rode
T'was everywhere the same
Atalan troops embroiled the land
In some great deadly game.

So Valryn swore he would pursue
The pawn masters to make them rue
The day he'd pay them their just due
And his estate reclaim.

To Southport Town, far Southport Town
At length did Valryn fare
Just as Atalan ships arrived
And laid siege to all there.

Thus Orin, Raginal and Badri
Joined Tan'ate and Valryn in company
To spread word of this treachery
And north to Balan Keep repair.

A month or more of solid rhyme
I fear t'would take to tell the rest
As monster after obstacle
Intruded on their quest.

But still they fought with bow and blade
With prayer and spell each escapade
That ultimate success delayed
Until the crucial test.

The islands that tormented them
Were finally left behind
But weather on the mainland
Was not a bit more kind.

It drove them to a tower light
In which they thought to pass the night
To rest and prep for their next fight
This plan the fates declined.

With leaping flame and deadly aim
The shadow blasts struck sore
But worst of all when any fell
The damage done was more.

Valryn saw to save his crew
There was but one thing he could do
And between doom and his true
Friends, Valryn closed the door.

When I fired this order it changed the status of the miniatures to "Unavailable". I assume this means that you sold out of all of them since I put them into my cart a couple of weeks ago. If so I would like to cancel the whole order.

"My Downloads" link takes me to the extra signin, but entering my password keeps reloading the signin page. Checked my password by signing out and signing in again...no problem.

CROWNED B$@++
by B. E. S. McMillan
(posted with permission of the author)

It was after one well-fought adventure,
which left our group battered but rich,
that Gyre (I think)
said "Let's stop for a drink.
There's an inn here they call The Crowned B!!&~."

Well it seemed like a harmless suggestion.
Our throats were dust-coated and parched,
so we shouldered our packs,
slung our bows on our backs,
and into that tavern we marched.

There were halflings camped out by the kitchen,
two gamblers were starting to spar,
and a full dozen brutes,
wearing rusty mail suits,
stood between our small troop and the bar.

Now you might think we'd have been dissuaded
from staying to order at all,
but Kagan was able
to find us a table
that put all our backs to the wall.

Aye, the scene in that tavern looked ugly,
but we four were strangers to fear.
'Gainst horrible odds
we will call on the gods...
but not 'til we've called for our beer!

So--assassins looked on from the shadows
and the barkeeper's lass gave a shrug--
as we ordered some porter,
two kegs and a quarter,
3 goblets, and one pewter mug.

A half-orc was glaring at Sorrel.
The lady dwarf just looked annoyed,
but if someone got killed
then our booze might get spilled
and that's what I hoped to avoid.

So I tossed a full purse to the innkeep,
saying "Sir, I have frequently found
that all sorts of trouble
will drown in a double.
Pray pour the good folk here a round."

We the innkeep obliged me with pleasure
and we garnered new friends by the score.
Not one squabble started
until we'd departed
and the gold turned to copper once more.

So if ever you visit The Crowned B*!~*,
don't plan to pay spells for your beer,
because, since that time
they've hung up a sign
that says "No magic users served here!"

wish (p. 370, 4th printing) can produce the following effect:

Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.

limited wish (p. 305, 4th p):

Undo the harmful effects of many spells, such as or insanity.

Okay, a cut and paste error, no big deal.

What struck me as odd (and worth a question) is...insanity is a 7th level spell, the same as limited wish, while geas/quest is a 6th level spell (for sorcerers and wizards at least).

My take is that limited wish should be able to "undo the harmful effects of" any 6th level spell or lower, but not another 7th-level spell.

Bumped and seconded?

Link

At 15" diameter this seems like an appropriate scale for an Elder God "miniature", and outside of the game you can cuddle with this plush avatar of madness.

Is glassteel closed WotC content?

My PCs asked for clarification of this after our last game.

You may call down a 5-foot-wide, 30-foot-long, vertical bolt of lightning that deals 3d6 points of electricity damage. The bolt of lightning flashes down in a vertical stroke at whatever target point you choose within the spell’s range (measured from your position at the time). Any creature in the target square or in the path of the bolt is affected.

My interpretation of this is that the bolt always drops straight down (vertically) into the target square; therefore the only way to hit more than one target with a single bolt is for the targets to be stacked vertically, eg one on the ground, one levitating above the first.

The druid PC casting the spell wants to use it as a 5x30 line spell to hit multiple targets on the ground, which I disallowed based on the word "vertical" in the description.

So, was I right?

I'm curious about the nonhuman civilized races on the surface of Golarion pre-Azlant.

I can think of four that have been specifically called out: aboleths (undersea only), cyclopes, elves, and serpentfolk.

Dwarves and orcs dwelled exclusively in the Darklands pre-Earthfall; conversely, serpentfolk were apparently driven into the Darklands by the Azlanti. Gnomes were only in the First World pre-Age of Darkness.

I don't recall when halflings appeared, I'm thinking they are contemporaneous with humans.

Does that list look correct? Were there any other significent civilized races on Golarion in the distant past that have been mentioned?

I see new classes, feats, and spells; spell cards and creature cards; several new campaign settings in progress...

But is anyone in the 3PP developing generic adventure modules for Pathfinder RPG? Or is there no money in that?

Barbarian rage forbids activities that require "patience" or "concentration". Does this automatically exclude spellcasting?

The scenario I'm envisioning is a raged barbarian/sorcerer casting a true strike spell.

I'm assuming that it does exclude actions like directing a flaming sphere or something.

Link

H/T to Slashdot, among others reporting this.

So far no reports of gargantuan fiendish bugs escaping from the prison of Rovagug from this hole. So far.

I'm making some alterations to the LoF storyline to adapt it to my PCs' style. One thing I want to do is give them a motivation to activate the Scroll of Kakishon. So, here is the text of a note they will find on a corpse in Kelmarane:

I just noticed that there is a small hole in the experience point math for building encounters. It occurs when you have a trio of creatures whose base CR is even.

Consider the following examples, groups of CR1 and CR2 creatures:

CR 1
1x = 400 (CR1) OK
2x = 800 (CR3) OK
3x = 1200 (CR4) OK
4x = 1600 (CR5) OK

CR 2
1x = 600 (CR2) OK
2x = 1200 (CR4) OK
3x = 1800 (CR?) WRONG
4x = 2400 (CR6) OK

This issue extrapolates out for all even CRs.

So my question is, if I have such a threesome of CR2 creatures, do I use the 1800 XP value, resulting in an off-table XP sum, or do I just treat them as a CR5 encounter (1600 XP)? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Besides the obvious -- that they are Nexian mages -- what do we know about "Arclords"?

Is "Arclord" a title, like "Arclord Tim"?

If it's a title, is it earned or inherited?

Are all Arclords arcane spellcasters?

If the title is earned, who decides who gets to be an Arclord?

Are there only about twenty Arclords in Quantium, or more like 200? 2000?

Litorians have the following racial traits:

• +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence.
  
• Medium size.
  
• Humanoid (litorian) type.
  
• Base speed 30 feet.
  
• Low-light vision (Ex).
  
• +2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Perception and Survival checks.
  
• Claws (Ex): Unarmed attacks made by litorians are treated as slashing damage (rather than bludgeoning).
  
• Automatic languages: Common, Litorian.
  
• Bonus languages: Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc.

We've introduced a Litorian PC into our Legacy of Fire / 1001 Katapesh Nights campaign. This is the conversion I used for PFRPG; over time I'll be developing/adapting some racial feats as well.

In reference to p. 209:

Suppose a wizard on the Material Plane uses a conjuration(calling) spell such as planar binding to conjure an outsider. Further, suppose that outsider was already on the Material Plane (somewhere distant from the wizard) when it was called.

Does the outsider gain the one-time ability to return to its point of origin on the Material Plane when released, or to its native plane?

Do the spells etherealness, ethereal jaunt, or shadow walk function in the Outer Sphere? I.e., do the Outer Sphere planes have ethereal or shadow transitive demiplanes?

I've always rhymed it with droll, poll, roll, stroll, toll, and troll.

But my new player rhymes it with doll.

I'm curious how other people say it.

I've been looking over the rules about heatstroke (Heat Dangers, p.444) and I think they're mostly realistic, IF you assume that the creatures aren't staying hydrated.

My thinking is that once a character starts taking nonlethal damage from heat, they can recover 1 point of nonlethal heat damage per quart of water they drink, and avoid the fatigue effect. (My PCs cleric and druid both prepare create water each day during their overland desert journeys, so the party has ready access to lots of water.)

My PCs are based out of Katapesh. Right now they are using it as base to buy and sell magic items between overland adventures. I would like to periodically have them do some adventuring right in and around the city.

Does anyone have any recommendation for 3E urban adventure modules that could easily be transplanted to Katapesh? Ideally the adventure should minimize conflict with the local authorities, as the PCs are nowhere near ready to scrap with the Pactmasters.

Overland flight, when used for overland travel (measured in miles), has a speed cap of 8 MPH (at the no encumbrance speed). This seems fairly slow for "flight" -- more of a moving hover, and capable of being outrun by a sufficiently high level monk with a good Con.

I'm okay with this for winged flight, but for magical flight like overland flight or a flying carpet, I'm pondering the idea of having a (house rule) 5x speed multiple for high altitude, long-distance flight travel, thus increasing the speed cap of overland flight to 40MPH (30 with some encumbrance), and the daily travel max to 320 miles (240 miles with encumbrance).

Issues? Concerns?

In researching the Great Beyond, I started to notice some familiar archetypes emerging, so I started making notes. Here is the result: a list of correspondences between the Major Arcana of the Tarot and the planes of the Great Beyond:

For your consideration.

So I just noticed the section on the "sand dwarves" (Pahmet) of southwestern Osirion. Since these guys seem to have been invented since the publication of the Osirion book, can anyone answer the following:

* Whereabouts do these guys operate? In the Footprints of Rovagug? Near the Brazen Peaks? Near the ruins of Kho?

* Which pharaonic dynasty are they guarding the necropolis of? (The only dynasty we've been given a name for is the An Dynasty, of which the last Pharoah was the notorious An-Hepsu XI, the Incorruptible Pharoah.)

"Your" avatar appears to be on the cover of the new issue of Astro City. Cover illustration by Alex Ross!

Here

;-)

Pathfinder #21, p. 49:

Marids have bodies covered in fine scales and hair like flowing kelp, most often blue, black, or green...

PFRPG Bestiary, p. 142:

(A marid) resembles a powerful giant with hairless blue-green skin, deep blue eyes, flamboyant eyebrows, and pearlescent teeth.

Sooo...hairless or kelplike blue/black/green hair? Blue-green scaly skin?

I don't know what "flamboyant" eyebrows means.

I'm totally down with the pearlescent teeth though.

Now this looks like an interesting resource, if you have the means.

Amazon Link

Google Books Preview

December 2012? Really?

As a standard action once every 1d4 rounds, a jade idol can exhale a breath of gas that unerringly snakes its way through the air to

envelop a single target within 50 feet. If the target is reduced to 0 Dexterity, it is instantly turned to jade-colored stone.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like there is a sentence missing between these two.

You can go ahead and rerun the charge on this order, it will go through now. Sorry about that.

The Giant Crystal Cave

In scanning the list, my eyes blurred "Count Coup" and "Craft Song" into "Craft Soup". Mmmm, magic soup....

Para 2 of lesser planar binding (p. 322) states:

To create the trap, you must use a magic circle spell, focused inwards.

What magic circle spell should be used when calling elementals or genies?

Apologies if this has already been hashed out to death somewhere, a quick browse of these boards did not turn up a relevant thread.

Edit: brainfart

How should thrown non-melee weapons (eg, javelins, darts, shuriken) be priced when constructed from alchemical silver or adamantine? Should they be priced as ammunition or as light weapons?

These questions address the spell-like abilities of certain outsiders to summon "allies" -- for example, the ability of a bearded devil to summon either another bearded devil, or 6 lemures. These spell-like abilities are assigned percentage chances of failure (not a DC for a d20 roll).

1. Do these percentages increase if the creature is advanced? If so, by how much? Are they based on an ability score, such as Charisma?

2. Are these chances of success subject to increase or decrease due to general buffs or debuffs like inspire competence or prayer?

When converting material from 3E to PFRPG, should a skill bonus for a skill that was consolidated in PRRPG be applied to the entire new consolidated skill?

The example I am looking at right now is the jerboa familiar (LoFPG p. 5) which gives its master a +3 bonus on Jump checks, and itself has a +8 racial bonus to Jump checks. Should I just replace "Jump" with "Acrobatics", (making these bonuses apply to tumbling and balancing as well), or restrict the bonuses to jumping with Acrobatics?

Legacy of Fire Player's Guide, p 12:

Jungle areas include such wildelife as alligators,...

A minor nitpick, I admit, but this should be crocodiles. Alligators are native only to North America and China; Africa, the Middle East, India (and famously, Australia) have crocs (and lots of em!).

Edit: Crocs also in Central & South America and Indonesia/South Pacific.

Pathfinder #9, p. 81:

Yet Achaekek is not a true god, but rather one of the first creatures given life by the gods. Even early on, long before mortal life came dominate the Material Plane, some of the gods realized they would need an agent to carry out their divine justice...

Pathfinder Chronicles: Gods & Magic, p. 3

Late in this age, mortals and deities alike were shcoked when the Whispering Tyrant (technically a mortal undead and certainly not a god) killed Arazni. Never before had a god been slain by mortal hand, and the gods realized they were more vulnerable than even they had feared. Many drew together to create the mantis god Achaekek to protect them from such threats...

So, which version of Achaekek's creation is accurate, now?

As part of my preparation for my LoF/City of Brass/Arabian Nights campaign, I've been filling in some blanks in my background timeline of events around the south end of the Inner Sea.

Here are my best estimates:

P. 74:

Finally, you gain unlimited use of the wings of heaven ability. Finally, you gain the ability to speak with any creature that has a language (as per the tongues spell).

Emphasis mine.

Captain's Log: "Oops."

I like the critical feats; can we add them to magic weapons as enhancements, similar to "vorpal", e.g. to make stunning critical magic swords?

These are "fear effects", for purposes of Inspire Courage, etc.?

Are they considered to be [mind-affecting]?

This has been in rotation on CNN all afternoon.

>LINK<

A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a genie to court for theft and harassment.

The genie is accused of leaving them threatening voicemails, stealing their mobile phones and hurling rocks at them when they leave their house at night, according to the Al-Watan newspaper.

>This< is a list of nonfiction books that author John Crowley thinks every fantasy writer should read, endorsed by Neil Gaiman on his blog. Looks very applicable to world-building too.
.
.
.

• The Night Battles, Carlo Ginzburg. An alternative story of how witch and werewolf beliefs operated in medieval Italy.

• The Art of Memory, Frances Yates. How a mnemonic mentioned in Latin and Greek rhetoric flowered into an impossibly vast magico-philosophic system in the Renaissance.

• Mad Travellers, Ian Hacking. Psychology at work at the end of the 19th century to explain the problem (real at the time, it seems) of people who walk for thousands of miles without any memory of having done so. The treatments as strange as the stories.

• Sons of Sinbad, Allan Villiers. The lives and work of Arab seamen on the Indian Ocean – written in the1930s when the last of them were sailing in the same dhows as they had for centuries.

• Negara, Clifford Geertz. Classic account of the “theatre state” in 19th century Bali: government as organized spectacle.

• The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin. A sort-of-fictionalized story of Chatwin’s exploration of the meaning and uses of Australian Aboriginal song.

• Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, George Lakoff. The way different cultures view the world as exemplified in their language. Don’t invent a language without it.

• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles McKay. A debunking of popular stories, legends, miracles, and delusions, written in 1841. The debunking (full of errors itself) is as amazing as the stories. Famous for its dissection of the tulip mania.

• The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wade Davis. Real Haitian voodoo and the zombie cult.

• 1491, Charles Mann. The civilizations that thrived in the Americas before the Europeans.

• Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, Bradley K. Martin. Nearly unbelievable dystopia.

• Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution, Richard Stites. All the failed, ignored, suppressed possibilities that preceded the Communist state. Utopia meets Dead Souls.

• Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie. A medieval town in France – beliefs and politics in the period of the Cathar heresy.

• Celtic Heritage, Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees. The world of ancient Ireland and Wales – the shape of the world they experienced.

• The World of the Shining Prince, Ivan Morris. Heian-period Japan. Read it with a brief book of the period, As I Crossed the Bridge of Dreams, in the Morris translation.

• The Floating World, James A. Michener. Lighter treatment, this time Edo Japan.

• The Death of the Woman Wang or The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, both by Jonathan Spence. Among our greatest Western interpreters of Chinese culture.

• East is a Big Bird: Navigation and Logic on Puluwat Atoll, Thomas Gladwin. Polynesian sailors and their methods for crossing open seas without instruments or charts, navigation skills which are their culture.

• Castle and Cathedral, David Macauley. You probably read them as kids: books by a great draughtsman about the actual month-to-month and year-to-year building of these buildings. Let’s get our details right.

• Faces of Degeneration A European Disorder, 1848-1918, Daniel Pick. The pseudo-science of “negative eugenics” (facing the supposed fact of human devolution) – creepy, horrific in its consequences.

One of the problems in 3E/Pathfinder that I have been considering is how a PC of a substantially lower level than the party average can contribute effectively. This can occur if a new player joins (starting at first level), or a player falls behind the level curve because of absence or repeated resurrection (or both). For the purpose of this proposal I'm considering only how the player can participate in combat, on the assumption that out-of-combat roleplaying activities are either unaffected by a level gap or don't carry the same penalties for failure.

The MMORPG City of Heroes has a built-in "sidekick/mentor" system ("lackey/malefactor" for City of Villains) that allows lower level characters to join higher level parties and participate as if their level were temporarily adjusted upwards to one less than their mentor's. This proposal attempts to adapt this to levels in 3E/PFRPG classes.

DEFINITION
A "sidekick" is defined as a PC whose level is more than two levels below the average level of the rest of the party. A party can have more than one sidekick, but cannot have more sidekicks than mentors. While "sidekicked", the PC earns experience at a reduced rate, determined by multiplying each experience award by (the PC's true level divided by the lowest mentor level), rounding down.

TEMPORARY LEVEL
When a sidekick PC joins a mentor party, the PC's character level temporarily increases to be equal to the lowest mentor level in the party. Multiclassed sidekicks can apply these temporary levels to their classes in any way that adds up to the correct sidekick character level, but cannot temporarily acquire new classes -- eg sidekick levels can only be applied to classes that the sidekick has already taken at least one true level in.

Example
Khoris is a 3rd level wizard sidekicking into a party whose levels are 7th, 8th, 8th, and 6th. Khoris gains 3 temporary sidekick levels while he adventures with this party. If the 6th level character advances to 7th level, Khoris immediately gains an additional temporary level. If Khoris advances to 4th level, his temporary level remains the same -- one sidekick level is replaced by the new true level. At a true level of third, Khoris receives 3/6th of the experience awarded his mentors, rounded down.

BONUSES AND SPELLS
While sidekicked, the PC gains the BAB, base saves, Hit Dice, Caster Level, and Spells Per Day of his class(es) at the temporary level(s), rather than the true (lower) level(s). The sidekick does not gain the benefits of class abilities or spells known from the temporary sidekick level(s) (only those gained for the true level(s)).

LOSS OF TEMPORARY LEVELS
The PC loses the benefits of temporary sidekick levels, and reverts to his true levels, BAB, Hit Dice, etc., when he leaves the party at the end of a session, or (at the GM's discretion) if he engages in adventuring during the session away from his mentors.

I am starting work speccing out a new campaign world based in a late Renaissance / Age of Reason / Age of Exploration style setting.

Following Ray Winninger's excellent Dungeoncraft series recommendations, I am compiling an inspirational bibliography. Here's what I have assembled just from perusing my library and a quick browse of Amazon:

• Foglio, Phil and Kaja; Girl Genius (ongoing comic series)

• Lynch, Scott; The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies (Locke Lamora series)

• Microsoft Game Studio; Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (real-time simulation game)

• Novik, Naomi; His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory (Temeraire series)

• Ward, James M.; Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe, Dragonfrigate Wizard Halcyon Blithe (Halcyon Blithe series)
  

From saveheroclix.com:

We (Pinata) have reached a deal in principle with the new game company formed to purchase HeroClix. We're on-board and once their deal with Topps closes, we'll be back working fulltime on HeroClix. Whew!

The new company will staff up to support the transitioning brands, and Pinata will be one component of the new company's operations. We'll still be based out of Seattle, and we'll spend the vast majority of our time planning for and relaunching HeroClix.

>>LINK<<

That just popped into my head...discuss.

>LINK<

Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called “hidden people”—or, to put it more plainly, elves—in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, “we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people.”

Fricking elves. I left a bowl of milk out last night, but nobody polished my fricking shoes! Lazy little bastards.