Larur Feldin

parvusmachina's page

Organized Play Member. 56 posts (514 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. 2 wishlists. 10 Organized Play characters. 3 aliases.




Just curious as to how long this order will sit in pending? I understand you guys are probably swamped with orders due to the Golem Sale, just wanted a little update.

Thanks and keep up the awesome/hard/thankless work!


Just looking for opinions on what would be a good AP for me to GM? I have some experience running PbP games on BGG. I know I like modules that are pretty straight forward with stat blocks and encounters, I don't have much time to experiment on my own so an AP that is well written and easy to follow would be best.

No Kingmaker, I don't want to spend my free time as an RPG accountant.

I am GM-ing for my son who is playing the 4 characters in our home game. Eventually I want to get confident enough to be a PFS GM...still working on that though.

Thanks for any pointers or suggestions.


Our tale begins in the Brown Tooth Inn (of course). Benzren and Kyra are enjoying a meal and sharing tales of their last adventures when a winded messenger approaches their table.

"Master Benzren...a message for you." The messenger hands a rolled parchment to Benzren and scurries out the door.

Looking at Kyra, puzzled, Benzren opens the message and reads it out loud to Kyra.

"Dear Benzren,
My name is Rothgo, you probably don’t remember me, but we played together as small children. I am your mother’s sister’s brother’s uncle’s nephew. I am writing to you out of dire need. I live in a small village called Falcon’s Hollow near Droskar’s Crag. Something terrible is happening in town, the townsfolk are falling ill. Each one suffering from a hacking affliction. Our local priests have tried praying to the goddess Iomedae, goddess of valor, justice, and honor to no avail. Even one of the town elders has perished from this sickness. Our local herbalist, Laurel has traced the source of this disease to Brookman’s Well, a small spring on the edge of town and a rare fungus called blackscour. Unfortunately the town constable has banned the use of the well, so now, not only are we getting sick, but……sorry, my throat is starting to itch…..now we can’t even use the well!
I beg you, please come to Falcon’s Hollow and help us! Sincerely, Rothgo"

"We must leave at once!" Kyra exclaims, her holy valor calling her to action.

After gathering their gear and signing on to a caravan as guards, they make their way to Falcon's Hollow.

A quick stop at the constable's office proves futile as he is not there. After asking around a bit, Kyra and Benzren make their way to the herbalist's shop. They explain to the waiting people that they are there to help find a cure (DC check on Diplomacy rawked) and are allowed to enter the herbal shop unharmed. After a discussion with Laurel, the get the list of ingredients from her and head to the lumber camp. A brief meeting with the camp foreman and a little gold, get them a meeting with Milon Rhoddam who points out on a map the general location of the tree (moss), the witch's hut (rat tail), and the dwarven ruins (iron bloom).

The next day our heroes leave the lumber camp and make their way north in search of the tree when they come across a small fox in a trap, after attempting to free it, they are attacked from something in the nearby woods. Arrows come flying at them from the brush before they are able to chase the hobgoblin off. They free the fox, bandage it and it hobbles off into the forest. By this time it is getting late and the PCs find a spot to make camp for the night with a rotating watch.

After an uneventful evening, they head out at sunrise in search of the eldest tree. They find it, fight off the tatzlworm and gather the moss. Then it is on to the witch's hut. Benzren finds the rat tail in a jar on the bookshelf (they are using candles to see in the shadowy confines of the hut so they aren't touching anything). As soon as he grabs the jar, the cauldron activates and manages to swallow Benzren, who in turn manages to fight his way out of the cauldron.

But alas, as soon as he frees himself, Kyra is swallowed whole. She is knocked unconscious and Benzren has a failed spell backfire on him...he is CURSED!!

......to be continued.......

Will our heroes make it out of the hut alive?
Will Kyra ever wake the heck up or is she doomed to sleep in the belly of an overgrown kettle?
Will Benzren find out how to deactivate the cauldron?

GM Notes: This adventure got off to a rocky start, and now I find myself in a bit of a predicament. With the wizard cursed (dang you Critical fumble deck!) with a -4 to pretty much all rolls except damage, and the cleric unconscious inside the cauldron I don't know if they will make it out of this encounter alive.


I am running a PbF session of Black Fang's Dungeon and the party is in the room with the magical fountain. The cleric was able to decipher the runes on the fountain. Now the wizard is casting detect magic on the fountain and wants to use Knowledge Arcana (rolled a 17).

I am not sure how to handle this situation. Should the entire fountain glow? What about the arcana check? Should I tell him that it is safe to drink the water?

Initially I wanted the wizard to "get a feeling" that they need to drink the water. Or maybe in his vast magical studies he remembers reading about some fountains that provide magical effects upon drinking from them.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!


I recently got The Wizard's Challenge, Thief's Challenge, and Cleric's Challenge, one-on-one modules and plan on converting them to Pathfinder. I have never done this before and have a few questions.

Just curious if anyone has already done so?
Any suggestions on statting out the monsters/NPCs?
Any "best practices" for converting modules?

Thanks for any help.

Keith


Benzren woke up at the Brown Tooth Inn after recovering from his last adventure, only to find that Merisiel had disappeared on some "errand" and Kyra was escorting a group of pilgrims to some far off shrine.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and doning his adventuring garb, he made his way down stairs to find his dwarven buddy, Dagmar.

Not surprisingly, Dagmar was at the bar talking with the barkeep.

"Ah...Benzren...I was just talking with Amond here about some locations we could scout out for a little fun! He was telling me of an old abandoned wizard's tower that is only a day's travel on foot from here. What do you say?"

"A wizard's tower? Sounds interesting...but why is it abandoned? What happened to the previous owner?" Benzren asks.

"That's the thing," says Dagmar. "A couple years back, there was NO tower in the location. Then one day...poof!...a freakin tower appears out of no where!...Shortly after that, locals say they heard..actually felt..a loud explosion. No one has seen or heard from anyone or any thing in the tower. Adventurers have gone in, but none have come out."

"Sounds like a good time. But what about Merisiel and Kyra?"

Dagmar looks around sarcastically, "I don't see them anywhere do you? Course not! This one is for the boys!"

Dagmar and Benzren use the rest of the day to pack, and get their gear together. The next morning they hire a couple of guides to take them to the tower. Upon entering the clearing of the tower the guides bolt in the other direction, obviously terrified.

Our heroes examine the stone doors and find nothing unusual about them. Dagmar is able to force one open...just enough for them to squeeze into the corridor where they are immediately attacked by a group of nesting dire rats.

After dealing with the rats, and some further exploration into the tower, a few encounters with some goblins, spiders, and an orc. Our heroes are chased off by the numerous zombies and skeletons roaming the tower.

"Next time we go on one of your adventures Dagmar, we bring the cleric!"

Nearly out of breath and laughing his butt off,Dagmar manages to say, "Well, at least we got out with some potions and these nice bracers! I still would have liked a closer look at the green crystals growing in the library."

"Yeah," chuckles Benzren. I wanted to check out where those stairs led to, and did you see the scorch marks on the walls?!?! What the heck was that?!?"

Our heroes make their way back to the Brown Tooth Inn to count up their loot and lick their wounds.

GM notes: I wiped this adventure up for my son in about an hour using the information in Game Master's book from the Beginner Box. I made sure to make it tough enough that he couldn't get too far into it, but rewarding enough so he got some instant gratification. His sister was at the mall with friends and his mom was at work, so I wiped up an old wizard's tower, put some beasties in it and ran him through the ringer. I am still fleshing out the whole back story to this tower and the other levels, but that is another story for another time.


After enjoying weeks of fame in the town of Sandpoint, our heroes find themselves once again in the Brown Tooth Inn, sharing tales of the Black Fang Dungeon with a small group of green adventurers. The Inn is busier than usual tonight, when suddenly a hush falls over the patrons. All eyes turn to the door as a female adventurer enters with her entourage. Our heroes can tell just from looking at her that she has seen her share of adventures. With nod to the innkeeper she heads for the back room with her servants and attendants in tow.

A short while later a small, barefooted servant approaches our heroes. "The lady wishes to see you now." he says. Without waiting for an answer he hurries out the door of the inn.

Looking at each other in puzzlement, our heroes head to the back room where they meet Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch. She explains to them there is some undead trouble in a town called Galduria. There is also some missing thugs and an instructor at the local school of magic involved. Sheila gives the party enough funds to secure travel in a caravan to and from Galduria.

Upon arrival in the desolate, depressing town, our heroes proceed to ask around about the strange happenings in town. They are directed to the house of Hazelindra, the local witch and an instructor at the Twilight Academy. She explains to them that she was roughed up a couple nights ago and had an artifact stolen from her that raises the dead. She is very afraid the Academy will find out that her carelessness with the candle is to blame for the undead in the graveyard. After explaining her situation, Hazelindra pleads with our heroes to NOT tell the Academy of her involvement, and offers the candle as a payment for the heroes silence.

Our heroes head out to the graveyard at night and find the crypt where the candle is placed. After a very harrowing battle with some undead, our heroes emerge victorious and head back to Sandpoint only to have Venture-Captain Sheila take the Candle of Night and disappear into the crowd.

The only reward is her appreciation and a promise of future jobs.


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The adventure continues. Our heroes head back to town for another rest. After stopping at Savah’s Armory, they head to the Brown Tooth Inn and meet the proprietor, Amond. Amond explains to them that the Brown Tooth Inn is one of the premier adventurer’s inns in Sandpoint besides the Rusty Dragon Inn. Pathfinder Venture-Captains have been known to come to the Tooth looking for recruits even!

Kayla goes off on a holy task, mumbling something about removing curses and spells at a local hospital...

Merisiel and Benzeren are left at the Inn to discuss their future plans. As they sit at the bar, a dwarven barbarian approaches them and offers to join their fledgling party. After explaining to them that he can give as good as he takes, Dagmar the Restless joins Merisiel and Benzeren on their quest to discover what is in Black Fang’s dungeon.

Approaching the entrance to the dungeon, Merisiel notices fresh tracks in the dirt. Dagmar immediately recognizes them as goblin tracks……fresh goblin tracks. Our heroes proceed into the dungeon cautiously and come upon a group of four goblins. “Give us our wooden wyrm!” one of them shrieks. “Why not come an get it maggots!” yells Dagmar. A brief skirmish ensues with two of the goblins fleeing for their lives after Merisiel splits one in half with her rapier and Dagmar caves the cranium of another one. Benzeren on the other hand…well…let’s just say he had a little trouble aiming his staff with apprentice hand. That thing was flying all over the place!

As our heroes approach the 20 foot high cliff, Merisiel attempts to climb it, almost making it to the top but a rather large centipede crawled across her hand, freaking her out and causing her to fall, bruising her hip…and her ego.

Dagmar gives it a go, making it halfway up before the same centipede crawls across his hand freaking him out as well. “What?? I can’t stand things smaller an’ quicker ‘n me...”

Bruised but not beaten, Dagmar climbs the cliff and throws down the rope to the others so they can climb up.

The skeletons were no match for Dagmar and Benzeren, who finally got his staff to obey his apprentice hand. Merisiel just couldn’t figure out why her rapier kept slipping between the rib cage of the nearest skelly but had no effect on it at all.

Upon entering the lair of Black Fang, Merisiel drew forth the dragon bane sword, Dagmar rushed to meet the beast head-on, and Benzeren fired off some magic missiles.

With some excellent init rolls by our heroes, they were able to draw first blood, which only enraged Black Fang even more. Rearing back its glistening black head, Black Fang belched forth an intense stream of bright green acid, catching Dagmar full in the chest. If it wasn’t for the thick wolf pelts strung about his chainmail, he would have been turned into dwarf pudding. Instead, the blast knocked him unconscious.

While Black Fang was preoccupied with Dagmar, Merisiel leapt into range and plunged the dragon bane sword, hilt deep into Black Fang’s belly.

Screeching in pain, Black Fang took flight and escaped the battle, with Merisiel hanging onto the sword till it slipped free of the dragon’s flesh.

Our heroes had done it! They chased off the dragon!

GM notes: Again, the kids had a BLAST with this session. I had some fun too. Knowing my wife wouldn’t be here for this session, I whipped up a 1st level dwarven barbarian to assist the kids. I managed to keep it fair without divulging too much. Upon encountering the dragon, I used my knowledge of nature to identify it as a young black, also noting that the weakest point on any young dragon is its belly.

The Black Tooth Inn: I had gotten a free pdf from drivethrurpg for a generic inn and wanted to work it into Sandpoint so the kids had a home base. I know, I know, the Rusty Dragon is there and there is an AP involving the proprietor. I want to keep these first couple of adventures simple. It also gave me a hook or two for future adventures.

Dagmar the Restless: yes…I played a PC as I was GM-ing. I know there are two schools of thought on this. I can guarantee that this is only temporary. Once the kids get more experience with RPGs, I will step away from using a PC and move to an NPC, or the PC will just become an NPC.

Anyways, both kids were worried that they wouldn’t get to finish this adventure before bedtime. Their reactions when the dragon started to fly away is something I will always remember. Both kids cheered….CHEERED. My 14yr old daughter actually called her friend to tell her to stop texting because “I am playing Pathfinder with my dad and brother and I have to fight this dragon, I’ll call you later.” It was priceless.


Our tale left off last week with our heroes in dire straits. Both the wise wizard Benzeren and the wiley elven rogue, Merisiel were knocked unconscious by the goblin king of Black Fang's dungeon.

Our heroes awaken to the sound of Father Abstalar Zantus' voice explaining to them that they were brought to the Sandpoint Cathedral by a mysterious traveller.

Father Abstalar did not get the traveler's name nor race or sex as the traveler was covered by his/hers traveling cloak. When the heros press the elderly cleric for more details about their rescuer, he cannot divulge anything else and directs their attention to a young visting cleric named Kyra. Merisiel offered her a place in their party and Kyra eagerly accepted.

After restocking some supplies and a few complaints of being a few gold pieces light (neither hero knows if the goblins robbed them or their rescuer). Our "Company of Three" head back to Black Fang dungeon.

It has only been a few days since our heros last visited the dungeon. Signs of their battle against the goblins at the entrance are still there (the weather has been surprisingly mild the last couple of days). The heros make their way to the room with the magically glowing fountain. Kyra is able to decipher the runes on the fountain and let's Benzeren and Merisiel know that if they throw in some gold, they will be blessed. Each throws in a gold piece.....And blessed they are! Benzeren gets +2 to attack rolls for the next combat, Kyra gets healed to max HP, and Merisiel gets to choose +2 bonus to either AC, Saving Throws, or attack rolls...FOR THE REST OF THE ADVENTURE!!

They proceed to the flame room next. The booming voice warns them how to approach and each hero decides they should try to talk to it...after numerous attempts at chit chat (with no responses), they decide to focus on the ruby and statues.

After detecting that the ruby and statues are magical, Benzeren wants to approach the dais to see if he can read the glyphs. As he gets closer the flame trap springs! Both Benzeren and Merisiel make their saving throws and manage to fall to the floor only taking half damage. Kyra is still in the doorway where the flames can't reach her. Benzeren is frozen in place with fear (thus causing the trap to spring every 5 seconds, sending a jet of flame shooting at the heros). It is then they decided that the ruby isn't worth getting burned to crisp and the party moves on to the web room where they dispatch the giant spider with little drama, find some treasure and move on to the pillar room.

Benzeren sees the water pattern, Merisiel knows about wyrm meaning dragon, but no one can figure out the puzzle. Instead, Merisiel is able to swim across the pool, but is trapped by the Reefclaw. Grabbed, and near death, Kyra is able to heal the party, Benzeren casts Hand of the Apprentice with some amazing precision and is able to take out the reefclaw from across the pool. Merisiel swims back with the treasure. Everyone decides this is a good time to head back to Sandpoint, rest up, sell off some treasure, and head back to Black Fang Dungeon in a few days to find out what is in the rest of the dungeon.

The End...

GM notes-- I had a blast running this adventure again. Since I didn't want my kids to get discouraged from "failing" in their first adventure, I thought a segue from blacking out to waking up in a "hospital" would work (minus some treasure they found the first time through). I also talked my wife into playing with us tonight...she isn't home usually on Wednesday nights...there is a chance her character will be popping in and out of the adventure, or we may have to change our gaming night...either way, the kids NEEDED a cleric (just based on their playing styles...a little too reckless for a wizard and thief).

Overall, everyone had fun. I can't wait to get further into this adventure!

till next week!


Recently picked up the Pathfinder beginner box as my son (10) and my daughter (14) both expressed an interest in RPGs after a few sessions of D&D Adventures at our not-so-local gaming store (about 40 minutes away).
Not wanting to drive each week, I thought about running my own campaign (haven't played in over 20 yrs, NEVER was a GM). I had heard of the beginner box on BGG and went to Paizo's website, watched the video and was hooked!
Last night was our first of what I hope are many, sessions. Both kids are using pregenerated characters. My son (being a Wizard101 fan) is playing as Ezren. My daughter is playing Mesiriel.

Ok, a wizard and a rogue, not the ideal adventuring party, but hey, it will make for some interesting encounters. So, upon starting the adventure, the wizard took an extreme interest in the statue outside of Black Fang's dungeon. Even going so far as hitting it with his quarter staff (I was really hoping for a nat 20 so his quarter staff would break). But eventually I got him back on track. They took care of the first two goblins without too much trouble. (My daughter was rolling 17+ consecutively!). They got the treasure chest opened in the first room with the rogue picking the lock. Took drinks of water from the fountain (nothing happened to the wizard, but the rogue took damage), neither PC knew why that happened. The wizard had some goblin poo on the end of his quarter staff (from poking around in the straw mats in the previous room) so he washed it off in the fountain causing the glow to go away.

Then...they went after the other goblins. Not wanting to discourage them from their decision making I let them go. Unfortunately the encounter didn't go so well. No one made their diplomacy rolls so the goblin king attacked, first knocking out the rogue, then the wizard. It was at this point where I stopped the session (it was close to bed time). Both kids wanted to know what was going to happen next and were very vocal about having to stop at this exact moment (it was awesome! they are so excited to get back into the story next week!)

Overall I'd say the session went better than I had hoped. I managed to keep both kids engaged in the adventure and even pulled a "to be continued...." approach. I have some ideas about how what I can do next week to keep the adventure going.
I did explain to both kids that when a character dies, that is it...game over for that character. If they can't afford to resurrect them, they have to create a new character.
I would say that from a GM stand point, Paizo did a FANTASTIC job of making the GM role much easier than I remember from my days of AD&D (20+ years ago).

My biggest challenge now is not spending $$$ on all the cool maps, and GM books. Once the kids finish this adventure I plan on running them through the Beginner Box bash sessions and from there I am hoping to take them through Hollow's Hope. I also picked up The Brinewall Legacy from my LGS.

I REALLY liked the BB layout of the adventure and hope there are more products like this in the future for those of us who don't have the time to create an adventure on our own. THANK YOU PAIZO!