psionichamster's page

For those of you familiar with William Gibson's works Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties, I recommend you check out THIS!!!

Now we just gotta get Ray Kurzweil, Gibson, the R&D teams, and marketing department of Sony in the same room for more than a couple hours.

Would you believe I had to go to 3 (!!!) stores just to find an electric hotplate?!?

Lowes & Wal-Mart apparently don't bother to stock the things.

Good news is, though, BBQ smoker is coming together!!!

Also: Eggplant Lasagna in the works. Can't wait to nom it down!

psionichamster wrote:

Celestial Healer wrote:

Ha!

No, dental emergencies or locusts aside, this is one of those things I have to get better at dealing with.

This works for me, pretty much every time. Thanks go to Frank Herbert, for writing such awesomeness!

How far did you go with the Dune books?

I enjoyed myself up until the end of the third book but ** spoiler omitted **rubbed me the wrong way and I put the series down.

Ah..good old God Emperor of Dune...you silly worm-lover you...

I think I've read all of the Frank Herbert books <dashes to check>

Yup...Dune, Messiah, Children, God-Emperor, Heretics, Chapterhouse. It's been a while since I've read them, however.

The Brian Herbert continuations are pretty decent as well, but they don't hold a candle to his pops' work. That's unsurprising, really, since they are by definition derivative.

Let's put it this way, in my current Kingmaker campaign, one of the PCs has started an organization called the Mel'asae, which takes young girls in, teaches them the ways of information gathering, combat, divine magic, courtly manners, courtesan tricks, and indoctrinates them into this huge "Pro-Kingdom Inquisition." Yes, she basically recreated the Bene Gesserit.

Gnomes, meanwhile, have been driven out of the kingdom, marginalized, and are busy experimenting with strange new technologies, wilderness survival, and acquisition/taming of enormous wild beasts. So, the Fremen.

It's safe to say, I liked the books... :)

Ha!

No, dental emergencies or locusts aside, this is one of those things I have to get better at dealing with.

This works for me, pretty much every time. Thanks go to Frank Herbert, for writing such awesomeness!

The Litany Against Fear:

I Must Not Fear
Fear Is the Mind Killer
Fear is the Little-Death That Brings Total Obliteration
I Will Face My Fear
I Will Permit it to Pass Over Me and Through Me
And When it has Gone Past
I Will Turn the Inner Eye to See Its Path
Where the Fear Has Gone There Will be Nothing
Only I will Remain.

Good luck & positive thoughts, CH!

(edit: linky broken, fixed now)

In Savage Tide (the longest running, and highest-level ending campaign I've run), my players really got into the Affiliations / Obligations part of the game.

We had:

Rogue/Psion/Wizard/Elocator with her Fighter/Ardent/Elocator cohort, running the "Z Couriers," the interplanetary courier service/mail system. She specifically sought out all kinds of crazy places to put her "Z Pads" (areas where she and the others had "studied carefully" and put visual warning signs in place to advise of incoming teleporters), and in general really threw herself into the role. I even was able to "GP Sink" her for a bunch of treasure, between outfitting her small army of orphans, their housing costs, and the bits of non-combat gear she wore (like a communicator based on the correspond power, but continuous.)

Another player had the ultimate crafting cohort (Conjurer with all the "make stuff" spells and a really really high Craft(everything) check) and an interest in global commerce. He ended up buying out most of Sasserine, and creating, almost singlehandedly, forts and settlements up and down the coastline between Farshore and Sasserine. At the end of the game, I think he held something like 25-35% of all the land holdings around Sasserine, controlled the entire block of the city where the Lotus Dragon lair resided, and built a huge manor house in all of the major cities the party came across in the game (Sasserine, Cauldron, Farshore, Scuttlecove, that crazy demon city on the Abyss).

This kind of stuff really intrigued them, and made them feel like Big Darn Heroes, and absolutely did NOT need massive CR combat stuff to handle.

@GBonehead: JR & the rest of the crew off to handle WotW, upgunned to ridiculousness? HA! Sounds super-fun!

Lunch with my father today.

Is it possible to schedule a tooth extraction instead?

Pick up some Chiclets beforehand, break one (or more) into irregular chunks.

Grab some corn syrup & red food dye, mix to get fake blood consistency.

While eating with the offending parent, crunch loudly on something (be sure to order a food with walnuts/rocks/shells) like ice or peanut shells.

Grab cheek with tears in eyes, pull out "bloody" broken section of Chiclet, be sure to get fingers all goopy while you do so.

Boom, instant (fake) dental emergency, for less than 10 bucks, and a graceful exit from the unwanted scene.

Rock out FAWTLies...I'm off to dream of Cold Sam Adams, homemade smoker rigs, and kidnap!

Are you planning on keeping the player apprised of their character's situation, or are they subbed with the new NPC entirely? I'd be nosy about what my char was hearing/feeling/doing, if anything.

well, preferably he'll be out for a couple of hours at least. I do plan on delivering a physical whoopin' on him after all.

If he does awaken, I'm sure he's gonna wanna bail on the grabbers ASAP, and like I said, is a Sorcerer of quite significant skill. I have a few contingency plans in mind (bag on head, hands behind back, etc), but if he really presses the issue and manages to charm/dominate/teleport his way out of the kidnapping, good for him.

I expect the party will still hunt down and engage the enemies, which works out just fine for me.

@ Gark: I hope they keep the new guy around. That works out perfectly for my long-term plans.

Treppa wrote:

Gark the Goblin wrote:

We've had . . . incidents . . . with fermented orange juice. It tastes really good!

Automatic screwdrivers?

The 'rents didn't drink it. Us kids did. Things got a bit silly. At that age, we didn't know the meaning of "screwdriver" beyond the thing Mal uses to stab the agent. (An anachronism? How did that get in there?) (Okay, we hadn't seen the movie then. I meant the thing you use to turn screws, but I got sidetracked.) We had, however, had normal orange juice with a bit of champagne in it. So it was something like that.

mmmm....mimosa....almost as good as screwdrivers.....

psionichamster wrote:

Callous Jack wrote:

psionichamster wrote:

Hypothetical situation time:

Your PC has come up for an Assassination Event in Kingmaker. You serve as the Grand Diplomat, and know that the former Magister of the kingdom has a grudge with you.

One afternoon, you get jumped at your desk doing the "flunky to the queen" job by a CR=APL adventuring party team and a bunch of easy-to-kill mooks. If they succeed, your PC gets grabbed/killed and you get handed a pre-generated NPC to play for the interim of the rescue.

Fun situation? Annoying? Too contrived or other problems here?

Sounds fine although why would they attack the PC at his/her desk? Won't help from guards be close by?

Only time he's alone is at the desk. Even then, low-level mook guards do stand by, but Hit Team is aware and can teleport/be invisible/has their own mook team. Fighter/Wizard/Cleric, with a Rogue infiltrator on the inside of the castle.

Plan was to mob him (playing a Sorcerer, so very tricky and dodgy), knock him out (either via poison or nonlethal/lethal damage combo) and 'port away (via conjurer or Travel Cleric). Optimal success means the bad guys get initiative, whomp the poor sod, and cart him off before anyone knows anything is wrong. Well, any PC, that is.

Guards shout the alarm, other PCs get involved in the scene, I hand Mr. Kidnap Victim a shiny new Rogue NPC to play for the interim, and they go on a Rescue the Diplomat quest.

Would you A: enjoy the adventure and challege or B: get in a huff because I "took your PC away" for a bit?

My advice, FWIW:

1. Choose a player you know.
2. Make sure the plan is one that is well thought out and would work, aside from GM fiat.
3. Think about how apparent the success conditions for the player will be.

In other words, I think that a player who was mature and enjoyed overcoming a challenge would appreciate be singled out for something like this. If s/he put a lot of thought into the character, play into the...

cool, good to know its not an instant "GAH!WTF?" flag.

Justin Franklin wrote:

psionichamster wrote:

Also, Hi FAWTLies.

Welcome!

+1, I remember my brother's hamster. The poor thing.......

thus, phenomenal psionic powers...pew-pew brain zappies...

psionichamster wrote:

ah. While I have had that happen to me, I could not safely imbibe the result. Something about the burning feel put me off.

Going in or coming out?

Going in. Not enough got down to make the aftereffect problematic.

If there's no burning sensation, then you're not doing it right.

While appropriate in this situation, without context this could sound very very creepy.

Well played, Mr. Zombie, well, played.

psionichamster wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Studpuffin wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

AZ (or anyone else), have you ever brewed your own rootbeer?

We did so in junior high science class using Hires extract.

How did it turn out?

Quite *hic* good and only alightly slalcoholic.

Anything like that orange juice?

The spontaneous apple juice ==> apple wine transformation was spectacular. And it made an entire gallon. That was a good Sunday.

This intrigues me. More info please.

Leave it out where it can ferment. Drink the result. :P

ah. While I have had that happen to me, I could not safely imbibe the result. Something about the burning feel put me off.

WTF?!? It seems that some of you are actually talking about gaming stuff! On a gaming website?!? Preposterous! What will the neighbors think?

** spoiler omitted **

Wouldn't internet neighbors be like WWW.Whitehouse.Com (NSFW, thus no linky)?

Or perhaps like those people who sit next to you on the bus/train and read your phone/tablet/laptop over your shoulder?

Studpuffin wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

Treppa wrote:

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

AZ (or anyone else), have you ever brewed your own rootbeer?

We did so in junior high science class using Hires extract.

How did it turn out?

Quite *hic* good and only alightly slalcoholic.

Anything like that orange juice?

The spontaneous apple juice ==> apple wine transformation was spectacular. And it made an entire gallon. That was a good Sunday.

This intrigues me. More info please.

psionichamster wrote:

Hypothetical situation time:

Your PC has come up for an Assassination Event in Kingmaker. You serve as the Grand Diplomat, and know that the former Magister of the kingdom has a grudge with you.

One afternoon, you get jumped at your desk doing the "flunky to the queen" job by a CR=APL adventuring party team and a bunch of easy-to-kill mooks. If they succeed, your PC gets grabbed/killed and you get handed a pre-generated NPC to play for the interim of the rescue.

Fun situation? Annoying? Too contrived or other problems here?

Sounds fine although why would they attack the PC at his/her desk? Won't help from guards be close by?

Only time he's alone is at the desk. Even then, low-level mook guards do stand by, but Hit Team is aware and can teleport/be invisible/has their own mook team. Fighter/Wizard/Cleric, with a Rogue infiltrator on the inside of the castle.

Plan was to mob him (playing a Sorcerer, so very tricky and dodgy), knock him out (either via poison or nonlethal/lethal damage combo) and 'port away (via conjurer or Travel Cleric). Optimal success means the bad guys get initiative, whomp the poor sod, and cart him off before anyone knows anything is wrong. Well, any PC, that is.

Guards shout the alarm, other PCs get involved in the scene, I hand Mr. Kidnap Victim a shiny new Rogue NPC to play for the interim, and they go on a Rescue the Diplomat quest.

Would you A: enjoy the adventure and challege or B: get in a huff because I "took your PC away" for a bit?

psionichamster wrote:

Hypothetical situation time:

Your PC has come up for an Assassination Event in Kingmaker. You serve as the Grand Diplomat, and know that the former Magister of the kingdom has a grudge with you.

One afternoon, you get jumped at your desk doing the "flunky to the queen" job by a CR=APL adventuring party team and a bunch of easy-to-kill mooks. If they succeed, your PC gets grabbed/killed and you get handed a pre-generated NPC to play for the interim of the rescue.

Fun situation? Annoying? Too contrived or other problems here?

1. Has the player done anything to bring this on themselves?

2. Would there be any success conditions in which their playing the pregen successfully could result in them regaining their PC alive?

2: yes, all the mooks are geared towards non-lethal damage (unarmed, lassos), there is a NPC cleric in the party and it's in their best interest to take you alive. NPC is well-optimized rogue/poisoner who thematically belongs in your kingdom and can carry his weight.

1: not you in particular, but your nation. Also, the Marshal is in fact the actual target and you're just step one of the trap.

Jester, I like the way you think. The first is exactly how I had envisioned it going...contact poison on the goblet/teacup.

Hypothetical situation time:

Your PC has come up for an Assassination Event in Kingmaker. You serve as the Grand Diplomat, and know that the former Magister of the kingdom has a grudge with you.

One afternoon, you get jumped at your desk doing the "flunky to the queen" job by a CR=APL adventuring party team and a bunch of easy-to-kill mooks. If they succeed, your PC gets grabbed/killed and you get handed a pre-generated NPC to play for the interim of the rescue.

Fun situation? Annoying? Too contrived or other problems here?

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

psionichamster wrote:

Also, Hi FAWTLies.

Ah, welcome then, and very good. Congratulations on your shedding of lurker status. It's like the day parents throw their baby into the water to force it to swim or something.

I'm pretty sure I never lurked on this thread. I just jumped in with both torches. I mean feet.

I'm "pretty sure" because I don't remember seeing Solnes join.

I don't know...i did wanna get caught up, after all.

By long-term I mean off-an-on since #2 or @3, iirc.\

And I had about 4 or 5 hours at work the other day with nothing to do, from about 0000-0500 or so. FAWTL kept me awake, thankfully, all 300 some odd pages of it.

psionichamster wrote:

Also, Hi FAWTLies.

Welcome! Did you get cookies yet?

thanks.

i appreciate the offer, but no cookies for me. share 'em with the other gobs, why don't ya?

How to do what I described above.

sorry, FHDM, it's an Alton Brown designed setup

2 Large Terra Cotta Planters
Hot Plate
Metal Grill
Bricks
Chunks of Hardwood

Large chunk of Pork Butt/Beef Brisket

70$ ceramic home smoker, for top notch BBQ.

Cannot wait to hit the hardware store tomorrow!

Crimson Jester wrote:

Also several Tropes fit Kansas...

Flat as a pancake
Tornadoes every weekend.
Rednecks are amongst us.
The Idyllic rural living situation.

They just use different names for it all. And none of them are exactly true.

No matter how flat you make a pancake, it's always got two sides.

good & evil?

aaaannnndddd....done.

<thumpsup!>

psionichamster wrote:

Callous Jack wrote:

psionichamster wrote:

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Howdy, Todd. Who are you? A friend of CJ's?

Hmmm...must be busy drinking his ale.

aye, twas

Not friend, per se. Found his Paper Minis set & loved em. So I bought em.

Long-time lurker, though.

Thanks again for the reviews!

no worries, mate.

good is good, after all.

You still gotta put your star rating in for set #4.

*nudge, nudge*

;-)

thought i did. will take care of that.

psionichamster wrote:

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Howdy, Todd. Who are you? A friend of CJ's?

Hmmm...must be busy drinking his ale.

aye, twas

Not friend, per se. Found his Paper Minis set & loved em. So I bought em.

Long-time lurker, though.

Thanks again for the reviews!

no worries, mate.

good is good, after all.

Also, Hi FAWTLies.

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Howdy, Todd. Who are you? A friend of CJ's?

Hmmm...must be busy drinking his ale.

aye, twas

Not friend, per se. Found his Paper Minis set & loved em. So I bought em.

Long-time lurker, though.

Mmm....ice-cold Long Trail Ale...yum yum

Another tip to include in this hypothetical "Mythic Adventures" book:

Use the others around you for resources. This is why Paizo, WoTC, KQ, and any other good publisher employs teams of people. More heads thinking about something, and sharing those ideas, is better.

Recently, I have been collaborating with a few board members to tweak encounters for my Kingmaker campaign. Just being able to bounce the idea for a particular encounter led to all sorts of awesome plot/NPC development. In fact, a few simple emails helped me create a whole new LBEG for the transition between Book 4 & Book 5.

In addition, listen to your players! Most of the time, they will create wild tangents of thoughts that you would never have dreamed of.

"Hm, that wizard guy last week was really tough. I bet he was really a devil in disguise, or some kind of shapeshifting dragon or something."

Well, he wasn't before, but you can be darned sure he is now.

The trick is to pick & choose those tidbits you lift, and spread them out over time. If you drop the "plot twist exactly as you predicted it would happen" card too many times, they'll catch on to you. If, instead, you absorb that info, integrate into your future plans, and stay flexible enough to use it, bob's your uncle you're all set!

Anyone who builds a stronghold in a world where scry exists is going to sandwich lead into the walls/floor/ceiling of at least the important rooms where he/she spends his/her time. If they don/t have the foresight to do that they deserved to be scry'd and fry'd.

Even better: The King, Grand Vizier, Royal Knight Captain, and the rest of those stuffed-shirt-medal-wearing-popinjays? Yeah, they're nothing but decoys.

The real mastermind BBEG dresses like a peasant/scullery boy/nameless mook #2812, and generates all his orders through at least half-a-dozen cut-outs and blind drops.

Sure, it makes getting things done quickly a problem, but that's what SOP's and contingency plans are for, right?

Can't be too careful, after all!

psionichamster wrote:

Wicked sweet. Just got Fortress of the Stone Giants, Sins of the Saviors, and Spires of Xin-Shalast sets.

What was I waiting for?

These are fantastic, and multi-purpose, especially the Huge and larger minis...the DnD minis ones I have just don't quite cut it when dealing with that size...it's nice to have the appropriate fig.

Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy them! If you ever have a chance, please post some pics. I love to see them on the battle map. :)

cool, I'll try to remember to do that.

Wicked sweet. Just got Fortress of the Stone Giants, Sins of the Saviors, and Spires of Xin-Shalast sets.

What was I waiting for?

These are fantastic, and multi-purpose, especially the Huge and larger minis...the DnD minis ones I have just don't quite cut it when dealing with that size...it's nice to have the appropriate fig.

I like to leave journals/letters/etc from one NPC to another.

They feel like "clues" that the PCs have to put together and puzzle out to learn the true story of what's going on behind the scenes.

Alternatively, I "hire" the PCs into the overall plot of the books. Wizards with high Linguistics, Bards with crazy knowledge skills, expert treasure hunters and trap-finders, these are exactly the kind of people most villains would want for their minions, after all.

So, I tend to generate a few cut-out NPCs that can get pieces of the info to the PCs (as well as plot hooks) and then make THEM search out and figure out all the connections.

Of course, in Kingmaker, the overall meta-plot is specifically hidden from their view, and that's fine. The players (& PCs) should really be more interested in their own directed activities, rather than reacting to external forces until the very end.

I like the above stat block (Captain Andoran, HA!)

Personally, I'd say he was a 15 pt buy Human (with crappy physical stats and high mental, especially Wis & Cha), who gets the Advanced Simple Template at least once, if not twice.

Ranger with Favored Enemy: Nazi, natch!

Another thing that just jumped out at me:

Mapping.

When you're dealing with, say, 9th-13th level PC's, you can use detailed maps with terrain, elevations, etc.

By 14th-15th level, everyone is flying/teleporting/ignoring all terrain features/a dragon so it becomes more of an exercise in futility to draw out the maps.

I tend to go back to "old school" in those cases, usually just describing the scene and features without drawing out the whole deal. It puts a bit more strain on the GM to keep everything in sync and ensure it all stays flowing.

Then you get the players trying to argue about whether that last drow gets caught in the AoE effect, or what have you, and your whole mental picture just crashes down.

To those who use projectors & AV equipped university rooms: I am so very jealous!!!

So, are these gonna be up for sale/download when completed?

Or are they a home-game dealy?

I only ask, because the look fantastic, and I would like to give you money for them!

(The following events occurred on 6/19/2011, real time. Just under one year ago, we began Stolen Lands. In-Game, we started the whole campaign on Calistril 16, 4710. This log's adventure began Neth 13, 4713, while Kamelot's Founding was Gozran, 4710. Time flies, no?)

The Cast:

Rilani Astin Marten; Queen of Kamelot and Cavalier of the Order of the Cockatrice.

Ganon Malfoy; Royal Diplomat and Infernal Sorcerer.

Artemis Gayle; Marshal of Kamelot and Druid of Abadar

Hestia the Dwarf (now human); National Headsman and Barbarian Extraordinaire.

Enrol-Dur the Transmuter; Grand Magister and Scion of Karzoug

Brunner; Her Majesty's Wetnurse, Mayor of Kamelot, and Oracle of Life.

We rejoin our marauding band of "heroes" as they encountered a strange grove of trees in the grassland northwest of the Narlmarches. Having easily spotted the four huge, out-of-place plants midst the copse, Artemis changed into her normal human form and approached. In the wooded area, she spotted 4 "strange" trees, which turned out to be Mr.'s Willow, Pine, Palm, and Mahogany, ancient and patient Treants. Curious as to why such a disparate group of plant creatures (and packing plenty of control plants just in case, she approached even closer.

The entire small forest seemed to move and warp, inviting the Druid deeper under the leaves. Shortly, she encountered a clearing which was perfectly flat and almost a perfect circle. The surrounding oaks, all old and powerful trees in their own right, stood in a ring around the circumference spaced equidistant. Soon enough, Artemis's curiosity and patience rewarded her; a smiling human female stepped out from the shadows, clad in a simple white linen shift, with wildflowers woven in the braids of her long chestnut hair.

Introducing herself as Lyrsiarra, and the protector of this grove, she eventually managed to soothe Artemis's natural suspicions. After some brief conversation, and while the rest of the party hustled up to the miniature forest, the Blodeuweed Queen unfolded her story.

As it turns out, a terrible force of destruction, wielding fire and steel, has driven a large number of the natural creatures from the Eastern Narlmarches. Many of her Dryad cousins have had their mighty oaks felled, and are forever lost to this world. Lyrisiarra explained that she had received a vision in her dreams, revealing the metal-toothed, fire-breathing danger; she also learned what she must do to repair the damage. A Dryad requires an oak to grow, but only a tiny fraction of the oaks' acorns contain the animating force and connection to the First World necessary. So, the Plains must sacrifice some of their open, fertile land. She found Mr. Mahogany in her travels through the forest, and with his aid solicited the help of three other Treants. Together, the five scoured the Narlmarches and surrounding grasslands in search of oaks, hoping to gather enough to increase the odds of a Dryad seedling.

Putting two and two together, the party realized this creature posed them no ill-will (especially since they knew better than to admit they were the "metal-toothed, fire-breathing menace). Having had success with the lesser Blodeuweed to the east, they pledged their assistance in her quest, marked the hex as a "nature preserve" and said their goodbyes. A shame, they didn't seem very strongly inclined to fight a "Hippy Meadows Dryad" and her 4 Treant allies. That could be because of the 8 other animated trees already walking around and chilling with their Treant masters. Oh well, they gotta be smart sometime, right?

From the Grove, they set out northwest, intent on securing Wyvernstone bridge, and exploring for future road-laying purposes. Along the way, they encountered a basilisk, who posed next to no real threat. Once up and around Lake Hooktongue, they teleported back to Kamelot, picked up the Air Kamelot flight heading east (read: a large basket carried by Artemis's pet roc). Intent on finishing up their map of the Kamelands, they set out for the hills southwest of the Tors of Levenies. Specifically, they wanted Lake Silverstep and the surrounding hexes.

Along the way, some not-so-wise Spriggans (yes, Spriggans) decided to ambush the group in a little valley. That ended about as expected, with the only surviving foe fleeing at top speed, in his newfound squirrel glory. While at the lake, the group took some time to acquire some tasty eels and score some R&R. An old Mastodon wandered by their campsite, all alone, near demented with age, and lonely. They said hi, gave him some belly rubs, and sent him on his way. The Mudmen proved no challenge, with fireballs and the like removing their threat from the Mineral Mud Flats. Once the local are was sufficiently mapped and relaxed-in, they once again <bamf>'d off, this time to the Swamp Scar.

Intent on finishing up the lower Hooktongue Slough, they broke out the hover-horse-cycles (phantom steed spells)(or in Rilani's case, on a Hover-Chocobo) and set off south through the swamp. Along the way, they encountered some Nuckelavee, which the party promptly turned into kibble-n-bits. Setting up camp in the Slough, everything seemed quiet, a little too quiet (or perhaps even a little too Raph).

During that night, Ganon beheld a magnificent vision; a butterfly-winged, luminous naked woman seemed to descend from the moon itself. Cynical (and NOT believing this to be the material incarnation of Desna, for some reason), the Diplomat woke everyone up and scanned the area for threats. As it turns out, both Brunner and Artemis woke up missing gear; Artemis had lost a spare longbow, while Brunner could not find some rather nice Ioun Stones (like the +1 CL Orange Prism....hehe).

A brief tracking session later, and the party found what appeared to be wolf-prints some 100 yards or so away. Hot in pursuit, Artemis lead the charge in wolf form herself. Tearing through the swamp with her new scent ability, she soon arrived at a place where the pack of wolf-tracks split. Just at that point, several tricksy fey popped out the trees and tried their little fey tricks. Nothing seemed to work, however, and all but one of the pixies fell to fire, shotguns, and other more mundane methods. After interrogating the survivor and soliciting his aid (in exchange for his life, or so he was led to believe), our heroes trekked through the swamp until they found a strange, spherical patch of shrubbery.

Inside, Enrol could detect the missing magic items, but first they had to get through the Worg pack, remaining pixies, and Perlivash. Yes, Perlivash the Faerie Dragon from Book 1. He still kicks it in these parts, and had apparently gathered up some dissident fey and their Worg buddies, piecing together a slap-dash resistance movement. That night, however, his reign as the Terror What Goes Roar In The Night <ROAR!> his full and proper title, in Sylvan came to an abrupt and inglorious end. A couple of acid-balls put paid to the Tiny dragon and re-acquired the missing gear, as well as a new bag of holding. Poor little Perlivash...

After some more exploration, the group encountered some more Shambling Mounds (readily nabbed by Artemis via control plants) and then a small group of Forest Centaurs. Peaceful contact ensued, with the Nomen tribe far to the east as the primary point of discussion.

The group continued along in the Hooktongue Slough, exploring the "Haunted Area" the Bog-Striders warned of. While wandering the dark, stinky, creepy bog, 4 creatures broke the surface of the swamp, paralyzing Rilani and Boko with their terrible visages. Unable to put the beasts down (what they were, noone could tell, beyond their general "undead" nature) quickly enough, they mobbed The Royal Chocobo and tore him down with a successful coup de grace. Rilani avoided a similar fate only through the timely application of a freedom of movement spell. Once free of the paralysis, Her Majesty took vengeance for her slain companion. The bog mummies fell to blade and spell soon thereafter.

From there, the group elected to bug out, teleporting back to the capitol. The next day, they returned to the same spot, casting all sorts of divination magic (mostly legend lore) to determine just WTF had happened here. They got the tasty bits of information regarding Urgathoa's Curse and the ancient undead which it had created. After some swamp-controlling magic (control water[i]) and searching, the group managed to gather up the long-lost bones of the fallen Clerics, which Artemis then [i]hallowed, attempting to quiet the restless evil in the area. How successful she was, the group still doesn't know (since it's a creepy, icky swamp even WITHOUT the curse of the Pallid Princess in place. Kinda like "Evil Dagobah" without Yoda.), but it seemed to work, at least.

Their next exploration almost proved to be the last for a couple of our heroes. In the "Dangerous Monster" hex (again, as indicated by the Bog-Striders), the party encountered a couple of Giant Slugs engaged in a courtship duel, while a slightly smaller Giant Slug "stood" nearby. Their knowledge resources proved to be up the challenge, this time, so they started the fight well aware of the dangers with these critters. They also knew of their DR/Slashing, which prompted Hestia to switch from her usual Vicious Raging Earthbreaker to a certain greatsword, blessed by Our Lord in Iron himself. As soon as she drew Ovrinbaane, Hestia biffed her save. Everyone at the table (sans yours truly) had a similar look of "Uh-Oh" as they realized just what happened.

Flying, Hasted, and buffed against energy damage, Hestia turned into a guided missile of doom, intent on blender-izing her "former" allies for the glory of Gorum. Between her already formidable combat prowess, the suite of spells amping her up, and the artifact sword's ability to dispel hostile magic on its wielder, the party was in a bad way. Let's not forget, 3 giant slugs with their acid-spit, tongues, and general all-round orneriness still remained to be dealt with.

Brunner caught a full-attack from the raging Headsman, nearly being shredded (again) in one turn. Only Rilani's intervention (and wicked high AC) prevented his demise. The two melee-ladies exchanged blows for several rounds, actually fairly well matched. Rilani couldn't keep up with Hestia's damage output, but Her Majesty did have Ganon and Enrol trying telekinesis disarms, Artemis healing her, and (eventuallY) Brunner channeling most of the sword-damage taken.

This battle proved to be a close fight, but Hestia couldn't keep up against the entire party. She simply didn't have the healing capability necessary. Rilani's AC in the 40s certainly didn't help Ovrinbaane's cause, either. Artemis took care of the Slugs herself, landing and taking human form again. A few spells later, and she tore through them (in melee, possibly for the first time ever in her natural form) like a salt-crystal-chainsaw.

Once the Barbarian was safely put down (and then stabilized), Enrol commandeered the dangerous artifact weapon, stashing it in an extradimensional storage bag. The group then 'ported back to Kamelot, shaking their heads and saying to themselves, "Why did we let her keep that sword, anyways?"

Back in town for the obligatory Administration Weeks, we paused there.

Everyone is now Level 12 (I believe.....if you all just leveled to 11, don't go thinking you get a free level out this! :) ) and they have explored the entirety of the maps for books 1, 2, and 3.

We will resume our adventure July 17, 2011.

In game, we start on Thursday of Kuthona's Administration Week, about 1400. Be prepared for fun, excitement, mysteries, and dancing. Well, maybe not the dancing, but definitely the other stuff!

Things I have noticed that make High Level Play more irritating than Low to Mid Level Play:

(lots of the stuff above)

1: Lack of Player preparation. Seriously, if I am going to GM a game with 4-6 Level 15+ PC's, I have to know the NPCs, Monsters, Terrain, Overall Plot, Maps, Traps, Conditional Encounters, as well as any other myriad things. You have ONE character to keep track of. Know it backwards, forwards, left and right.

2: Boredom at the table. So, Archer McPincushion rolls about 700 attacks, doing some ridiculous damage to the baddy. Because of that, and all the buffs and conditional modifiers running, it takes him 5+ minutes just to resolve a single attack routine. Don't do that, players, just don't. (See #1, as well.

3: I Win Powers. Freedom of Movement means that badass grapple monster auto-fails. So much for that entire line of maneuvers, eh? Similar abilities result in similar immunity. I really like how PF changed Hero's Feast and Neutralize Poison, for this exact reason.

4: Rocket Tag. This is less of an issue if the GM is hard-line about Magic Item acquisition and Stat Arrays at character creation. If not, it is fairly easy to get to the point where winning Initiative means the Cleric/Wizard/Charging Paladin/etc can simply one-shot the critter, then go have tea. This results in #2 very quickly.

5: Gotta Have It Items. Pretty much every player at my table loves to take Item Crafting Feats & the Hedge Wizard Trait. Why? Because then they can tweak their items and gear to be exactly the #'s and abilities to maximize their "I Win" potential. This results in a serious headache as I then have to recalculate all the NPCs and Critters for the adventures following. It becomes an arms race between Monster and PC, where the GM is constantly on the back foot (again, because of the disparity in Preparation Time between Player and GM).

6: NPC creation and Monster Creation takes a LONG time. Much longer than say, General Encounter Design and Story Writing. So, those two features (the most fun for me, at least) get sidelined in favor of accounting and statistics.

Hmmmm...this topic intrigues me. The idea that Warrior types can't do "appropriate" damage on their one Standard Action, while Casters can conceivably change the whole battlefield with the same time frame, strikes me as less-than-perfect.

Solutions I have seen/though of (but have yet to try out):

Nerf Casters: Make everything a Full Round casting time, at least. (Not desirable - makes for static play and delays the game even more than fighters rolling 5-6 attacks)

Increase Damage Output: Essentially, give everyone "Vital Strike" for free. When their BAB hits +6, rather than get a 2nd attack, they increase the damage for their weapon by its base amount. (This kind-of works, but only if the increased weapon damage applies to all Standard Action attacks.) I think this may be the seed of an elegant solution, but it needs some work, obviously

Change What Standard Actions Do: Perhaps, at BAB 11, a Standard Action Attack is actually 2 attacks? In the case of Two Weapon Fighting, Main/Off-Hand/Main as Standard Action?

Reduce HP, and Lose all Iterative Attacks: Now we're talking about revamping the whole shebang, which is not my intention. It is an option, however (I think Grimcleaver had a setup where everyone had little bitty HP pools, and things like fireball did 1d6+x, rather than xd6 damage).

So, pick 'em apart...let's see if we can't hammer out some way to make PF Warrior Types even more awesome!

I was expecting this little guy to be like the old grandfatherly type. You know, everyone knows him, everyone loves him, and he sees/hears everything.

Keeping Divination is very nice, but not 100% necessary, if your intelligence is coming from other people. Enchantment seems superfluous, with good social skills.

This way, he uses mundane methods to obtain his info & prepare corpses for burial, and magic for undead creation and "cleaning up messes."

Ymmv, of course.

A night forties with Akiros, Aux, and Dovan, possibly with a couple of regular thugs, sounds to be in toe offing.

They have a druid, so getting out unnoticed (especially from 200 yards out) should be no problem. Then, late-night assault on the pj wearing heroes.

Will have a proper entry later in the week, just need to chat with Rilani's player about exact timeline/hexes.

Unfortunately I just went onto my weekends "on" rotation at work, so 3 weeks from today we'll be back in the saddle.

Why not straight Necromancer?

Info Broker = Smart. Smart is something Wizards do very very well. The Gnome Obsessed racial trait will assist in those Profession: Undertaker rolls (don't remember if Profession is Wizard class skill. Even so, you'll do fine.)

Knowledge: Local, Diplomacy, and Knowledge: Religion are you other big skill needs, so you're all set there.

Don't prohibit Illusion or Transmutation, so Evocation, Enchantment, and Divination are all decent schools to drop.

From there, the world's your oyster. You have the social skills to get along with your neighbors, the smarts to keep your "private" stock private, and the skills to pull off the job you're "pretending" to perform.

Gentle Repose is your friend, as is a healthy investment in Craft: Alchemy (or just a lot of gp spent on perfumes.)

Generally, the only nations in history that had such were those engaged in conquest, and those facing imminent threat.

Funny enough, my expansionist PCs fall exactly into the former, while soon to also be in the latter group there.

Plus, it's a handy way to drain them of BP.

The Kingmaker charter specifically calls out the punishment for unrepentant banditry as death by rope or blade. I'd say fist, choke hold, or face biting would all fall under acceptable execution methods.

In short, well within rights and alignment.

Despite the considerable up-front costs and construction times, constructs and simulacrums of the player characters are probably the best "shock troops" that can be had, especially the latter. Well, that and piloted apparati of Kwalish or whatever they're called. Toss a bottle of air or two in each apparatus and a supply of chow, you have some (expensive) amphibious units. The upside to high upfront cost units like these is that you usually have no weekly consumption costs of significance. No pay, no training, only housing and equippage. Well, except the kobolds driving the apparati.

I fear I have become a bad influence on you. Underwater kobold assault teams? Whatever will become of the world?

:)

Placeholder post / Teaser Trailer:

Our "heroes" have successfully pacified most of Hooktongue Slough, and have established several viable city sites:

Kamelot, the capital, located at the Old Stag Lord's Fort. Home to the Academy, Royal Temple of Abadar, and a huge population. Rapidly becoming an international trade hub.

Haven, located on the site of the ancient Temple of Erastil (now Abadar). The "husbandry" city, where all manner of livestock can be bought, sold, traded, or raised. Also the center of the Order of the Inquisition (or Mel'issae).

Varnhold, a sleepy little village, steadily churning out foodstuffs and the occasional newbie hero.

Tatzlford], another small village, set deep in the Narlmarches. Well defended now, and in control of the Unicorn Road and Wyvernstone Road, it is on its way to true legitimacy.

Westville, formerly known as Fort Drelev. The most recent acquisition, yet still one of the most populous (save Kamelot proper). Supplying fish, peasants, and providing the "gateway to the west" for our "heroes'" fledgling nation.

More to come...

Oh man, oh man....

The kobolds already rule the rivers, will soon rule the lakes, and now you want them to take the lakebeds, also?

Channeling a certain Arch-Villain a bit much? ;)

This Sunday should prove very satisfying, I'd think...especially once we start breaking out the Mass Combat rules!