Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (GM Reference)


Serpent's Skull

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Couple things I added to this AP - I do not like the Umbargo part of racing to ruin, so I'm extending the stay on the island just a little...

A hurricane blew through just before the PC's were going to enter the temple - luckily they were all holed up in the lighthouse... this blew in a new shipwreck to add a few more characters. The PC's have just destroyed the Alter in the temple causing the pulse to wash over the island, only instead of killing all the undead on the island and removing the curse, I'm having this RAISE all the spirits, creating a near endless hoard emerging from the surf and the island just as the players are exiting the temple.

The PC's will have a desperate race, undead will be harrying them (claws from the ground even) until they can get back to the relative safety of the lighthouse. Of course on the way, they will discover the newly wrecked ship, with a few survivors about to all be finished off by the undead. Side note, there is a Ranger in my party who just reached 4th level and is getting his animal companion... I'm going to have it trapped in a cage (exotic animal on board the ship to be sold), which the ranger can rescue as a cool background on where/why he bonds with his animal (leopard).

This accomplishes a few things, I have more innocents to kill off without wasting PC's - to make the PC's have more of a feeling that they 'survived' the island, giving them a sense of horror on the island, make up lost EXP for getting rid of the 'uprising' in RtR.. I'm hoping to have a more intense exit, rather than ok, the islands cleared, time to find a ship... I haven't ran an AP before, does anyone see this unbalancing the AP too much or changing things too much?

Liberty's Edge

I'm definitely not a fan of the "ship arrives whenever they beat the island" ending, so your idea is a good solution. However, be careful to telegraph that running is the best option, because generally parties assume they are facing level-appropriate threats. You might also include a victory mechanism, like surviving until the next morning = all the undead burn to ash (in case the party decides they can't put wounded NPCs on a half-wrecked vessel, and they're better off holing up in the lighthouse).


Opinions:
(1) I personally would avoid the whole, "Destroying the altar awakens the entire island" approach. Why? Because you're teaching PCs that it's better to leave vile, evil altars alone than to try to deal with them. Do you really want to set that precedent for all books of all APs going forward? "Destroying evil altars Bad?"
It's the kind of thing players remember, so whether intended for good or for ill, you're setting your players up to mistrust altars forevermore.

(2) On the other hand, I love the idea of "fleeing the island with the undead hordes on their heels." Any way you can have Yarzoth shatter the altar instead as a final, "With my last breath, I spit at thee" moment? In her death throes, she triggers something that shatters the altar and unleashes the hordes? Or maybe she even does it to get away? (She's a recurring villain in my campaign.)

(3) As usual, things like the Freemen's Revolt make me ecstatic I long ago did away with XP. The idea of a bunch of teenage kids from Berkeley putting down a slave revolt was just, "No. They're not going to do that, no matter what."
So I'm not familiar with the "Umbargo" (Googled it and everything, but didn't find it), but I'm a big fan of cutting out sections that don't fit in with your vision of the AP. Unfortunately, if you're still using XP, that means you have to figure out how to make up for it.


True Gark...

I'm a little worried about doing this in case they do pick a stand and fight option.... what I do have going for me is they split up, leaving ALL the npc's at the lighthouse when they entered the temple.. they also have all their treasure there. So ideally this plan plays out they get to the survivors from the new wreck and lead them to the relative safety of the lighthouse... they realize the odds at this point and turn on the lighthouse.. and then it becomes 'if we can just make it through the night' sort of scenario.

New ship comes to their rescue in a day or two of surviving an undead seige...

I like your idea though, if they do stand and fight without looking for rescue, I could have the undead having risen from the curse being broken, turning to ash once the curse has finally lifted from the entire island (basically a timer like you suggest)... preventing a TPK scenario... of course then I'm back to we beat the island, now it's time to look for a way off... but at least I made an effort to avoid that...


NobodysHome - we paused after they broke the alter.. but your number 2 idea would have been great! Too bad I didn't think of that... I also didn't think of their response to having something bad happen when they destroy and evil alter... definitely something I didn't take into account.... dang it...


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PS.. Yarzoth did survive, I was planning to have her take the identity of one of the new shipwreck victims under assault from the undead, so the PC's would actually be rescuing her... I like this because in the chaos, I think my characters won't spend a lot of time thinking about Yarzoth's whereabouts rather will be focused on saving as many as they can.... then she'll ride with them to Eleder and make an appearance at an opportune time...

Liberty's Edge

If they stay and fight: You could make the wrecked ship considerably more fixable than the Jenivere, and make more of the surviving NPCs seasoned sailors - it'll take a few days of peace to repair the ship, but afterwards it'll be seaworthy enough to get to Eleder.


I actually really like that Gark... it gives the PC's some good options rather than feeling 'forced' back to the lighthouse... they could help rebuild new ship and get it sailing, abandoning the other PC's back in the lighthouse.. they could try to rebuild the new ship and send a rescue party to bring the others back before the new vessel gets repaired and departs without them... they could decide to get everyone back to the lighthouse... lots of options should keep them feeling in control. Nice one!

Liberty's Edge

Thanks! :D

Liberty's Edge

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One of my players just said "hey that looks kinda like a guitar" and I'm not sure if that's exactly what it is but hey, Y1 looks a lot like some kinda string instrument.


Hi,

By chance has anyone made a digital heightmap of the island?

Thanks.

Liberty's Edge

My players just took out the chupacabra and half of the cannibals in one fell session! They had a complicated plan to smash up the chupacabra's nest, release some captive cannibals from it, and then get the chupacabra to take revenge on the cannibals, but I decided I wouldn't cut them a break this time (previously, they'd visited the Azlanti Temple when Yarzoth drained the bay, and as they were only level 2 I rolled a d% to see if the chupacabra was home - it wasn't), and as they approached its nest they saw a big dark shape swooping down.

It managed to pin the slayer and get its haste running, but then I tried to use the book tactics and have it use Acrobatics to fly back out of reach. It went . . . poorly. Every single PC, plus Jask and a summoned eagle, were able to take AOOs as the thing flew off, and it went down fast. If running this again, I would definitely have it go after a smaller target (e.g. Gelik), as the book says to do. I wasn't reading too closely and just had it charge at the nearest prey. That said, if it gets stuck in close quarters, once it gets to chupar its full attack becomes f!$$ing deadly. When it got stuck, I should've just had it release the slayer and full attack on him, and probably would've killed him.

As this was all happening, the Thrunefang camp was in an uproar. When a lone gnome had approached the camp, four cannibals had been sent out to catch him, but they had all mysteriously disappeared (been captured by PCs). They found signs of a battle on the path, and Klorak decided to marshal half of the remaining tribe and go hunt down the missing cannibals. They lit a smokey fire as an offering to their ancestors (after several failed checks the skald and slayer finally noticed the column of smoke). As the party hiked back towards their camp in Aycenia's grove, they heard the drumming of feet, and hid in the undergrowth. Klorak and seven cannibals burst into view, and there was a whole big fight thing. Here's what I would have changed: Make sure Klorak gets to full attack! He dropped his first target, the skald, but then his fellow warriors swarmed in and blocked his 5' step access to PCs. I should've had him yelling at the other cannibals to clear a space for him to get through.

Also, the group really missed my hints about the rope bridge at area W, so everyone but the retconning cleric fell in the gorge. I awarded 400 xp but I could easily see that bridge being a CR 2+ encounter, since it can easily knock out Jask and low-Con PCs. (And then drown them.)


Been working with a group for a while now and just now got to the cannibal camp. Since I knew this was going to be an epic fight, I'm getting the area prepared in advance, i.e. drawing out the map.

Cannibal Camp map:

This should be awesome.


Hey guys, great stuff in this thread, but a lot of the links are defunct...did anyone make like a daily checklist for the island or anything? I like to prepare as much as possible in advance, and all I have is a shitty Word knockoff. And Jackal, looks great!

I will be GMing this as my first Pathfinder AP! I come from a Call Of Cthulhu background mostly, but have played PF for a couple years now, and I think I'm ready!


Does anyone have any copies of daemonslye's various resources (first few pages of this thread) for this chapter? Their original links are dead.

Liberty's Edge

In retrospect it's honestly sort of hilarious that because my PCs tried to kill Gelik off by taking him on a lot of dangerous missions, he's actually probably going to level up next session.

Liberty's Edge

Well, they ditched Gelik (maybe for that reason), but my party did do something quite cool last session. They survived Nyilathi! Being a party that can survive just fine in the dark (darkvision+blindsight) and that tends to have great Fort saves doesn't hurt, either.


Okay, something I've noticed reading these threads... EVERYONE seems to play Gelik like a snarky d!*k that the player's hate.

In my campaign, I ditched Ishirou, mostly because it was less bookkeeping, I couldn't think of a way to portray him that wasn't laughably racist, and I could easily give his quest to someone else. I chose Gelik. That meant portraying his character in a way that the PCs wanted to interact with. The guy has an amazing CHA after all!

I thought... "who in all the media I've consumed is somewhat foppish, a liar, cowardly, ans possesses a mean sense of humor; yet is amazingly compelling?"

Quark from Deep Space 9. I'm playing Gelik as Quark.

And already one of the players wants to reciprocate a romance with him.

AGE OF SERPENTS


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LazGrizzle wrote:

Hey guys, great stuff in this thread, but a lot of the links are defunct...did anyone make like a daily checklist for the island or anything? I like to prepare as much as possible in advance, and all I have is a s&$#ty Word knockoff.

I have a daily checklist for the Shiv that seems to be working okay...

Liberty's Edge

I really, really tried to make Gelik likeable, dropping the suggested mean streak. But then every combat, I had him tell a really, really shitty joke (e.g. "Let's make like a tree and get out of here," not while fighting anything plant-related of course). He's useful as all get out with bard performance, healing, and his shortbow, but half the party ironically hates him. The other half ironically loves him, which amounts to the same thing.

But, this wouldn't happen to be your Gelik, would it?

Also I am playing through AoW right now (currently in Kuluth-Mar) while running this so that is . . . certainly an interesting combination. I can see how they mesh.


lol That picture is perfect, but nope.

What, your players don't like bad dad jokes?

The AoW stuff doesn't kick in until much much later in the campaign, and I've changed all the villains to make them more snakey. I just really liked the end-game chapters to AoW and never got a chance to use that stuff, so I'm hoping to now. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to later find that there was an "Age of Serpents" in Golarion canon. Gelled very nicely.

Liberty's Edge

I won't ask for spoilers but I did read the one Dragotha adventure like 5 years ago, before my GM wanted to run this game. It seems like the Fissure would fit in well either in an underground cavern OR in some desolate place up near like, Belkzen or something. OR in the Expanse . . .

There's also Serpent's Ire (PFS season) which is disappointingly nothing about serpentfolk :(

IN OTHER NEWS my party figured out the Tide Stone and survived the pit traps (dwarf bane, it seems) and flensing room. We ended the session right at the doors of the Temple of Blood, with the Exploration domain cleric planning to use Door Sight to see what's going on inside at the start of next session. In addition, because they triggered the cleansing room, the gibbering mouther is going to show up in about 4 rounds, which will probably be right about when they open the doors (since they also wanted to drink some potions). It's going to be an interesting fight.

I also have developed an evil plot to force our slayer to choose alignments. The player went with LE at character creation, but she hasn't been playing the character anything like evil, so a few weeks ago I talked with her about finding a turning point where we officially change the alignment to LN. The turning point I've planned is after Yarzoth flees to the inner sanctum (if she's not critted before she can do so). She'll make a major image of one of the NPCs* beaten, bound, and gagged, then appear to be about to tear out his throat. She'll tell the slayer (and his friends) to drop whatever weapons they're holding and leave the entire temple if they want their friend to live. If the slayer can get over his vengeful streak, he'd probably be willing to drop his guard for the sake of his friend. If not, he's going to stay LE, for now.

*Former PC who died and was raised. Yarzoth doesn't know this, but he's actually in the area doing Aerys' quest at the slayer's request, which adds extra plausibility and potential guilt.

Liberty's Edge

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It's taken 1.4 years, 19 in-game days, 2 character deaths, 24 sessions, 43000 words of recaps, 4 dwarves, 1 alignment shift, and 1 skin balloon, but we've finally finished Souls for Smuggler's Shiv. All the surviving castaway quests are fulfilled, Ekubus and Aycenia are friendly to the party, and Yarzoth's notes+comprehensive mural rubbings were taken, though the altar was not destroyed and Pezock was never encountered. Next Serpent's Skull session will be a fusion of our slow-brewing Eleder revolution game and the beginning of Racing to Ruin, with the two parties (with competing interests) joining forces for one extra long session.


Gark the Goblin wrote:
It's taken 1.4 years

Jeebus! I suddenly have to rethink all that extra stuff I've added here and there to Smuggler's Shiv. I don't want things to take THAT freakin' long!

Liberty's Edge

My group is slow :V We started with 1 experienced player and 3 newbies and we run it on Roll20, so we end up taking a while for people to decide what to do and reference their character sheets.

There is a group with a journal on this forum that finished Smuggler's Shiv in about 3 months, though, even after they scaled up the island a bit and made it into a hexploration game. The impact of adding stuff depends on the group.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I may have missed something obvious, but what was Aerys' reason for boarding the Jenivere to travel to Sargava? All the other NPCs have a reason given in their writeup, but Aerys' just mentions her punching a dude and being an alcoholic...


Thinking of running Book 1 alone as a break between books 5 and 6 of Strange Aeons as that GM has to step away temporarily. Anyone have an estimate on the number of hours Souls for Smuggler’s Shiv took for their party?
We would be four players with a fifth popping in occasionally. Players well versed in the rules, no one goes overboard in powering up.

Liberty's Edge

Our sessions were three hours long, which works out to 72 hours total on SfSS. An experienced group should be able to halve that.


It took our group 36 hours, 14 sessions of roughly 2.5 hours each, with 3 players (I imagine 4 to 5 would take a little longer). We also adapted the plot to run it as a stand-alone adventure.


Thank you, Gark and Reverse, for the info.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber

I am going to be running this and am curious what poisoned does Yarzoth use on the food so I know the fort save for my notes


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Jem'Nai wrote:
I am going to be running this and am curious what poisoned does Yarzoth use on the food so I know the fort save for my notes

The fortitude save DC for her poison is infinity. As written, there's no way to stave off the poison. Instead, the fort save is used as an initiative check to see who wakes up first.

When I played Serpent's Skull, our DM did a whole hour or so of RPing leading up to the moment when we all ate the soup and rolled the fort save. I rolled a nat 20 and the DM was like "ummm.... you fall unconscious anyway". It was kind of awkward, and if I were to run Serpent's Skull I would run the intro as written and just start in media res on the beach.

I had a blast playing in Serpent's Skull. We ran it all the way from start to finish and it was awesome, mostly thanks to our excellent DM. Module 1 is almost perfect as written, but modules 2-6 have a tonne of issues that need a skilled DM to navigate. Hope you guys have as much fun as my group did!


I have been reading through this and feel like I am going mad - where do the PCs learn the name Ydersius for the ritual?

I can only see the part with the writings in Aklo. With no mention of a linguistics check to decipher. I think there might also have been a DC 25 knowledge check which is rather high for level 3 characters ...


Anybody have any of the custom made dm stuff as all the links are dead?


Have I misunderstood the map? Is it supposed to be very difficult to get to most of the shipwrecks . They all seem blocked by 100 ft DC15 climb checks . If people don’t have ranks then taking a 10 isn’t going to get you there. That is a lot of rolls and real scope for some large enough failures to fall...


I just had them roll one cl8mb check to get up and moved on. Wasnt worth over complicting for the most part. Maybe some of them later ill make harder saying the cliff is harder and not as slanted. But its not worth it to start.


What Maps are people using for the campsite attack?

Liberty's Edge

Which campsite are you thinking of? Or just PC campsites in general? I would ask my players to draw up a map of their campsite.


Gark the Goblin wrote:
Which campsite are you thinking of? Or just PC campsites in general? I would ask my players to draw up a map of their campsite.

The one they come to at (Before it is a campsite). Site A on the map


Theatre of the mind until they get to the cannibal camp.
But I am playing 2E so without widespread AOOs maps are not as necessary


Does anyone know what direction you are supposed to approach the temple from? The map has a path on the north but the text seems to imply you get to Y1 before Y2 and actually have a chance of avoiding the Devil

But if you come from the path and the creature is in the east cliff there is no way of avoiding it


Its not so much a campsite as it is there dumped on a beach. At least thats the way i played it. They woke up and found a small pile of gear.


Reddevil wrote:
Its not so much a campsite as it is there dumped on a beach. At least thats the way i played it. They woke up and found a small pile of gear.

Same difference, I want a map for the initial combat because I have relatively new players.

I will then likely photoshop it into a campsite once the NPCs establish it

Liberty's Edge

This was the map I used for the first encounter. We got some wilderness shelter assets and plopped those on there in Roll20. But I think you're just as well off using an image editor.

Lanathar wrote:

Does anyone know what direction you are supposed to approach the temple from? The map has a path on the north but the text seems to imply you get to Y1 before Y2 and actually have a chance of avoiding the Devil

But if you come from the path and the creature is in the east cliff there is no way of avoiding it

In my game, the party stumbled across the chupacabra's lair while it was gone, and hadn't figured out anything about the monument, yet. So they avoided both the encounter and the puzzle. (But they did loot the treasure!)

The path on the island-scale map probably just leads to somewhere off the edge of the map - it's unlikely the cannibals actually got too close to the chupacabra's lair, or that they used the monument in some way. If someone does go near the monument, and the chupacabra is both home and awake, I would probably have it attack the interlopers before they managed to do anything there anyways.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Quote:
The map has a path on the north but the text seems to imply you get to Y1 before Y2 and actually have a chance of avoiding the Devil

Looking at the island map, the trail down to the temple branches off the trail to the top of the mountain, and is likely what is represented on the temple map.

I had been foreshadowing the chupacabra for a while, and my group was expecting to find the chupacabra on the mountaintop. They waited, and encountered and fought it, but it got away, and they camped at the altar. When they went down to the temple/beach, they found the nest, but the chupacabra was away at the time (I rationalised it was trying to feed to heal itself).


What incentive to players have to go down to the caves of the mother? I don't see my players making that choice

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Completeness? Not wanting to leave a potential threat behind?

My guys were ready top move their camp to the (now-uninhabited) village, and wanted to make sure there weren't any undiscovered surprises waiting.


I feel like I'm on crazy pills, but I cannot figure out what the weird reddish door-looking things are on the Thrunefang Camp map. There are the traditional white rectangle doors, and then these things. What are they??

Dark Archive

vocaldc wrote:
I feel like I'm on crazy pills, but I cannot figure out what the weird reddish door-looking things are on the Thrunefang Camp map. There are the traditional white rectangle doors, and then these things. What are they??

Apologies if you've already gotten the answer to this, but I believe those are meant to be curtains. Crumbling areas of the old buildings where the cannibals have put up curtains to push aside to enter.

Liberty's Edge

Yeah, I assumed they were curtains made of roughly woven vegetation.

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