Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (GM Reference)


Serpent's Skull

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Regarding each NPC's quest. How do they go about finding out how to complete the quest? Wouldn't they have to just wander the island. It says quest can be completed in certain lettered areas on the map. However, it doesn't indicate how the the pc's figure out the location to go to complete the quest.

Liberty's Edge

Wandering is the most common way, since the NPCs don't know where they can be completed either. Ishirou's quest is more straightforward in that regard.


Anyone know if there a legend or something that indicates what everything is on the map of the Smugglers Shiv in the AP on page 14?
It has everything lettered but nothing at the bottom indicating what each thing is.

Its a hassle to have to scour through the AP to find each location.

Does anyone have a completed map with each location or monster lair labeled on the map not just lettered?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

So far I haven't seen anything like this. But wouldn't you have to find the entry in the book anyway to run the respective encounters? I'm not sure if I got you right because frankly I don't see much use in a legend for the map beyond the letters.

Liberty's Edge

Troy Loney wrote:

Anyone know if there a legend or something that indicates what everything is on the map of the Smugglers Shiv in the AP on page 14?

It has everything lettered but nothing at the bottom indicating what each thing is.

Its a hassle to have to scour through the AP to find each location.

Does anyone have a completed map with each location or monster lair labeled on the map not just lettered?

What I did was print out a copy of the map then write out what each encounter was as a GM reference. Helped me tons!!!!

Liberty's Edge

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I finished the Smugglers Shiv last night and I have to say it was awesome. The biggest problem I faced in the game was a reluctance on the part of the PCs to perform the ceremony that would activate the monoliths lowering the tribe to allow entrance into the Temple. Luckily they had picked up the potions of water breathing in one of the earlier encounters. This enabled them to go underwater and find the door. With a little shennanigans on my part I told them there was a magic ward preventing the water from flooding in and they bought it LOL.

Onto part 2 for me!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

My group was just as hesitant to perform the ritual. It comes across as so inherently evil (spilling blood and poison and so on) that it took some convincing arguments to get the good-alignend characters to go through with it. GMs should be aware of that and maybe hint at the actual effect a little more than usually if his/her group becomes too suspicious.

Liberty's Edge

Nullpunkt wrote:
My group was just as hesitant to perform the ritual. It comes across as so inherently evil (spilling blood and poison and so on) that it took some convincing arguments to get the good-alignend characters to go through with it. GMs should be aware of that and maybe hint at the actual effect a little more than usually if his/her group becomes too suspicious.

Yeah I agree. My advice in retrospect would be to describe the inscriptions that show the ceremony in a way that is less evil. My group seemed convinced they would have to sacrifice someone instead of just a small amount of blood. Looking back on it I might describe a figure that does draws blood from himself then appears in several other images that convey a progression of events.


I had a player whose character was freaked thinking they would need need to kill an intelligent creature for the ritual. The party cleric (who made their K: Religion check) informed her that character that she had nothing to worry about. ;)

After that cheap shot, she then explained that when she anoints something, only a small amount of oil, water, etc. is used, not a deluge.


Lot more choices more suited to evil characters (certainly non good) coming so beware


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I had my players make a Knowledge Religion check that they could get "potentially" make it work with a little blood. Surprise surprise it worked when they tried it....


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I'm currently running this for a second group so I had thought I knew what to expect.

The first group had no problems deciphering the ritual and performed it with little problem.

The second group like apparently many others judging by the previous posts thought they had to sacrifice an intelligent creature to perform the ritual, also even after they were informed it had something to do with the sea they were firmly convinced that that it was a ritual to transform the user into something rather than empty the basin.

After they had then given up and gone to talk to the dryad and come back to try again.

I allowed a knowledge arcana roll (DC25) to determine how the stones worked once they made that I allowed them to use the Use magical device activation method. Now they are preparing to enter the temple below the mountain with great trepidation.

Liberty's Edge

Regarding the ritual, I just had the nearby intelligent creature crash and splatter into the stones when it died. That took care of the blood...


HA! Well that's certainly a creative and cinematic solution. Bravo! :D


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I am a first time GM and I usually slay the critters, not run them, so my question is about the gibbering mouther in the Dark Lake (Z7). It looks like the mouther has six mouths. For the spittle attack, does that mean it can spew six streams of acid (unless the mouth is otherwise engaged in a grab)? Also I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the engulf attack. Does this mean that if a creature was grabbed, then on the next turn it becomes engulfed?


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

It gets only one spittle each round. You could imagine it in that way that all of the six streams together form the one represented by the mechanics.
In order to engulf a victim the mouther must start its turn with the victim already grappeled. It may then engulf with a successful grapple check (rolled as if trying to pin).If that is successful as well, the victim inside it takes 6d4 damage plus 2 Con damage every round.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Nullpunkt wrote:

It gets only one spittle each round. You could imagine it in that way that all of the six streams together form the one represented by the mechanics.

In order to engulf a victim the mouther must start its turn with the victim already grappeled. It may then engulf with a successful grapple check (rolled as if trying to pin).If that is successful as well, the victim inside it takes 6d4 damage plus 2 Con damage every round.

Thanks Nullpunkt! That made it a whole lot clearer!

Dark Archive

Troy Loney wrote:
Regarding each NPC's quest. How do they go about finding out how to complete the quest? Wouldn't they have to just wander the island. It says quest can be completed in certain lettered areas on the map. However, it doesn't indicate how the the pc's figure out the location to go to complete the quest.

There's also just straight RPing with the NPCs. Being curious about them and what their motivations are. In short, just having a conversation with them and not be deterred if their defensive at first.

Dark Archive

Asphesteros wrote:
Be careful with the NPCs - if they're not in the action, they can become a burden or irrelevant, if they are in the action they can steal the spotlight, and they're 5 more balls for you to judggle whenever they're around. However, they're also a great mechanism to move the story along, they have skills and languages the PCs need and quests to move them forward.

I just photocopied the NPC stats from the book and handed them to my players. They seemed to like that.


I'm going to GM SfSS soon...ish (as soon as I find time to prepare it) and the advice presented in this thread will definitely help a lot.

But I'm still thinking about how I should handle some of the situations presented in the adventure...

Most importantly the beginning of the adventure - I'm playing around with the idea of making it some kind of a cinematic flashback action scene.

The gaming session would start directly with the PCs being kindly awoken by the eurypterids, with no intro whatsoever.
They'd wake up in clothes (no one in his right mind is going to wear metal armor on a ship journey) with only the gear they'd carry on their bodies, with some randomly determined stuff gathered in one pile like the book suggests and the rest still on board the wreck.
Then I'd let each PC get one flashback of a scene that happened on the voyage.
Probably some scribbled handouts would be randomly distributed to the players so that they'll have to put the pieces together if they want to find out what the hell happened.

When they first talk to an NPC and every time they find a particular piece of flotsam on the beach, like half of the lifeboat or something that belonged to the ships interior, when they enter the wreck of the Jenivere and look at certain things inside, and when they find the camp of Yarzoth and her pawn, they'll get to draw additional flashbacks.
Some of the flashbacks could consist of scenes like being thrown against the wall inside the ship when it first hits the rocks, dragging someone into the boat, being told by Alton "Stay awake and keep watch, I'll get the others!" on the beach, but also completely random shots of the journey, talking with someone or whatever else.

This would of course be limited to the first... like... three days on the island, after which their memories will come back completely.

The reasoning behind all this is would be that the large dosage of poison Yarzoth used might have an effect on the PCs memories.

Another change depends on what characters my player come up with - if they end up being lawful good, they might need some... encouragement to kill the cannibals, so I thought about adding another story NPC:
a sister or daugther of Captain Kovack that gets taken along by Yarzoth (probably as additional leverage against the captain), only to be given to the cannibals as a gift in exchange for letting her pass into the caves of the mother.
(She didn't realize she doesn't need Kovack anymore until she was on her way out of the cave again, or he was left there in a second bargain with Nylithati.)
When the PCs later scout the cannibal camp, they find out that Yarzoth convinced the cannibal chief that mating with the "fresh meat" she gave him instead of eating it would strengthen his reign...

While I'm at it anyway, does anyone know if there's a pdf with twofold (or threefold) paper miniatures of the cannibals, ghouls, NPCs and stuff available somewhere?
If not, did any of you perhaps create one?

Liberty's Edge

Cyberwolf2xs wrote:
stuff

Paper minis for SfSS. They are awesome! I recommend gluing them to 1 inch washers and then clear coating them. gives them some weight, stability, and a nice plasticy feel.

http://paizo.com/store/downloads/pathfinder/pathfinderPaperMinis/v5748btpy8 lwu

As to your flashback ideas; I really like this approach.

(Sorry for the lack of link, I'm trying to figure it out)

Liberty's Edge

v5748btpy8lwu.

This is closer, but still wrong.

Dark Archive

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Here is a modified random encounter table I created for Smuggler's Shiv. I used the table in that volume as a base and then added all terrain and CR appropriate encounters from the Bestiary 2 and the rest of the Serpent Skull installments. Encounters are weighted so that CR 1 and 2 encounters occur much more frequently than CR3 and 4 encounters. Enjoy!

Spoiler:

Random Encounters on Smuggler’s Shiv
d% Avg. Avg.
roll Result CR Source
1-4 1d6 Rhamphorhynchus 1 SS1 84
5-8 1d4 Baboon 1 Bestiary 2 213
9-11 1d4 Compsognathus 1 Bestiary 2 91
12-15 1d6 dire rats 1 Bestiary 232
16-19 ghoul 1 Bestiary 146
20-23 1d4 giant centipedes 1 Bestiary 43
24-27 giant spider 1 Bestiary 258
28-31 1d6 human skeletons 1 Bestiary 250
32-35 1d6 jungle goats* 1 Bestiary 87
36-39 2d4 monkeys 1 Bestiary 132
40-43 spider swarm 1 Bestiary 258
44-47 1d4 Thrunefang cannibals 1 SS1 29
48-51 1d4 vipers 1 Bestiary 133
52-55 1d2 Giant Solifugid 1 Bestiary 2 254
56-57 1d6 crawling hands 2 Bestiary 2 60
58-59 1d4 giant ticks 2 Bestiary 2 266
60-61 1d6 Grippli 2 Bestiary 2 150
62-63 1d6 biloko 2 SS2 82
64-65 bat swarm 2 Bestiary 30
66-67 1d2 poltergeist 2 Bestiary 2 212
68-69 1d2 juju zombie 2 Bestiary 2 292
70-71 1d2 draugr 2 Bestiary 2 111
72-73 constrictor snake 2 Bestiary 255
74-75 1d4 dimorphodons 2 SS1 82
76-77 1d6 human zombies 2 Bestiary 288
78-79 Pezock 2 SS1 227
80-81 Shiv dragon** 2 Bestiary 194
82-83 mosquito swarm 2 Bestiary 2 194
84-85 1d3 dimorphodons 2 SS1 82
86-87 1d2 snake swarms 2 SS3 82
88-89 1d2 monkey swarms 3 Bestiary 2 213
90-91 1d2 shocker lizards 3 Bestiary 248
92 1 Tikloshe 3 SS4 88
93 1 giant whiptail centipede 3 Bestiary 2 54
94 1d3 venomous snakes 3 Bestiary 255
95 venomous snake swarm 4 SS3 82
96 Tuyewera 4 SS1 86
97 Forest Drake 4 Bestiary 2 108
98 Parasaurolophus 4 Bestiary 2 92
99 Chemosit 4 SS2 86
100 winged chupacabra*** 5 SS1 43
* Treat as dogs with a gore attack instead of a bite
attack.
** Same stats as monitor lizard.
*** Encounters with the winged chupacabra should
not be combat encounters, only brief glimpses
or sightings to build tension for the creature’s
mysterious presence on the island.

Shipwreck Encounters
Ningyo SS1 82
Hunter Urchin SS1 84
Adaro SS2 81


This is the first time I'll be running a game so it might be just my lack of experience but I've got some questions about the maps in this book.

The map on page 41 (the Azlanti Temple) has two things I don't quite understand. In the corner of Z1 there's an f in a black circle, and in the Z8, there's a C in a black circle. What do these represent? I think the F is where the trap door is and the C is where the hole in the ceiling is, but I'm not certain what they actually stand for.

Also, the map of the Caves of the Mother on page 36 have arrows pointing everywhere. I thought maybe they were the direction Yarzoth took through the caves, but I'm not sure that's right. I'm not sure what the dotted white lines in V26 and V27 are for either.

Is there something I'm missing that explains these or are they standard map markings?

The Concordance RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Mibbfoodle wrote:

This is the first time I'll be running a game so it might be just my lack of experience but I've got some questions about the maps in this book.

The map on page 41 (the Azlanti Temple) has two things I don't quite understand. In the corner of Z1 there's an f in a black circle, and in the Z8, there's a C in a black circle. What do these represent? I think the F is where the trap door is and the C is where the hole in the ceiling is, but I'm not certain what they actually stand for.

Hole in Ceiling and hole in Floor

Mibbfoodle wrote:

Also, the map of the Caves of the Mother on page 36 have arrows pointing everywhere. I thought maybe they were the direction Yarzoth took through the caves, but I'm not sure that's right. I'm not sure what the dotted white lines in V26 and V27 are for either.

Is there something I'm missing that explains these or are they standard map markings?

The direction that water flows was what I uses/interpreted them as. I can't check that as i don't have my notes in front of me, but that is what i recall.

Bobby
The Cat.Dragon

Sovereign Court

I believe the arrows are slope indicators, going down in the direction the arrow points.

I'm uncertain on the dotted lines. They didn't seem terribly important so I ignored them. I suspect it's something related to the cave topology, but can't put my finger on the exact meaning.


About the arrows, it's explained right there in the adventure, pg. 35:

"Arrows in cave passageways on the map indicate the direction of downward slopes."

The dotted lines seem to indicate holes in the cave, if you read every room's description closely.

Hope this was useful.

Sovereign Court

MajorTotoro wrote:

About the arrows, it's explained right there in the adventure, pg. 35:

"Arrows in cave passageways on the map indicate the direction of downward slopes."

The dotted lines seem to indicate holes in the cave, if you read every room's description closely.

Hope this was useful.

Haha, that'll teach me to go by memory rather than reading the text!


Hey all. Just want to add my two bits worth in here as I have just read through all of this, coming a bit late to it as I have been running SfSS for a few weeks now. I really wish I had read this thread first but there you go.

As for a few things that have been mentioned... Disease I have pushed on the Shiv and my players love it. Admittedly we are an experienced group and few of us have had to deal with disease in any major way but it makes sense and also fits perfectly with the setting. Not once has the party had any problem with a disease check, in fact it causes some great roleplaying moments when they keep blaming the Monk for drinking the cure disease when he contracted Red Ache as most of the sufferers of disease are the NPC's and they are all realising how important they are (especially Jask as the party has no cleric). Mainly the diseases have struck the NPC's anyhow, Jask contracted Mind Fire first night and has been unable to shake it (i.e. make two consecutive saves) whereas the other NPC's have shaken theirs after a few days. One PC has had no contraction as yet, but the others have shaken what they catch (I have pretty much stuck to mind fire and red ache).

I so need to do more with the NPC's. I read the book as making them very uncooperative to start with and this made the PC's turn their back on them until I had a word in one of the most experienced players ears about how a little diplomacy may go a long way. They have completed Jask, Aerys and Ishirou's quests. They know what the other two want but unless they want to do some serious backtracking they will not complete Sasha's but are yet to visit silent island so may finish Gelik's. The NPC's are very camp bound so far and I need to make them come more alive.

Morale has been a real problem for the group. Aerys, Jask and Gelik have reached hopeful but Ishirou and Sasha seem to be caught in an endless cycle of frightened and panicked. So much so that I will soon be having them just flee at random into the forest causing the players one further problem to deal with.

This is the first AP I have ever run (although I did play the crown of the goblin king in heavily modified format). The players LOVE it. I had no qualms with the way it started with the auto fail and it did not raise a blip on my players radar, one of them who in fact rolled a natural 20. They are yet to clash with the cannibals (though I have plans for that soon) and are still focussed 100% on getting to the old lighthouse (as one of them is a history buff and knew of it as per the info sidebar) to get off the island. They also have a low level fire of revenge burning for the captain and Ieana so leading them on from the cannibals to Yarzoth should be easy enough. They are also certain that they are being followed by a wyvern (from the foreshadowing of what is in area Y).

The players love the pure ability to explore. They have a goal to work at but they are doing it their way and finding a sense of freedom in that. They are scared witless of the island as there has already been 4-5 very close shaves with death and they are building strong tactics on how to deal with new situations all the time. They also love the idea of resource management. The amount of times they have discussed how many arrows the cavalier has left, what potions are doing, how many days rations are left has amazed me. They have even taken a day out of the exploration to help maintain some stuff and a large part of hunting the shipwrecks is to see if they can get any metal the alchemist can use to craft some more rudimentary arrows and so on. Their biggest treasure haul for reaction so far was I put a pile of ballista ammo at the bottom of the sea near the Crimson Angel and they were in rapture over the number of arrowheads they could fashion from it.

Finally, I have been reading ahead so I have no surprises and am just wondering, how many times did the groups run through this run into Aycenia in area U? I really want my players to encounter her as I do not think they will go to silent island without the push but almost know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they will never head in that direction as there really is no need to head that way. Any suggestions on this?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

My players never met Aycenia but went to the Silent Island anyways as part of exploring the coastline.

Dark and strangely silent island in the distance should make at least one of them curious...


Nullpunkt wrote:

My players never met Aycenia but went to the Silent Island anyways as part of exploring the coastline.

Dark and strangely silent island in the distance should make at least one of them curious...

Curious yes, but with the amount of deadly things on the isle they are seriously spooked. So they are keen to get off the island. They know the lighthouse is in the SW and have almost pinpointed its location with a guess. I cannot see that they will go NW just for a sight seeing trip. As the party is currently without a cleric (although they have an alchemist but he is favouring endure elements spells over cure lights) I would love them to have the ally in Ayencia and get to the silent island too :)

This is such a great module. I am so glad I bought the entire adventure path now. May even look at subscribing.


Re: Aycenia: I had my group encounter a pair of young cannibal lovers who snuck off to the abandoned hut as a make-out location. After the party charmed them, the teens warned the party that there was an 'evil spirit' on the hill overlooking the inlet north of their village. (They were also curious about whether the party were friends with the bossy woman and her 'servant' that had arrived recently.)

The party ended up reasoning out via Int and Knowledge: Geography checks that among primitive peoples those who are against them are typically considered 'evil' regardless of the tribe's own morality. Therefore, they posited that if the same held true here, perhaps the 'evil spirit' might turn out to be a potential ally.

That did the trick and Aycenia's grove was their next destination.


Laithoron wrote:

Re: Aycenia: The party ended up reasoning out via Int and Knowledge: Geography checks that among primitive peoples those who are against them are typically considered 'evil' regardless of the tribe's own morality. Therefore, they posited that if the same held true here, perhaps the 'evil spirit' might turn out to be a potential ally.

That did the trick and Aycenia's grove was their next destination.

I can't see my players taking the capture and question route when it eventually comes to cannibals. Although I love your method of using the cannibals in such a way to point the players to it. I will adapt it and perhaps have a map marking the spot where the grove is with either "Evil Spirit" or "Alchemical Reagents" in Malikinda's hut (the witch from memory) and this will give them the impetus. Thanks for the idea. Who knew cannibals could be so useful :)


Well party make-up may have had something to do with it. As a hint to what I mean the Charisma scores of the party were 7 (M ranger), 20 (F cleric), 21 (F enchanter), and 22 (F bard). Being as we literally caught them with their pants down, simply butchering them while in-the-act wouldn't have sat well with enchantress and bard's morals. Also, by that point they had already gotten the idea from some of the NPCs that gathering some more intel (possibly by capturing one of the savages), might allow the part to act from a proactive/offensive rather than reactive/defensive one.

A couple charm person spells later and they had what they needed.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

My group was going to bypass Aycenia, so I had it that when the gnome, nature-loving cleric of Gozrah was on watch one night, he heard someone call his name in the wind. That got him curious enough to seek out the voice. He became so enamored with Aycenia that he was tempted to stay on the island with her instead of being "rescued".


Im about to to start dming this ap and i have two players that have designed charcters that use fire arms.I was wondering if any other dms have ran into this and how you handled their need for gunpowder and bullets the basic expenses of using a firarm in pathfinder?


No one in my party used firearms. However if they did, there are plenty of shipwrecks all around the island where I could have added stores of either ammo or the supplies for crafting it. Perhaps one of the chests in Quellig's stash is even a set of masterwork dueling pistols with a case full of high-grade ammo. :)


JOHN, I suggest that one or both of them take SECRET STASH grit feat. It bypasses the need for gunpowder/bullets as they could spend grit for them.

Also gunpoweder is actually made of three compounds you might easily find a jungle. Sulfer, Saltpeter(like batguano), and Charcoal.

That was all my DM would allow for me with my gunslinger cause of "blah blah.. running it by the book"


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Currently running this. Only 2 long sessions into it so far. I am doing my best to ratchet up the tension and paranoia and so far it's working. It feels more like a survival horror story than anything else. I made a back story of my own that forced the PC's to flee their home town and hop on the first ship at the dock to escape. Back story was un-related to SS.

Best moment so far : After a couple of days on the ship, they sat down with the captain for dinner. I decided to have one of the crew step in and say to the captain, " Captain, we are approaching Desperation Bay". Of course, this provokes the PC's to ask what that means. The captain looks at them in surprise that they are clueless about it. He looks at them and asks, " Desperation Bay ? You have no knowledge of it ? Well surely you have heard of Smugglers Shiv ?". Of course they all ask what this is too ( keep in mind that until now, they have NO IDEA what adventure they are in, they have no handouts, nothing, going in totally blind). I then have the captain read ( in my best pirate voice) the text on page 6 starting with "They say". At the end, I have him say "Those my friends, are the last recorded words of the notorious pirate Captian Lortch Quellig".

I decided that Quelligs words just had to be inserted somewhere. They were too good and ominous to omit and I could not see anywhere else where the PC's found them ( maybe I missed that).

As soon as the Captain finishes speaking this, I have them roll perception checks. Someone makes the roll. Me: " You notice that while you have all been eating, the captain has yet to take one bite of his food. You also notice that it's getting very hard to keep your vision straight and your eyelids are getting heavy. You are struggling to keep your head up and your faces drop into your plates. You distinctly hear the captain speak ( and I used a very serious and ominous tone " Set a course for Smugglers Shiv" The crew member replies" but captain..." . The captain cuts him off " DO IT !" It is the last thing you hear.

So it might not be the way the module was intended to start, but I felt that them knowing where they were going after hearing those words would be much more intense and it worked. The PC's were totally you- know -what-ing in their pants and helpless to do anything about it. After that, I had them awake on the beach and go on from there. Figured I would throw this out there after seeing the looks on my groups faces.

Core book 49.99
Adventure path 19.99
Seeing my group's faces after finding out they are headed to SS and totally helpless to do anything about it = PRICELESS.

This has to be one of the best 1st level adventures I have ever seen.


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So I am getting ready to run this and I must say the resources in this thread have been fantastic. My only comment so far is why does Jask look like a cool Rastafarian outlaw in his picture (Made me think of that Vin Deisel movie where the murderer gets stranded on the planet with the passengers from the ship) when in reality he is a middle aged, pasty faced weakling? I'm going to need a new picture to show the players!

So here is my payback tot he group. It is the picture I am going to use on the front of my notebook and on the message board I use to do between game chats. Reading the first book made me think of a certain reality show my wife loves...

go to smuggler's shiv survivors

Dark Archive

praetorian wrote:
go to smuggler's shiv survivors

That's just awesome. :)


The AP volume states that Yarzoth finds:

"a clue to the location of a legendary city named Saventh-Yhi—the same city in which her deity was defeated eons ago."

This is inaccurate as the rest of the AP describes Saventh-Yhi as the city built over the location of the serpentfolk city underground where her deity was defeated. Saventh-Yhi is actually the city of the serpent folks arch enemy (the Azlants) and I doubt Yarzoth would have any luck finding "relics left behind by her god’s ancient decapitation" there since that’s not where it happened and was built after the incient. I think Yarzoth would be more interested in finding Ilmuria not Saveth-Yhi. Not a big deal but a weird mistake to have right in volume 1.

Dark Archive

That's... actually an interesting catch. lol.

The Zura cultists that built the temple on Smuggler's Shiv WERE Azlanti from Saventh-Yhi. We can ASSUME that they knew their city was built to guard against the threat of Ilmurea below... but I don't think we know that for sure.

That means one of two things:
1) the clue that Yarzoth finds also mentions the relationship of Saventh-Yhi to Ilmurea
or
2) Yarzoth knew from her prior research that Saventh-Yhi was over Ilmurea.

I would lean towards #2, because otherwise the PCs should have some information about Ilmurea when they return to Eleder to translate the notes. Since they don't actually find out about that until book #3, there obviously was nothing about Ilmurea on Smuggler's Shiv.


I was just planning to make it another mystery: Why would a serpent folk priest be so interested in finding an Azlant lost city? Eventually the players will learn the answer (because it leads to Ilmurea).

As far as the oversight goes I wonder if Saventh-Yhi was originally intended to be the serpent folk city and that was ret-conned later in the development process.

Sovereign Court

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I can't find who suggested it on here - about finding a shipwreck and reliving a pirate attack on it (apologies to whoever it was as my players have said it was the most amazing one off scenario they have ever played ...)

A quick background, on the Shiv, my group consisted of the following, they had just made level 3 (the Bladebound Magus hadn't recieved her Blackblade and I didn't want it found in a "bush" or something silly):

Earlier in the AP, they found the Treasure Pit, and when Aerys asked where Ishirou got the map, he said he won if from, "Black George", which sent her off cackling -- later, the players found out from Aerys that Black George "never" lost, and if he did, he would find the person who won it and "convince" them to give back what they had won ... this would normally end with them "swimming with the fishes".

This also allowed me to introduce Black George - the worst of all the pirates to ever sail the Inner Seas, with his Crimson Sailed ship, and his pirate's skull with a dagger through the right eye.

Arakar, 2 Fighter / 1 Rogue Male Human
Henda, 3 Ranger Male Human(pretty much Bow specced as compared to melee)
Raven, 3 Elven Female Magus (Bladebound)
Thoradin, 3 Paladin Male (main tank and group healer ...)

They had just recovered Sasha Nevah from being taken away by a Lacedon, who ran off with her, it was a very close fight (which gave them their level 3), when they exited the cave, they saw a shipwreck ... I've included my Adventure Log for that day's play, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed GM'ing it and they enjoyed playing it ...

Oh, one thing -- pretty much all the way through, on the Golden Bow, the players didn't know if it was real or not :) Awesome really :)

Sasha and Raven were on watch, but Raven was paralyzed before the Ghast took Sasha, so the Ghast had a head start on our heroes ...

ADVENTURE LOG
Raven comes out of her paralysis and yells for help, her joints loosening slower then her vocal chords, the whole camp races out in various states of dress to find Sasha gone, "A creature took Sasha," cries Raven feeling the ill effects of the stiffness.

Our heroes follow the Ghast the way it had left, with Henda’s tracking skills keeping them close to the Ghast's trail despite the pouring rain and through the jungle, it looks as though this creature stayed to a animal track.

The trail leads to a 100’ cliff and our friends find a hawser type rope leading down and evidence of frequent (and very recent)use. Raven drops her torch with “light” on it and it shows the rope goes all the way down to a small beach of some description.

They all climb down in the pouring rain with quite a few of them slipping and recovering, and Thoradin falling the last 10’ to land uncomfortably. Arakar looking around spots a ship against a rocky outcropping about 100 yards from shore and is thinking that is perhaps where the ghast may be when, looking down the beach he sees a darkness in the cliff line.

Our heroes decide to check that first and find a very narrow 2’ natural tunnel about 8’ high and follow it in. It ascends quite steeply before levelling off. Arakar is leading the group with Henda behind him, then Raven and finally Thoradin covers their rear, the plated paladin making a little more noise then his stealthy companions.

Unfortunately, our friends have alerted the ghast to their prescence and even the normally alert Arakar misses that the ghast is waiting in ambush for them. Arakar may have been surprised, but that did not alter his luck and the two claws miss him by a long way with the teeth just narrowly miss his neck.

Arakar is quick to react, stepping into the lair of this vile creature, but the smell it gives off is too much and he dry retches while trying to fight it. He does manage to slip in to allow Henda room, his battleaxe held in two hands though he too is overcome by the smell and his swing misses the undead creature.

When everyone moves in enough, the paladin’s protection from evil aura makes the ghast very uncomfortable.

The fight is a close one with two of our companions (Sasha being one of them) paralyzed and three of them sickened. The ghast makes an error when it turns to face Henda, Raven, coming out of her paralysis sticks her scimitar right through the side and out the front of the ghast, effectively holding it still, and seeing his opportunity, the still sickened ranger swings his axe and takes off the ghast’s head.

Spoiler:
One of those amazing occasions, with all of the group down sick or paralyzed, two Nat 20's come up ... we also use the Paizo Crit cards (and Fumble Cards ... )

Arakar picks up Sasha, Raven, like her namesake, seeks some treasure from the lair of this ungodly creature finding a masterwork dagger and some coins.

When they arrive back at camp, much worse for wear after the fight with the ghast, Jask and Gelik heal them as much as they can (Gelik using the excuse to touch up Raven’s arse, then actually healing her.)

The pouring down rain continues until about 0600, but it is a long rest period for everyone after that busy night.

Spoiler:
They never went north so couldn't find a "Pet" for Sasha, this bought her to friendly, they had achieved that with the other NPC's already ... with the Paladin taking a like to Gelik -- strangely enough

Our heroes, rested and healed (Raven does not need Gelik to touch up her arse this morning) head out to search the shipwreck they found last night, the Golden Bow. In the daylight it is revealed as either a rich merchant or a noble’s ship. 90’ long with a rear poop deck being about a third of it’s length, it would have been a truly beautiful ship in it’s day.

After swimming out to the ship, they climb onto the deck, with those needing to, removing and then donning their armour. There are around 16 skeletons on deck, all wearing faded blue and yellow uniforms. None of them have belts or boots on, and there is evidence that they died in a fight, not one of them is all in one piece; missing arms, beheaded, crushed rib cages are but some of the horrific injuries apparent. A search of the bow shows where a ballista would have been mounted, but there is no sign of it now.

Our heroes find a skeleton outside the doorway to a central corridor, flanked by a skeleton either side, the door swinging into the skeleton in the door has smashed it’s ribs, and our friends gently move what is a bag of bones out of the way.

There are four doors off the corridor and a large very decorative door at the end. The first door port would have been sumptious in it’s day and an examination shows a cupboard full of a human teenager or elven female’s noble clothes. Raven is very disappointed that the moist sea air, moths and general rot has made them virtually unwearable.

Opposite this door on the starboard side is an empty cabin, though it still, like the first has a sumptious four poster bed and what would have been beautiful bed coverings, pillows, cushions and the like.

The second door to starboard looks to be the ship’s captain’s cabin. A large map / writing desk is against the wall, large drawers underneath and the cupboard has a very naval captains jacket, the heroes are convinced this ship must have been a nobles ship, as normally the captain would have the cabin at the aft of the ship with windows and a "view".

The last door to port before they reach the end of the corridor is another sumptious room, this time with a human male’s clothes, once again noble and fancy, but worst for wear due to neglect, rot and sea air.

As each room is examined, Raven does a detect magic, with nothing revealing itself.

Our friends find themselves at the end of the corridor, they push the door open to find a skeleton in a beautiful green fancy dress and beautiful green shoes, though like the others, it is in a rotting state being held by another, judging by the clothes a man’s skelton, it’s arms wrapped protectively around the woman.

This skeleton, unlike the others has a ruby studded scimitar scabbard on a finely worked belt — though there is no sign of the weapon itself, though like the other objects on board appears to have not been affected by the sea air or rot. Our friends search the room, no magical aura’s are detected by Raven. The initial room is a large, very fancy dining and sitting room, a door leads into a magnificent bedroom (complete with a privy), two large cupboards reveal even more beautiful clothes, but of jewellery or the like, there is no sign.

Arakar suggests they go and search the hold, and on leaving Raven, once again like her namesake and unable to resist something shiny, reaches down to touch the ruby studded scabbard …

… our friends find themselves in the dining room, amazing smells come from a table with gold rimmed plates, crystal glasses, various forms of roasts and wine sitting on the table. A tall dark haired man, wearing very fine blue clothes with gold finishings and wearing a beautifully finished scimitar in a ruby studded scabbard sits with his back to the heroes. A stunningly beautful woman in an equally beautiful green gown and shoes says “Lady Raven, my lords, please sit.”

The tall man at the head of the table stands and smiles at them, “Lady Raven, my Lords Arakar, Henda, Thoradin, please, do sit or you will upset Olivia," he adds, smiling at the beautiful woman, a look of love returning his smile.

It is at this time that there is a knock at the door followed by what must be the captain, wearing the same jacket (though in a fine state of repair) as that in the cabin in the corridor, “My Lord Maudren, a moment if you please,” and he bows to the Lady Olivia and the young teenage girl, obviously the daughter of the beautiful Lady Olivia and this Lord Maudren.

Arakar, not fully understanding what is going on, knows the smell of well cooked food when he senses it, he grabs a leg from a chicken and goes to follow the Captain and the Lord when Lady Olivia says, “My Lord Arakar, such manners, please, use a plate …” and the young girl tries to hide a snicker at the Lord’s behaviour, “Jessica, manners my dear.” she says to her daughter who tries to hide her smile behind a napkin.

The other heroes take a seat and help themselves (with much better manners then Arakar) at the table. “It is an honour to have a knight of Ioamadae with us on this voyage,” she aims at Thoradin and there is much “polite” talking at the table between the remaining three and the Lady Olivia, a perfect host and so beautiful even Thoradin is almost speechless. Jessica and Raven enjoy each other's company immensely.

Spoiler:
At this stage, the Player's still don't know what is going on, they are told the food tastes as it should, that everything they touch is real and they are still mystified ...

Meanwhile, Arakar, following the Lord and Captain up to the helm sees in the distance crimson sails and is handed a spyglass by the captain, “What do you make of her Lord Arakar?” he asks.

With a gulp, Arakar recognises the flag of Black George flying above the mast, “It’s Black George Captain, how long before she catches us?” he asks the seasoned Skipper.

“In this fine weather, about an hour. He wouldn’t dare come near us normally, but we lost our escort the Viceroy’s Pride in a storm two nights ago,” he adds.

Arakar goes below decks and entering the Lord and Ladies cabin (with out knocking) quietly whistles to his companions, getting a look of dismay at his lack of manners from the Lady and another smile not very well hidden by Jessica. His companions excuse themselves and follow Arakar back up onto the helm. The situation apparent when they too recognise it is Black George's ship, The Crow following them.

The men are sent below in shifts to get a “hot meal” into them as weapons are taken from their lockers, artilleryists are sent to the ballista and given harpoon type ammunition, soaked in oil wraps on them, a lantern to light them set in it’s sconce.

Our heroes spread themselves out on the 40’ of deck, the captain dismisses the helmsman lashing down the wheel as ballista bolts are fired from The Crow as it closes distance. The captain and Lord Maudren joining them despite the captain requesting the Lord join his wife in their cabin. Three of the largest crewman on the Bow are sent to guard the corridor entrance, the cabin boy sent in to “guard” the ladies. As the Crow closes distance, the Golden Bow’s artilleryists start to return fire, though they are not as successful as the Longbow specialist that is Henda. The Ranger starts picking off pirates at a long distance. As they close, grappling hooks are thrown to pull in the Golden Bow and pirates prepare to swing across to the "Bow".

The first wave of pirates are mostly unsuccessful, Henda, Arakar, Thoradin and Raven all managing to take down six of the ten pirates. Of the four who make the Bow’s deck, all but one are taken down by her crew.

Another ten pirates swing over, this time our friends aren’t as lucky and seven land, with another ten now preparing to leap the gunwhales of the now joined together ships. Arakar sees Black George shouting commands to his crew and he points him out to Henda who manages to get his attention with a well placed arrow. Arakar runs the length of the ship to the ballista in the bow, picking up a bullet wound on the way. He dismisses the artilleryists and swings the ballista around to aim at Black George.

Meanwhile, the Crow’s half-orc bosun and two of his “thugs” close on Raven, she drops the bosun with a scimitar across his chest. Thoradin relieves a pirate of his head, propelling it back to the Crow with out it’s owner.

Black George yells at three musketeers, and they take aim at Arakar, Henda seeing this puts a longbow arrow through the ear of the nearest one, dropping him. A bullet penetrates Lord Maudren’s shoulder but he continues to fight. Quite a few of the Bow’s men are cut down by the ruthless and bloodthirsty pirates.

The two musketeers fire at Arakar, one with his eye on Henda fires wide and a moment later has an arrow sticking out of his neck, the other musketeer narrowly misses the rogue behind the ballista and hits the deck to escape the deadly ranger's aim.

Arakar, spending a long time aiming fires off the heavy armament taking Black George through the shoulder and sending him spinning over the helms railing and into the sea.

Spoiler:
We use Hero Points, and Arakar used his last one to help with the shot.

The news of Black George being sent to his watery grave spreads faster then the fighting, and the next 10 pirates ready to leap over to the "Bow" start releasing the ropes holding them to the Crow. Raven sends a shock of lightning through one of the Bosun’s mates and dispatches the other with her scimitar across his belly.

The pirates left on the Bow turn to flee, with only one making it across the gunwhales to be cut down by Henda. Arakar reloads the ballista and lights the rags, putting it through both of the sails of the Crow, but the pirates had wet down the sails and the ballista bolt ends in the sea.

Henda rapidly fires off four rounds as the Crow pulls away hard to starboard and takes out another three pirates. As the Crow’s stern becomes visible, a rope from the helm trailing in the water has a figure attached to it, three pirates on the helm start to pull it up and our heroes recognise Black George at the end of it. Before Henda can get off a shot, Black George opens a window at the rear of the Crow and climbs through it.

There are seven crwemen dead from the Bow and Lord Maudren pushes off anyone who tries to help him, “See to the men first, I am fine …” he adds, blood leaking from his bullet wound. From where Arakar is on the bow, he recognises the pattern on the deck of the fallen from the Bow. There an armless corpse, a crushed in chest there, a sailor missing his head …

The remaining men see to the wounded and throw the pirates overboard, Lady Olivia comes out of the corridor with Jessica and Matthew the cabin boy. She whispers thanks to each of the Heroes, kissing first Thoradin, then Henda and Arakar on the cheek. When she comes to Raven she hugs her, kisses her cheek and touches her hip …

… our friends find themselves in the cabin of the Bow again. It is in the state it was before they “came alive” in the cabin. The corpses of Lord Maudren and Lady Olivia are no longer on the floor and Raven has a ruby studded scimitar scabbard on her hip, the beautifully worked matching ruby encrusted hilt of Lord Maudren’s scimitar sticking out from it.

Raven draws the scimitar and it says to her in her mind, “I have been waiting for you Lady Raven, and at last we are together.” It is her black blade.

When our friends head out onto the deck, the skeletons of the Bow’s sailors have gone, replaced by those of pirates, a rather larger looking half-orc and two large humans either side of it.

Our friends search the hold, but there is nothing there which they can take, all the foodstuffs, grains and delicate silks rotted to the elements.

On reaching the shore, a noise of something rising out of the water turns our friends around. The Golden Bow rises out of the water, as clean and sleek as her launch day, and it sails off into the sunset.

Our heroes return to Kovak Cove, enlightened, troubled and happy, and feeling healthier then they have ever felt … the taste of chicken still fresh in Arakar’s mouth.

Spoiler:
Lady Olivia's kiss gave them each a permanent 1hp bonus as well as Lord Mauldren's scabbard and a blackblde for Raven

END OF ADVENTURE LOG

I cannot tell you how much the players enjoyed this "mini-adventure" ... I used opposing rolls for the Bow's crewman vs the Pirates, relaying how the fight was going, with each of the PC's being in charge of 10 crewman each.

They have of course now made an enemy of Black George and new allies in Lord Mauldren and Lady Olivia (and the young Lady Jessica has a crush on the rebellious Lord Arakar ...)

It will add another two factions for them to "play" with when they arrive in Eledar ... :)


Can anyone make any good suggestions for Cannibal miniatures??


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I guess you are looking for something more elaborate but the Paper Minis are always worth pointing out.


martryn's first session:

Started the campaign officially now, after weeks of posting here looking for ideas and preparing. I forgot to grab the module as I was heading out the door with a literal backpack full of gaming goodies and prepared maps and handouts, so that sucked, so I had to buy the pdf and download to run the game.

The party:
Strel Starborn - gnome starsoul sorcerer
Ellisar - elf druid, no animal companion, weather domain
Faux - elf rogue, two-weapon fighting
Bishop - human fighter, katana and shield

We spent about an hour talking about the journey itself and role-playing interaction between the castaways and PCs. Strel and Gelik hit it off, both being gnomes with decent charisma, and spent a lot of time hanging out. Bishop attempted to talk to Ieana, but she was curt with him and no one talked to her again. Faux tried to make friends with Sasha when she came on board, but once he saw her tattoo, he tried to avoid her and kept his weapons handy. I had one of the lecherous crew members attempt to make a pass on Sasha, and she chopped two of his fingers off. No one messed with her after that. Some interactions between the PCs. Ellisar was a stowaway and was eventually discovered four days from port by the cook, who dragged him in front of the captain. This gave me an opportunity to portray the captain in a sort of daze, as by this point he was charmed by Yarzoth and didn't really care too much about a single stowaway. Since Ellisar was living off of rats, eaten raw (passing Fort saves), the first mate figured he wasn't hurting anyone, and could be of use around the ship.

At the time of the shipwreck, the party took care of the ochre eurypterids pretty easy, and discovered the wreck of the Jenivere. Strel had Knowledge (Geography) and had an idea about where they were, and I had the knowledgeable Gelik draw a rough map of Smuggler's Shiv, at which point I handed them the large poster map I had made, with hexes, and then laminated to make exploration easier. They explored the ship, and found the bodies of the first mate and the cook, but failed the Heal checks to learn what killed them, so I described the wounds vaguely. Bishop carried them to shore and buried them.

Only Faux had any skill at Diplomacy, and his charisma is only 8, so the diplomacy checks were hard to make. He quickly put his foot in his mouth with Aerys, even with the +4 bonus I gave him for using the captain's brandy to ease his way into her good graces. She packed up and left in the middle of the second night. He rolled a natural 19 with Sasha, so she's friendly with the party now, though they think she's a bit unhinged due to her love of the local wildlife, and Jask was made friendly after the party let him free, though Bishop has suspicions that he's a child rapist or something. Gelik took a bit longer, but due to his already friendly standing with Strel, I gave some bonuses and now he's friendly.

Ishiro could have gone either way for a while. The party initially thought that he couldn't speak common because he wasn't saying a lot, so Faux tried talking to him in giant and celestial, which Ishiro didn't understand, so Ishiro started talking to Faux in Elven, telling him that he wasn't stupid and could speak common, and then tried talking to Faux in Polyglot, sorta making fun of him for not speaking one of the more common languages of the Mwangi Expanse.

Things went south when Aerys left, as Ishiro soured, and was upset that the party didn't want to follow her. Ellisar kept saying that she could take care of herself ("I can take care of myself" being what the unfriendly Aerys told Ellisar when he went to check her to see if she was suffering from heat stroke or dehydration). The next morning the entire group (PC's and castaways) packed up camp and started tracking Aerys further into the island, with a few random encounters, and they set up a brand new camp a few miles south of their initial location. Faux attempted another diplomacy check on Ishiro, failed again, and Ishiro demanded to have his duel, which Bishop tried to stop. Might have worked, except Faux initiated combat by trying to talk Ishiro down and then throwing his dagger at him in a surprise round. Bishop jumped between the two, but Ishiro kept moving toward Faux. When Ellisar and Strel started throwing off their class powers at Ishiro, Sasha stepped in and demanded that they fight fair (as Faux started the combat dishonourably, which Sasha has no problem with, but to her was an indication that Faux wanted to fight). When Bishop took a swing at Ishiro (he missed), Ishiro realized that the party was without honor and stormed off into the jungle.

That night I rolled a random encounter with six dire rats, but I gave Strel and Ellisar, who were on watch, perception checks to hear them coming. Ellisar cast Calm Animals, and every rat failed it's will save. While they were sitting, calmly, and waiting, he woke the rest of the camp. Sasha was super excited about the cute dire rats, and started feeding one. They passed out six rations to the rats and I decided that was good enough for the rats to leave them alone, though Sasha managed to roll really high on her Animal Empathy check and now she's got a Dire Rat pet, Mr. Scruffies, that she's attempting to train with Handle Animal, though she still wants one of those "flying dinosaurs".

The session ended with Sasha and Strel coming down with dysentery. Bishop and Jask are going to attempt to spend the day trying to heal Sasha, as she took more non-lethal damage from it, and give her a bonus on her Fort save, which probably means Strel will end up taking the potion of Cure Disease that they found on the ship. All three NPCs remaining with the party are Friendly to them now, and Jask and Sasha are Hopeful, though Gelik is still Normal.


Just started running this adventure path yesteday with my younger cousins. An 11 year old (her first game!) playing an Elven Rogue, 15 year old playing a human cavalier, and a 17 year old playig a half-elf Druid (with the adopted trait...raised by Dwarves!). The Cavalier has his horse, Druid his Lion, and the rogue has a small dog as a pet (so they all have companions!).

They game went incredibly well, the 11 year old really enjoyed the roleplaying aspect of the game (she took a liking to Jask and Gelik, Im going to include some of the jokes on this forum soon!). I ran a little bit of their time on the vessel so they could meet the characters a little bit before they were shipwrecked, which made it better in my opinion for roleplaying.

The Cavalier has already had enough of Gelik with his jokes, but has taken a liking to Aerys (not in a romantic way though). The Druid for some reason is trying to "go on a romantic beach walk" with Sasha. (although he always tries to find out more about her red mantis tatoo...making it impossible for her to agree to any alone time with him...and the lion). Maybe he has forgotten about all the bugs and mosquitos...

But we ended the game with a cliffhanger, i rolled the percentage chance of each npc and pc (including animals) for them to be bitten by mosquitos in front of them. I rolled very well haha Sasha, the cavalier, Jask, and Aerys were all bitten (even though they were all in tents crafted from the equipment found on the ship!). then i rolled the saving throws for them behind the screen (all except for Sasha who has a really good fort save, failed their save and contracted mindfire).

Making his knowledge nature check the day before about tropical mosquitos sometimes carrying diseases, The druid is preparing detect disease as one of his 1st level spells in the morning to see if people are infected...although he will figure out they are diseased it will slow them down during their exploration of the island!

Im contemplating letting the cavalier play of the NPCs, but I dont think so, I want the characters to be be in the shadows of what all the NPCs can do until the NPCs pull out the spells/attacks during battle.

Great adventure path so far and it looks like it shouldn't be to hard to tie into the world I've Created!

Though I do have a question: how did people deal with NPCs staying at home and making and dealing with camp stuff until they are helpful and complete their individual quest? It seems like i might reach problems regarding the realistic relationships between the PCs and NPCs...

Any Ideas?


Hasn't come up in our game, yet. The NPCs are there to run the camp, which means setting traps, hunting and gathering food, and watching out for wandering monsters. They're holding down the fort, and will say that someone needs to do it. Ask the PCs if they'd rather hold down the fort while the NPCs get to go off and have adventures.

Also, take it easy on the diseases. It really makes the game drag. I've had my group sit for days in camp to get over a disease or heal up ability score damage. If they contract another disease while waiting, it's going to be hard to have the group move forward in the game.

I don't roll for disease if a player already has contracted one. And once they reach certain milestones, like the cannibal's camp, I'm going to reduce the number of times I roll. Maybe roll one time for the entire camp, and then roll to see who contracted something. It's tough when you've got two NPCs and one of your PCs all fighting off something.

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