Pathfinder Society Scenario #56: The Jester's Fraud (Spoilers)


GM Discussion

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

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I'm really curious how this one has gone for different GMs.

The original drafts of the mod featured more investigation to discover the Jester's schemes. To keep the scenario's pace up, this was cut from the final version. Unfortunately, some characters may have trouble working on their faction goals if their group jumps straight into the chase. They may miss the well-hidden clue identifying the Bourtze's heir.

To counter this problem, I recommend a brief final scene be added to the adventure. If the party returns to Evondemor, Tribune Bourtze summons them to his chambers. He lies there bedridden, stricken by a heart attack brought on by the horrors of the first scene.

While the Tribune asks the characters whether his family's accursed treasures have been recovered, a young servant girl waits on him. This is his unacknowledged child, the maidservant Goosegrass. Adventurers who had taken the time to scan the drawings they brought depicting the Tribune's ancestors can easily see a family resemblance between the girl and one of the drawings (Perception DC 16). Confronted by this, the weakened Tribune finally breaks down and recognizes her as his child. He had stubbornly refused to admit this before, afraid that admitting his infidelities would dishonor his dead wife's memory.

On a separate note, I neglected to include a description of the Jester's homunculus: It appears to be a "poppet", a fatuous, smiling nobleman clad in velvet robes and hat. Spreading its cloak wide, the absurd thing flies by vigorously flapping its arms. Before the scenario's final combat, the homunculus spies from high in the ruined keep, keeping an eye out for treachery from the bandits.

If it spots the party's approach, the homonculus grabs a stinking chamberpot, then hides high in the ruins. Watching the party, it readies an action to throw the chamber pot when a spellcaster starts casting, hoping to interrupt the spell. A hit causes 1d3 nonlethal damage and forces a (fairly trivial) concentration check. Misses should be handled as grenade-like weapons. If it has the chance, the homunculus grabs some rotten eggs from an abandoned birds' nest, hoping to pelt another caster.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

One of the GMs who has run this one was kind enough to share his feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of The Jester's Fraud. I'd like to present the information he gave, in the hope of maximizing other players' experience.

Spoiler:
At Tier 8-9, the tactics for the hag coven mention this: "Two of the hags fight the PCs in melee while the third uses her coven abilities, such as blight, baleful polymorph, and forcecage."

The coven abilities should require all three hags' participation. In the original draft, I had the hags animate dead guards as zombies (finding a fancy onyx holy symbol to use as their material component), disguise them as living men under mind control (so the inn's defenders would be hesitant to just cut them down), and hang back as a group to use their coven powers.

Alternatively, the hags could hang back, obscured by the mists. Seeing the Tribune run into the inn and correctly concluding he has reinforcements there, the coven casts mirage arcana to transform the area around the inn. With echoing cracks and pops, tortured stone and churning earth reveal an ancient Keleshite necropolis slowly rising from the ground. Sounds fill the air, the grinding noise of tomb lids and crypt doorways slowly opening. While the party deals with this strange vision, the coven hides within an illusory shrine. They can then cast to their heart's content, protected until someone sees through the illusion. To add to the confusion, they can cast veil on themselves, appearing as wan, beautiful spectres.

One note about the tracking: I have no problem with occasionally having an artificially high DC for a skill check -- one so high that it's nearly impossible for the PCs to make. I've found that in organized play (Living Greyhawk, Living Arcanis, Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, and, of course, the Pathfinder Society) my opinion is not shared by all. There was some grumbling at both tables when their high skill checks didn't make the required DC 40. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I have been at tables where it has been.

My original draft included a lower DC, but the DC was still very high: The Jester drinks a potion of fly for one stretch, eliminating all tracks for over a mile. He hides his tracks in spots, ducks along a stream, and has his homunculus lay false trails (into lion dens and patches of irritating thorns).

According to the mod, Wager just gets increasingly angrier when the PCs deny knowledge about Baran's whereabouts. After the 7th or 8th PC question/denial about Baran, I simply had Wager and his men attack.

Wager is normally reasonable, but believes (correctly) that the PCs have been manipulated into serving as pawns of his hated enemy, the Tribune Bourtze. Concluding that the PCs have something to do with his brother's disappearance, he could be calmed by cunning diplomacy but is more likely to conclude that the PCs are lying. Like many others, Wager underestimates the Jester's abilities. He doesn't suspect how his brother could have fallen to Sabas' influence.

Both groups killed Gaunt Blackfist without a second thought and neither found Pauva's journal. Both groups of Andorans made an effort to find it, but the first didn't toss the inn and the second could not make the Perception check to find the journal.

Gaunt's a psychotic killer, and could be given more menace by allowing him more tactical flexibility. To increase the challenge posed by Blackfist (at night or in fog), he could sick the lion on the PCs and retreat, luring them into fighting another band and bushwhacking the party when they're otherwise occupied. Based on his interests, luring two groups into fighting each other would be just his style.

The Osirion player in the first running got 0 faction points. He couldn't make the Knowledge (nature) check for the lilies and the Andoran dropped a fireball on Gaunt Blackfist as his opening diplomatic statement. Based on the size of the building, I ruled that the sage was caught in the fireball and died. (He failed his save -- natural 1 -- and was described as having been tortured -- i.e., down hit points.) The second Osiriani fared better and got both faction points.

The challenge of the water lilies is meant to be "do I dare go fetch them from the slug-infested waters?" I'd allow Knowledge (nature) deprived PCs to ask their faction contact or someone in the village what the lilies look like so they don't miss out. If they don't think to do that, they're probably out of luck.

Interestingly, of the two factions trying to learn the name of the Bourtze heir, neither were represented in either running of the mod.

Hmm. I suggested an alternate scene that would allow the PCs to recognize her on the boards. I hope people notice it.

Both groups wanted to go directly to Disaren Village upon realizing that they couldn't track the Jester using Survival.

The encounter with Wager was originally designed to occur wherever the PCs headed. His role is to give them a heavy hint that the Disarens have no clue what happened, either.

The Ruins of Rhoetius could have included more information about the various bandit groups. Or, probably more accurately, more general information about the names and size of the groups not listed in the mod. At least one person from each group had the idea to kill 'em all and let the gods sort 'em out.

Other bandit groups in the area would have been represented by one or two bandits, without substantial treasure. Their main groups would be camped somewhere else (with their gold), suspicious that the whole arrangement is a trick. As soon as the party starts wreaking havoc, those bandits would bolt in a dozen different directions. The original draft had another faction present in force in the ruins, a group of necromancers and undead secretly affiliated with the urn's original possessors. The necromancers were cut from the final, but could have made such a clumsy assault on the camp rather perilous.

The description of Blackfist's camp was a little confusing to me. On the map, it looked like a roofless building, but the text mentioned a number of columns scattered about and a pen. So, I improvised and said the wall was low to the ground and counted as difficult terrain to cross.

The building was supposed to have a pillared portico, which had fallen. The pens would be built haphazardly nearby, where Blackfist could torment the animals before staging fights.

I hope people find this information helpful!

The Exchange 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean

I ran this last weekend for a 5th level party and it will be available at a UK convention this weekend.

A couple of comments:

GM comments:

The hags combat was vicious due to their excellent tactics.A nice, explosive start.

During the combat one character went behind the bar. I had the bartender hiding there and a perception/sense motive check revealed that she was protecting something under the bar.

One character used a detect thoughts when talking with the tribune about any heirs and also used this on the bartender. Without that they never would have found the book.

The encounter with Wager was key as once they had captured him they realised the Jester wasn't going back to the enemy house. He asked them not to kill his brother and promised them a reward (the money he carries) if they brought him back.

Once at the bandit village, they spoke with the lionbanes. The lionbanes wanting the urn presented some difficulties but once the party explained that the urn is cursed they came to an agreement that they would give the centaur Blackfist's head and in return she would distract the other bandits so that the party could enter the tower and face the Jester.

At the end, it was a big discussion about where the safest place for the urn would be - some thought the Pathfinder vaults on Absalom was the best place. Thankfully they decided that the urn wasn't their property and should be returned to the tribune.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

David Harrison wrote:
At the end, it was a big discussion about where the safest place for the <spoiler> would be - some thought the Pathfinder vaults on Absalom was the best place. Thankfully they decided that the <spoiler> wasn't their property and should be returned to the tribune.

Spoiler:
If the party brings the urn back to Absalom, the Society grudgingly returns it to Taldor. The PCs can still feel good about their accomplishment, as the Pathfinders surely gain some concessions from the Empire in exchange for giving up their prize.

It's for the best that the alabaster urn be kept far from populated areas, as it is intelligent, malevolent, and pursues the destruction of all human civilization as its special purpose. The hag covey was among the least dangerous of the urn's slaves: As originally written up, it had several other creatures it could draw upon. These included a powerful elemental, a linnorm, and a protean. Given a suitably weak-willed possessor to bring it where it could do the most harm, the urn could topple empires.

Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

I played in Wintergreens game as a 5th level Wizard. Here are some of my experiences:

Spoiler:

The fight with the hags was brutal as my character didn't manage to achieve anything. 2 Lightningbolts and 2 Shocking Grasps (using metamagic Reach) couldn't penetrate the Spell Resistence, Invisibility to use my wizard as invisible healer going around with potions seemed to got negated.
Pushing up my AC with Mage Armor and a wand of shield still seemed outrageously dangerous. Seeing fighters go down quickly I knew I would be down in a single full targeted attack despite all buffs.
In the end I did manage a miniscule amount of damage by using true strike and throwing an alchemist fire.

It felt like relagated to be a spectator. Maybe part was bad dice role as magic just didn't penetrate the hags at all.

It's okay once in a while - I had lots of opportunities to shine with spells in the game before - but it was a very heavy contrast.

The detect thoughts was actually a lot of luck. The Taldane had acquired a scroll of detect thoughts - to be cast on the Tribune. His hope was to hand it to me as helpful wizard (he was by luggage carrier when I was low levels - so I still owned him something). I then was supposed to read this thoughts and report back while he tried to find out about a heir. Lucky downside - the Tribune made his save - and after three rounds of no information I just focussed on the barmaid to use the remainder of the spell in hope to get info on my own mission.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

Thod wrote:

I played in Wintergreen's game as a 5th level Wizard. Here are some of my experiences:

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
I hope the rest of the scenario went better for you than that first scene!

Firing off spells against a creature with resistance can be a real crapshoot. I recommend that you keep a few conjurations handy to avoid such problems in the future: Force your foes to waste time fighting summoned cannon fodder or hit them with attack conjurations. Glitterdust isn't particularly effective against the hags (They have the Blindfighting feat), but grease is always amusing.

Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

Here are the Other encounters

Spoiler:
The encounters at the Temple became quite simple thanks to a fireball that downed three of the four archers and half injured the last. Two of our fighters took care of the remaining leader.

An issue I saw here - despite spending most of my powers in encounter one - due to the timing we would start every single act with full HP and full spells again. In my view at least two of the acts should be moved closer together.

We had no horses - we had slow people traveling.

We didn't fight the slugs - a lot of time spend during the first encounter as well as role-play.

The last one went well. We did chat with the archers to let us in, had some good diplomacy with the lionbanes. The lion nearly killed one of our fighters.

In the last fight three of us went from the back - fly, plus twice spider climb. It would have been a pushover apart of two issues:
I was asked not to throw a fireball in the room to give the starting signal as one player feared to lose some papers for his mission. Also the way it was build up using tiles we had to squeeze from on room to the next. That actually helped as it therefore was a decent fight.

All in all I enjoyed the game as I had a good GM and a great group to play with. The spell resistance is fine once in a while - so no worries there. I also had been unlucky. There should have been only a 10% chance to fail four times in a row with my level.

The downsides in my view:
The chase was to linear and more or less railroaded. And there was no chance to gain time. At the same time you more row less had to stay over night twice - once after encounter one - once half way to the camp.

Keeping HP and spells and balance them instead of just blasting everything is part of enjoying a good challenge. Here it didn't seem to matter to much if you played intelligent and resourceful or just all guns blazing.

Thod

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

A couple of negatives to the scenario.

1> I know you don't HAVE to have the flip mats but I like them. And then in this one, you select an out of print map to use, so I can't get it.
(The reason I would rather use the maps is that I am a very bad artist on drawing maps.)

2. I've ranted on this before, but if you template a creature, put in the stat block. At a con, or if for any reason you have to run cold, you have to take time out of the scenario to quickly scribble down the stats, then you have to gather up your players as they wander off for various reasons while you are doing so.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

Tim Statler wrote:
I know you don't HAVE to have the flip mats but I like them. And then in this one, you select an out-of-print map to use, so I can't get it.

Sorry 'bout that! Feel free to substitute other maps if that would increase your enjoyment or that of your players! This scenario's encounters aren't so tightly bound to their map that a change would do real harm.

Tim Statler wrote:
I've ranted on this before, but if you template a creature, put in the stat block.

Good point!

3/5

Not going to spoil this, as it is the GMboards, but has anyone actually had a PC put on the Necklace of Strangulation? If so, how did you handle it? I actually had a situation with a heavy non-magic group (Summoner, Alchemist, Fighter, Rogue, Cavalier) that did not have the capacity to identify the item. I read the description of it, it detected magic, so the fighter put it on to figure out what it did and....yeah, 16 PA down the drain. Just curious as to if this has come up with anyone else or how they handled it.

Scarab Sages

Sethious wrote:
Not going to spoil this, as it is the GMboards, but has anyone actually had a PC put on the Necklace of Strangulation? If so, how did you handle it? I actually had a situation with a heavy non-magic group (Summoner, Alchemist, Fighter, Rogue, Cavalier) that did not have the capacity to identify the item. I read the description of it, it detected magic, so the fighter put it on to figure out what it did and....yeah, 16 PA down the drain. Just curious as to if this has come up with anyone else or how they handled it.

The PCs get information about the items missing, and know that one of them is a necklace of strangulation. Upon reading that, most players would not be putting on ANY unidentified item, and even identified, it could be wrong (identifying is +10 to the spellcraft DC)

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

Sethious wrote:
Not going to spoil this, as it is the GMboards, but has anyone actually had a PC put on the Necklace of Strangulation? If so, how did you handle it?

That is unfortunate! Apparently your group didn't ask the Tribune what items had been taken, or he would have warned them about the accursed necklace. Aram Zey's mission briefing might also have put the party on their guard, with its speculation that the Bourtzes might try to saddle the Society with something dangerous.

As it is, once someone has put on the necklace, all you can do is go through his pockets for loose change.

3/5

Yeah, I made it quite clear they were going to be handling cursed items at the beginning of the mission... and they never ask questions, so I guess lesson learned for the most part.

The Exchange 5/5

I played this tonight and put on the necklace (failed the spellcraft, had a 7 WIS). Since it won't come off until the body has skeletonized (at least 30 days) a Raise Dead by itself won't work. So really it's 32 PA or 10,900GP for the Ressurection. Yowza! Some players may just write off a 5th or 6th level PC.

It was a really fun scenario and I look forward to drawing the maps, which were very interesting. I had charmed Wager before I died and he was cooperating with the party to catch the Jester, so the GM let me play him the rest of the game. At the end I tried to grab the urn and run but the others struck me down. Two deaths in one scenario, it was a rough night.

The Exchange 3/5

Doug Miles wrote:
Two deaths in one scenario, it was a rough night.

"Sounds like you got bairded good."

"Yeah, tough night when you roll double-bairds."

"Oof, you sure pulled a baird in that scenario."

-Pain

p.s. Clearly, I need to work on my witty banter and PFS jargon.

p.p.s. I love the scenario as well and keep trying to 'trick' (I'm REALLY bad at it) my parties into putting the necklace on, but failing. DougDoug, I realize now that I don't need to get better at tricking people, but that I need lower wisdom/sillier players.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

Doug Miles wrote:
I played this tonight and put on the necklace (failed the spellcraft, had a 7 WIS). Since it won't come off until the body has skeletonized (at least 30 days) a Raise Dead by itself won't work. So really it's 32 PA or 10,900GP for the Ressurection. Yowza! Some players may just write off a 5th or 6th level PC.

Egad! Another one! They're dropping like flies!

Grand Lodge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Baltic

Doug Miles wrote:
Since it won't come off until the body has skeletonized (at least 30 days) a Raise Dead by itself won't work.

Would Decompose Corpse from Ultimate Magic work?

3/5

Well, good to know I'm not the only one that has seen this happen now, haha.

The Exchange 5/5

Auke Teeninga wrote:
Doug Miles wrote:
Since it won't come off until the body has skeletonized (at least 30 days) a Raise Dead by itself won't work.
Would Decompose Corpse from Ultimate Magic work?

That's a good question. No one knew in-character what the necklace was, even after it started to kill me. After I died the others continued with the mission. How far is the site of the adventure from Cassomir or Oppara? I would say 120 miles, or 5 days' travel. Probably enough time to reach a NPC spellcaster or faction contact (my PC is Taldan). Is there a check to identify the necklace at that point? Perhaps pay for an expert such as a sage to identify the item? Then pay for the decompose corpse spell and remove the necklace. It's a pity I can't keep it, but my character will never wear anything around her neck again, that's for sure.

The Exchange 5/5

Doug Miles wrote:
Auke Teeninga wrote:
Doug Miles wrote:
Since it won't come off until the body has skeletonized (at least 30 days) a Raise Dead by itself won't work.
Would Decompose Corpse from Ultimate Magic work?
That's a good question. No one knew in-character what the necklace was, even after it started to kill me. After I died the others continued with the mission. How far is the site of the adventure from Cassomir or Oppara? I would say 120 miles, or 5 days' travel. Probably enough time to reach a NPC spellcaster or faction contact (my PC is Taldan). Is there a check to identify the necklace at that point? Perhaps pay for an expert such as a sage to identify the item? Then pay for the decompose corpse spell and remove the necklace. It's a pity I can't keep it, but my character will never wear anything around her neck again, that's for sure.

On second thought, I don't think even decompose corpse plus raise dead performed within 9 days is going to work since the spell states:

[i wrote:
Raise Dead[/i]]While the spell closes mortal wounds and repairs lethal damage of most kinds, the body of the creature to be raised must be whole. Otherwise, missing parts are still missing when the creature is brought back to life. None of the dead creature’s equipment or possessions are affected in any way by this spell.

A skeleton is not a whole body. Flesh and organs are all missing. I think the ressurection is the only correct route.

Grand Lodge 5/5 Regional Venture-Coordinator, Baltic

Doug Miles wrote:
A skeleton is not a whole body. Flesh and organs are all missing. I think the ressurection is the only correct route.

Maybe in combination with "Restore Corpse" also from Ultimate Magic.

The Exchange 5/5

Auke Teeninga wrote:
Doug Miles wrote:
A skeleton is not a whole body. Flesh and organs are all missing. I think the ressurection is the only correct route.
Maybe in combination with "Restore Corpse" also from Ultimate Magic.

Oh, you are just full of helpful answers today! Yes, I think that's the trick.

I almost kept this embarassing incident to myself, but I'm now glad I brought it up since Auke was able to find me a legitimate way to get around paying for a full resurrection.

Liberty's Edge

Doug Miles wrote:
Auke Teeninga wrote:
Doug Miles wrote:
A skeleton is not a whole body. Flesh and organs are all missing. I think the ressurection is the only correct route.
Maybe in combination with "Restore Corpse" also from Ultimate Magic.

Oh, you are just full of helpful answers today! Yes, I think that's the trick.

I almost kept this embarassing incident to myself, but I'm now glad I brought it up since Auke was able to find me a legitimate way to get around paying for a full resurrection.

Oh man, we just did this tonight...GM allowed us to break it with a group strength check with the unfortunate PC using adamantium... I swear I told him to test it on his dog first.

Would gentle recompose (?) work to delay until wishes be granted?

ug. well anyway, we set fire to the hommunculus so that was fun.

and I got a 52 crit on a hag.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Just prepared this for Arcanacon. It's a brilliant module! I'll be sure to provide a full review after I'm done inflicting this little collection of horrors on some overconfident PCs.

... muahahahahaha.

Dark Archive 1/5

Seriously, the comments and advice from Sir_Wulf is what turns this from a 4-star to a 5-star scenario. Every author should take time to do this. Thank you.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Ran this yesterday. It was awesome. I have added another 5-star review as a result.

Dangerous stuff!:
The party was completely outclassed by the Hags at 5-6, as most of the damage potential came from archer rangers, the fog cloud rendered them next to useless. The party witch nearly died during the surprise round but was saved by clever preparation. One archer was "rendered" dead after tumbling through a window in a vain effort to escape the beasties. Blind fight + Fog = winning.

As the party waited for a Priest to come and revive the fallen party member, they took Bourtze's serving girls out drinking, and after getting them tipsy, diplomatically forced a confession that Bourtze was Goosegrass's father.

My party treated the Necklace as ordinary treasure and didn't experiment with wearing it, much to my disappointment. I even described how shiny it was! Darn!

It all ended with a mammoth combat at the auction, after the party was outbid by Gaunt Blackfist. Blackfist let his lion loose, which proceeded to rip through the Lionbane's hapless soldiers (ironic?). Sabas blinded many of the party through Glitterdust, then confused a party member. The Mace of Blood dealt horrendous amounts of damage to a Ranger's Axebeak animal companion, which sought to flee. The party Witch fired off a Black Tentacles which outclassed Sabas, despite the homunculus hurling rotten eggs at her. Baran was fried by an errant lightning bolt. Poor fella.

Silver Crusade 4/5

I'm preparing to run this one this weekend.

Even worse than the lack of monster stats for monsters from the bestiary is the fact that one monster that does have stats listed in the scenario is missing stuff from those stats. If I hadn't been paying close attention while preparing, I never would have noticed that

Spoiler:
I needed to research hag covens separately, since the coven stuff isn't in with the hag stats in the first encounter of the scenario
. I just thought I should point that out here, so anyone reading this thread in preparation to run the scenario in the future will get a heads up.

I also have a question about one of the items that shows up in the adventure.

Spoiler:
Is putting on the necklace of strangulation just insta-death? I know the Core Rulebook says it can't be removed without a wish or whatever, but what about destroying it, or removing its magic? Would a dispel magic from a level 8 or 9 caster stand any chance at all against it? How many HP of damage can it survive if someone tries to "kill" it? Or should I just assume it'll be hopeless?

The Exchange 5/5

Fromper wrote:

I'm preparing to run this one this weekend.

Even worse than the lack of monster stats for monsters from the bestiary is the fact that one monster that does have stats listed in the scenario is missing stuff from those stats. If I hadn't been paying close attention while preparing, I never would have noticed that ** spoiler omitted **. I just thought I should point that out here, so anyone reading this thread in preparation to run the scenario in the future will get a heads up.

I also have a question about one of the items that shows up in the adventure.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Necklace of Strangulation = insta-death. Well, not insta-death...more like a slow agonizing death as nothing your party tries can save you from the final conclusion. First-hand knowledge here.
Silver Crusade 4/5

That's what I was thinking, but I just wanted confirmation.

I'm surprised to see these posts about so many people dying that way. When my group played the adventure, we asked what items were taken after the first fight. As we found the cursed items, we made a point of not even touching them, let alone using them. It was interesting to picture the party monk pushing the mace into a handy haversack using her staff, with help from the barbarian who also only touched the thing with a weapon, not directly.

I hope my players are that cautious when I run this on Sunday. I've never killed a PC in PFS before, though I'm also not the most experienced PFS GM. If someone does put the thing on, I'll end up with my first PC death before my first star.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Spoiler:
The necklace will take a Spellcraft DC 33 to identify correctly. If worn, it deals 6 damage per round until the wearer is dead. As described, nothing can remove it, short of spells the PCs cannot hope to access. It is unpleasant.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Or it can be identified much more easily by asking the most obvious possible question to an NPC early on in the adventure. Like I said, my group had no problem when I played this adventure, because we only touched it with a 10 foot pole (ok, maybe it was a 5 foot quarterstaff, but still...)

Grand Lodge 4/5

Yeah, in the best case scenario, judicious players will question Bourtze for information about what items they might facing, where he will mention the necklace, the mace and the urn.

If the conversation becomes dominated by the players pestering Bourtze about whether he has any children (my table, lol) or if Bourtze is too busy fuming about those louts in House Disaren, then the spellcraft can be a safety net if the party has someone with Spellcraft or Identify.

The quarterstaff is a great idea, but you could also pull a Gandalf and wrap the cursed items with black velvet, to avoid touching them directly.

Silver Crusade 4/5

On a similar note, I have another question.

Spoiler:
What about a player who picks up the mace? According to the Core Rulebook, they have to make a saving throw to avoid turning Chaotic Evil. If they miss the save, does that mean the character has to be removed from the Pathfinder Society campaign altogether due to the alignment restriction? And at what point do they have to make the save? The description says they have to make a save if they use the mace, so should I only require a will save once they use it in combat, or as soon as they pick it up?

Liberty's Edge 4/5

Fromper wrote:

On a similar note, I have another question.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
If they use it in combat, not just for touching it. That is reserved for green slime. ;)

As to removed from play, only if they don't get a successful Remove Curse before the end of the session. At which point they would get the "turned Chaotic Evil" condition, and get marked as dead for PFS.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Luckily, most of my players paid attention and asked the obvious question yesterday, so nobody died. It was close, because one player hadn't been paying attention, but the others stopped her from putting on the pretty jewelry. :P

Having both played and GMed this scenario, my biggest thought is that the battles seem to be too easy, especially the final one. I was doing tier 8-9 both times.

5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Arizona—Tucson

Fromper wrote:
On a similar note, I have another question.

Spoiler:
They must use the mace in actual battle for its curse to manifest. When I've run the scenario, the players asked about the items taken. They were thus warned that the mace "drives its wielder mad with bloodlust". Once they recovered it, the player carrying it (wrapped up in his pack) still heard voices whispering in his head, urging him to crush his enemies and describing the ecstatic joys of carnage. They couldn't wait to get rid of it...
4/5

I'm about to run this and have found a few outright errors unless I've missed something:

1)

act 1 errors:
The hags in the high tier as described above can't have two attacking and one casting. I'll probably run as suggested above but likely switch to melee - though forcecage is brutal (as is an early mind blank on creatures already with decent Spell Resistance)

2)

act 2 errors:
All of Wager's men and himself have Darkvision but I don't see any way they could have it (unless they were supposed to be Dwarves not humans?)

3)

act 3 & 4 errors/questions/comments:
using templates can be pretty brutal - the fiendish giant slugs get TWO types of DR - not sure how to rule on that but I think it means you need a Good, Slashing or Piercing weapon. They also gain a weak SR and a pretty buff Resistance to Cold and Fire. Plus a really nasty existing set of attacks = potentially a very long combat. In ct 4 the advanced dire lion is another case of having to potentially apply templates on the fly... but there is another error - it says to use the stats of Wager on page 10 which is as a 9th level fighter, but lists Gaunt as a 6th level fighter - which is it? And if level 9 why so low HP?) and again why does Baran have Darkvision 60'?

A very flavorful - and dangerous scenario which I'm greatly looking forward to running.

5/5 ** RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

You are correct: Those guys shouldn't have darkvision!

Spoiler:
(It's a relic from the turnover, when they were quite different characters.)

The slug fight should actually be short and brutal, as they are extremely stupid. I've had them surge out of the water, often overrunning the front rank in an effort to reach whoever wounds them most severely.

As you surmised, the 9th level version of Wager should be used for Gaunt at the high tier.

4/5

Thanks James - that's helpful. I ended up running at the low tier so didn't have to figure out the templates on the fly - and your previous comments and advice were very helpful!

One other thing I noticed but I think this was deliberate -

one minor thing at the last fight:
Baran in the last fight is quite underpowered - unarmed and with feats that don't make much sense for his weapons - I figured that was a side effect of him being charmed? But more crucially Gaunt by using the stats for Wager as well seems pretty off as well - lower HP than I might expect and feats that don't really do much for him at all - guess that's the downside of reusing stat blocks. If I were running this for a home game, not PFS, I would almost certainly rebuild Gaunt from the ground up to be a more fleshed out character (perhaps even build him as a ranger w/animal companion - Lion?)

Overall this was a lot of fun to run and is now towards the top of my list of scenarios that I would likely pull out were I running a home game (not PFS) where I could build on this scenario's many potential plot hooks and build up something that might launch a lot of ongoing campaign hooks - with the Jester likely getting away and becoming a reoccurring NPC. Really flavorful adventure with lots of things to do for any party composition. Hopefully sometime in 2013 I'll get a chance to run this for a high tier table.

5/5 *** Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht

I'm going to GM this scenario in two days, and I have a few questions:
What, exactly, does the Alabaster Urn do? I couldn't find a description of it online, and I'm sure my players want to know. Apparently the Hags spawned from it, and the text mentions it spawning things, but I have no idea what its capabilities are. Page 17 shows an implike creature that I presume spawns from it, but it doesn't show in the adventure. Unless it's the Homunculus, but it doesn't look like it.
The scenario mentions fog, but it hardly features in the adventure, as it's rarely nighttime. I'm inclined to incorporate it in the first encounter and just leave it.
Is it just me, or is the optional encounter really brutal? I'm running it for four level 5 people, that slug has as much HP as all of them combined, can one-shot players with a ranged attack, and has nasty DR. I'm thinking of running it anyway, and people who get KO'd just revive thereafter. It's just a timefiller, there's nothing interesting aside from some faction missions and an overly brutal encounter. Most encounters seem pretty brutal, actually.
I'm thinking of running the final encounter somewhere else, or at least make the house a bit bigger. There are 4 medium-sized enemies, four PCs, and if they fight in level one, there's one twenty-by-twenty room separated from the entrance by a big hole. I have a hard time imagining how I can place them all effectively.

5/5 ** RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

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I'm sorry that I overlooked your message, Quentin. The Alabaster Urn is an evil, self-aware artifact that imprisons a number of powerful monsters. When held, it can disgorge its imprisoned victims. (The hags are the only creatures released during the scenario.) The Urn's special purpose is the destruction of human civilization: It is reserving its most potent monsters until it finds itself in the hands of a weak-willed owner in the capital of a powerful empire.

Grand Lodge 3/5

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Sorry for the Necro, my VC pointed me to the thread to help prepare the scenario i ran today. that said, the party enjoyed it- especially my VC who doesn't play much and is aiming to earn his fifth star next month.

Here's what happened-
Playing up with a 9 Wizard, 1 Cleric/8 Sorcerer, 9 Paladin, 7 Paladin, & 7 Life Oracle.

Spoiler:
Aram Zey's Briefing- After the briefing, the party paladins asked if the Tribune had any enemies, and thus they learned of House Disaren and their rivalry.
I also stated that they should maintain neutrality between the two houses; hinting at the second success condition. <Woot, no faction missions!>

At the Inn, after the Tribune arrived, the Veiled Hag sought entrance, but the paladin at the door rolled a 30+ Sense Motive vs her much lower bluff. That's when the two others stepped out of the fog to begin bashing at the windows.
All three Hags won initiative, one at the window broke through, while the second failed, and the one at the door forced her way through the door.
Sadly, they never got off any of their Coven magic as the Wizard caught the first hag with Boneshatter, it failed it's save from becoming exhausted [-6 Str/Dex: yowza], and the sorcerer brought it to single digits with a Lightning Bolt, and was downed by the Paladin 7 charging her.
The one at the door was at the full mercy of the 9 lvl Paladin's Smited Full Attack...
The last remaining one walked in through her sibling's hole and cast Fog Cloud- only delaying the inevitable.

After the fight, the party true to their original mission, wanted to see the historical texts for sale before pursuing Sabas. They also rested and got more information from the Tribune. Including the other items stolen.

One the road, they ran into Wager- who was packing camp, and after some very good diplomacy rolls convinced Wager that they may be able to help him finding his brother and capturing Sabas. They left Wager to pursue Sabas, and headed to House Disaren for more information.
Some quick improvised roleplay, learned that house Disaren was most likly responsible for sending Sabas to infiltrate and sabotage the Tribune's hold, but did not expect him to go rogue. They also learned that this part of Taldan, was rife with ruins of fallen houses and ill-fated towns. Maybe Sabas fled that way? [Subtle railroading!]

At the canals, since they avoided fighting Wager, they found the remains of some corpses- including a few bearing the colors of House Disaren. [Both Sabas' party and Wager's, and Wager investigated got attacked by the Giant Slugs- he fled.] The party had to deal with the Slugs.
The first slug, who rolled a 4 on it's initiative for a whooping "Turn Order 0!" got fried by the Wizard's flying Great Sword [via Hand of the Apprentice] and Spell-Stored Empowered Shocking Grasp- and it was a crit for 130+ damage.
The 9 Paladin approached the second, not realizing that as a HUGE creature had 15' reach and "readied to attack". The Slug tried to lick him.
It didn't last long, as it was close enough to the makeshift driftwood bridge for the same paladin to reposition and start whacking at it, and the two spellcasters blasting it. [I forgot to use Smite Good in this fight.]

After finding the necklace, the wizard rolled to identify, and failed with a 30. Though it was radiating a malevolent aura, no one put it on.
They stayed night [ruling it was a day's travel from House Disaren to the Canals] the people on watch overheard some passing bandits/deserts discussing an auction in a nearby ruins and that other bandit clans were gathering to see what was for sale- and possibly cause trouble. [Subtle railroading!]

At the Ruins, the party were admitted easily and they learned of the Lionsbane and Blackfists, and a few more tidbits. They decided to scope out the Urn to plan, and had a conversation with Sabas using Ventriloquism- the mod is quite vague on how the party first provokes Sabas, and i was honestly planning to let them talk about it. Sabas told the PC's that he was waiting for more clans to show up to better stir up bidding wars.
They found Baran in a slight stupor, after getting his daily dose of Charm Monster, and questioned Sabas as to demonstrating the Urns power. Unsure how to improvise a fight, Sabas mentions he had planned to unleash 'something' during the auction.

The party left the auction house, to an unexpected location- Blackfist's tent- as they planned to Dominate Gaunt into giving over the Mace of Blood.
Gaunt was too preoccupied with beating up the prisoner to react to a "surprise" Dominate. Failed. Since he really didn't want to hand over his new beatin'-stick, he rolled again and failed.
The Wizard jokingly prestidigitation'd the blood-soaked mace and witnessed it's power wane.

The party then planned on how to get out of the camp, away from the numerous bandit clans after reclaiming the urn- they planned to have the now Dominated Guant order his clan to attack *gasp* the Lionsbane clan to cause a distraction while they made their escape.
Plan they came up with- Wizard Invisibly/Fly to the urn, and snatch it. Loggerhead, who had spied on them, and was seen fleeing, returned to Sabas to report that same plan.

How the final fight went down-
Wizard flies in, rest of the party on lower floor ready to run in if things go south, or to run away if successful.
The instant the wizard puts his backpack over the urn, Sabas whammies him with Glitterdust and commands the guards to attack.
*roll for initiative!*
<R1>
Baran goes first, and fumbles with his club.
Wizard throws Great Sword [his go-to tactic] at Sabas, hits, and deals 60 damage. *curses Empowered Shocking Grasp!*
Sorcerer runs up the stairs [forgot to place a web], and Msgic Missiles Baran.
Sabas retreats to the upper floor, begins his performance, and just hides away.
Archers take potshots at the Wizard, paladins run up after getting buffed by life oracle.
Loggerhead fails to dump chamber pot on the Wizard's head.
<R2>
Baran swings futilely at the Wizard, who got out of reach.
Wizard tried to Dispel the charm, fails.
Sorcerer runs to hole that Sabas fled into, seeing the severely injured Bard- promptly Lightning Bolts him. Fails reflex, takes 24, unconscious begins falling, takes another 16 falling.
Baran comes out his daze, screams "Where Sabas?" when the rest of the archers surrender. He goes and coup de grace an already dead Sabas.

*toss confetti* End scenario.
Upon leaving, the party is confronted by the Lionsbane Centaurs and ask if they can kill Gaunt. Paladins begrudging say that they have no qualm with bandit clans fighting, and the wizard dismisses the Dominate and the Lionsbane begin their beat down. [They did give Gaunt a club after taking the Mace of Blood- so he wasn't defenseless.]
Tribune is happy that the PC's recovered all three items, and his wife's journal and gladly exchange statues for whichever texts the Society wish to claim; Baran after returning home is ridiculed for getting enthralled by the Jester, and Wager is ridiculed for being scared off by giant slugs- but the PC get a meager 'reward' for their 'assistance'- free room and board.

Nice scenario, good room for roleplay with some good fights if the tactics work out.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

Nice after action report :)

Scenario threads are meant for necromancy, they're intended to be a permanent resource for future GMs, so no need to apologize for your midnight rituals.

Grand Lodge 4/5

I also need to necromancy this as we're running two tables of this tomorrow. So we now know that Gaunt Blackfist is supposed to be the CR 5 and CR 9 versions of Wager for each tier. Can someone explain his hit points? Why does he have 9 less if he's got the exact same stats? And if Gaunt is supposed to have 48 instead of 57 in the 5-6 tier, how many should he have in the 8-9? Nine less?

Grand Lodge 4/5

kevin_video wrote:
I also need to necromancy this as we're running two tables of this tomorrow. So we now know that Gaunt Blackfist is supposed to be the CR 5 and CR 9 versions of Wager for each tier. Can someone explain his hit points? Why does he have 9 less if he's got the exact same stats? And if Gaunt is supposed to have 48 instead of 57 in the 5-6 tier, how many should he have in the 8-9? Nine less?

I'd also like to point out that Wager at level 6 and level 9 have the exact same stats. That's impossible. He should have gotten a +1 to one of his stats at level 8. I currently have it that he raised his Wisdom to 11 for some reason.

2/5

I have a question about one of the feats in the Wager encounter.

Spoiler:
Do I just ignore the tactics that combine Step Up and using a reach weapon or is it intended that he can use Step Up on enemies who are 10 feet away and back away?

1/5

I'd like to get some opinions on how the Necklace of Strangulation works, on the off chance that it comes up.

Specifically, I have a PC that explicitly does not breathe (void kineticist.) Are they immune to the damage?

I'm inclined to say they're still going to die, because the necklace will also cut off blood flow. And presumably just plain "cut", since it's doing 6 dmg per round rather than just suffocating them.

4/5 *****

That seems correct, shaventalz:

Ultimate Equipment wrote:

Necklace of Strangulation

When placed on the neck, the necklace immediately tightens, dealing 6 points of damage per round. It cannot be removed by any means short of a limited wish, wish, or miracle, and remains clasped around the victim’s throat even after his death. Only when he
has decayed to a dry skeleton (after approximately 1 month) does the necklace loosen, ready for another victim.

— Ultimate Equipment, 347-348

Seems fairly clear that it does HP damage, and doesn't follow any sort of suffocation rules. It's definitely a fair moment for the GM to ask "Are you sure?" before the player decides to put it on.

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