"I Don't Believe in Faeries!"


Kingmaker

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Okay, so looks like the potential new player won't be able to make our Thursday sessions due to work conflicts.

To compensate, I've allowed the three remaining party members to Gestalt for the duration of the absence of their companions - the other option I had was adding NPC(s) to the party, which for various reasons would be impractical.

Elegy I know is gestalting Oracle|Arcanist.

Lilith is debating Hunter (Fistful of Denarii)|Alchemist.

Takeshi we have no idea, I recall someone recommending Samurai|Ninja but I don't think he's decided.


So it's done. Armagk the Twice-Hatched is slain, and the legendary blade of his forebear Ovnirbaane, Enemy of All Enemies, is in the hands of the Lords of Iomrall.

Granted, none of them really can make use of it - between the curse, the difficulty to destroy, and the fact I switched up some of its enhancements in a way that no longer favors a party member, with two people dropping out - it seems to be doomed to be forgotten in a vault for now. Perhaps some time in the future a third Armagk will come seeking it.

In the meantime, two members of the group - Jaekah and Errol - will be returning to their normal day-to-day lives and duties, and in Errol's case family, while Elegy, Lilith, and Takeshi have about five months to make preparations for the predicted winter arrival of the mysterious "man with sword hands", the apparent chosen messenger of the dread vampire Ibrahim.

The messengers arriving around the solstice will be:

Dovan from Haven, dread ghoul deadly dancer Slayer: Chosen speaker for "father" Ibrahim, and while his primary purpose here is to taunt Lilith into coming to Maure Castle, he's also relishing the opportunity to avenge himself on his killers.

Kressle, dread wraith (class undecided): All too eager for vengeance, the restless spirit of Kressle accompanies her former companion Dovan on his mission.

Tartuk, ghost Summoner, and Lord Sharptooth, eidolon: Tartuk is so divorced from his former mortal existence at this point that he doesn't even resemble a kobold OR a gnome in his ghostly form, just a blot of ethereal light. If he has a "true form", it's his eidolon, Lord Sharptooth brought to life.

Mazedouarva, witchfire blood hag Witch: Mazedouarva was the "cinder witch" who accompanied the Cinderlander in his attempt to eradicate the Nomienn. She was fairly unceremoniously obliterated by Errol and the party's winter-wolf companions, so is like Kressle eager for a little recognition along with her vengeance.

Grigori, allip Bard: After being thoroughly humiliated by Elegy, then assassinated by Engelidis's agents (probably Gaetane), the rabblerouser's spirit was captured by Ibrahim and his embarrassment and self-pity twisted into mad rage and insanity.

The best part about this enemy party is that every single one of them except Dovan is incorporeal, and Dovan has a freakishly high Disguise skill coupled with the Civilized Ghoulishness feat, allowing him - with some effort and aid by allies who have hands - to pass as human among most people. So during normal travels, Dovan plays the part of a gaunt, pale, heavily-garbed humanoid wanderer, while his four companions simply hide inside his body, emerging as needed.

Other returning foes on the menu:

The Cinderlander, pale stranger gunslinger (bolt ace): I think rebuilding him using the bolt ace archetype will make him far, far more effective than a one-shot crossbow-using ranger. We'll see =)

Kargadd, dreadnaught multi-headed rock troll mohrg: In addition to turning the dread troll into a mohrg, Ibrahim also grafted several heads from other dead trolls, including both of Nagrundi's, onto Kargadd's body, in an undead imitation of a Jotund Troll.

The Stag Lord Remade: Oh yes. Definitely using this guy. Oh yes.

The Stag Bandits: Ibrahim likes his freakish undead experimental monstrosities. All those bandits who got tossed in the pit back in that first battle? Ibrahim collected up their bodies along with the zombies from the hillside and Beaky and turned the whole lot of them into a Warsworn. So yeah, going to be this enormous mass of familiar corpses and faceless zombies headed by an undead owlbear. Enjoy!

Rigg Gargadilly, mist wight quickling Rogue: Add yet another to the quickly-growing list of people who want vengeance on the party; specifically Rigg has it in for Lilith, who decided to torture him after crippling him in the fight with Hargulka.

The Black Sisters, mummy ael-vari Clerics: Yeah, decided I'd go with the Sisters getting their mummification on after all, and after high-tailing it out of Armagk's tomb while the PCs are busy with the barbarian lord they ended up getting recruited by Ibrahim's ever-growing army of vengeful supplicants.

The (greatly advanced) Unecrocorn: Specifically, this was once the very hornless unicorn that the party found in the bog in the southern Narlmarches. Ibrahim stole the corpse, reanimated it, and replaced its horn with a necromantic spike.

Vesket and Howl-of-the-South-Wind, variant wendigo: Yet another hideous amalgamation, Ibrahim has combined the corpses of the lizard king Vesket and the winter wolf Howl into a bizarre lizardfolk/werewolf skinwalker/wendigo ... thing. Even better, the two retain some semblance of their former memories in their newly merged minds, only adding to the torment and madness their existence now revolves around.

The Shadow Fey, Synsska (exodite Slayer) and Herketta (scathsidhe Sorcerer): The survivors from the battle at Silverstep's lair are among the few living creatures dwelling in Maure Castle, and they're ready for some payback after the embarrassment they suffered at the hands of the party and Eranex.

Vordakai, cyclops lich Arcanist: And Big V is back as well for round 2. Sadly no Errol to square off with him this time... but on the other hand, he'll be an Arcanist this time around, same as Elegy's gestalted build, so there's a rivalry to be resumed there.

So yes, plenty of trouble to be had. >=)


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Orthos wrote:
Granted, none of them really can make use of it - between the curse, the difficulty to destroy, and the fact I switched up some of its enhancements in a way that no longer favors a party member, with two people dropping out - it seems to be doomed to be forgotten in a vault for now. Perhaps some time in the future a third Armagk will come seeking it.

Future?:
Book 4 of CotCT needs some re-write. How about an Armagk rebellion?

Still, that's a pity, especially the players dropping. There's this nice long list of Undead baddies that need exterminating, too.

Speaking of which:

Orthos wrote:
So during normal travels, Dovan plays the part of a gaunt, pale, heavily-garbed humanoid wanderer, while his four companions simply hide inside his body, emerging as needed.

hehehehHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAA-

Orthos wrote:
The Cinderlander, pale stranger gunslinger (bolt ace): I think rebuilding him using the bolt ace archetype will make him far, far more effective than a one-shot crossbow-using ranger. We'll see =)

-HAHAHAHAHAHAAHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH -

Orthos wrote:
Kargadd, dreadnaught multi-headed rock troll mohrg: In addition to turning the dread troll into a mohrg, Ibrahim also grafted several heads from other dead trolls, including both of Nagrundi's, onto Kargadd's body, in an undead imitation of a Jotund Troll.

-*

0_O

That...that's not funny...that's not...

Seriously, though, awesome stuff, some of which I'll be stealing for later use. Love me some Wendigos! Also, looking forward to seeing how the Arcanist works, haven't toyed around with that one yet.


Talking Skull wrote:
Orthos wrote:
Granted, none of them really can make use of it - between the curse, the difficulty to destroy, and the fact I switched up some of its enhancements in a way that no longer favors a party member, with two people dropping out - it seems to be doomed to be forgotten in a vault for now. Perhaps some time in the future a third Armagk will come seeking it.
** spoiler omitted **

Definitely an idea I've considered! Could also

Spoiler:
make a good PC option, if Ovnirbaane ends up in Ileosa's vaults, if I end up with someone wanting to go that route. =) We'll see!

I was kind of expecting Jaekah to lay claim to it, honestly, and it would have fit him best of the party, but then he dropped out so that ended up not working out.

Everyone's going to get some nice stuff coming up soon. Lilith's going to find an awesome artifact bow in Maure Castle. Elegy'll find a really nice staff in Cuorvhain's hoard. And I'm pretty sure Takeshi is going to end up with Briar.

Quote:

-*

0_O

That...that's not funny...that's not...

This made me snicker, so well played =)

Quote:
Also, looking forward to seeing how the Arcanist works, haven't toyed around with that one yet.

It's very fun. I'm not a huge fan of prepared casting personally, but I love the flavor of the book-scholar spellcaster, so I like it simply for giving me everything I want about Wizard and nothing I don't.

I threw one at the party back during the playtest, during the Culchek raid in Varnhold, but she didn't get much screentime. Here's hoping Vordakai will fare better, especially against the smaller party meaning action economy won't murderize him nearly as badly, since he won't have Haru Anon to eat up attacks for him in the first few rounds like last time.


Been pretty quiet in this corner lately. Everything all right on your end, Orthos?


Yeah. I've just been lazy about putting the journals up.

Also the game got shaken up a bit by Errol and Jaekah's players withdrawing. We're still adjusting a bit, especially on the roleplaying front - a lot of the in-party banter that made the game so fun came from the interactions between Elegy and Errol. Elegy and Lilith had their moments as well, but when the party is adventuring and such, Lilith's up scouting away from the party or being in stealth where no one can see her, so there's a lot less interaction now.

We're getting a new player in November though, and the games are moving from Thursdays to Saturdays. Just in time to tromp through Maure Castle, then head off to tangle with some dragons.


That's some serious slathering of XPs in this campaign. Fun :)


Yeah I've pretty much given up on keeping the party anywhere near the expected level of the campaign at this point, and just adjust encounters to taste.


A necessary evil when a campaign goes on this long on a what, bi-weekly basis? :)


Nope, once weekly. =) I wish biweekly but most of my players don't have the spare free time for a second session (or to be more accurate, technically third, as we have our Monday night games where I'm a player).


Talking Skull, your reborn Stag Lord was an AMAZING success. I LOVE me some of that Transcendent Pain.


I aim to please!

I see no new entries in the obits. I take it the players don't hold any grudges? And how was Transcendent Pain's trial by fire?


Excellent. Takeshi ate most of it due to his not-exactly-spectacular Will and being the first to get into melee with him, and got driven into negatives once by it, but they figured out what was going on and stopped dealing damage until Elegy got close enough to keep him healed with Faith's Reach, so while he dealt tremendous amounts of damage, he didn't quite manage to kill anyone. Takeshi survived melee primarily by his 20% miss chance, and Elegy nuked his ability to damage them with ranged attack thanks to fickle winds in the first round, after Lilith ate about six arrows in the opening volley and got knocked down into near-single digit HP.

So yeah, a few close calls, but sadly not quite over the dead line.

Also the first thing Elegy did after that was "Stag Lord? I summon a Huge Fire Elemental."

When Lilith hit him with a crit from her bow, which dealt acid damage and triggered the resulting freakout, it was pretty much over; the party managed to put him down while he was staggered.

Also I did a mean thing. I found some stats for some critters on a 3.5 conversions website... okay basically they were Pokemon, which a couple of players figured out fairly quick, but hey, free stats and they worked for what I wanted. Anyway they were ghostly things with a lick/slime attack that dealt negative energy damage. I had them hanging out inside the floor and popping up to turn his regen back on whenever the party hit him with positive energy.


Orthos wrote:

Excellent. Takeshi ate most of it due to his not-exactly-spectacular Will and being the first to get into melee with him, and got driven into negatives once by it, but they figured out what was going on and stopped dealing damage until Elegy got close enough to keep him healed with Faith's Reach, so while he dealt tremendous amounts of damage, he didn't quite manage to kill anyone. Takeshi survived melee primarily by his 20% miss chance, and Elegy nuked his ability to damage them with ranged attack thanks to fickle winds in the first round, after Lilith ate about six arrows in the opening volley and got knocked down into near-single digit HP.

So yeah, a few close calls, but sadly not quite over the dead line.

I'm fine with that, really. With only three PCs present, killing one might've been too great a loss to recover from. And it sounds like he gave them a sound thrashing regardless, so I can't complain much. I'm no Turin, after all.

Orthos wrote:

Also I did a mean thing. I found some stats for some critters on a 3.5 conversions website... okay basically they were Pokemon, which a couple of players figured out fairly quick, but hey, free stats and they worked for what I wanted. Anyway they were ghostly things with a lick/slime attack that dealt negative energy damage. I had them hanging out inside the floor and popping up to turn his regen back on whenever the party hit him with positive energy.

Hehe. Not quite as mean as turning Dovan Scissorhands into an incorporeal clown car IMO, but I approve.


Yep. They're at four PCs again afterward though, had a new player join in the chamber Staggy was guarding - a captured infiltrator who hadn't yet been turned. So I can afford to be less nice now =D (Said new member said he got captured by a mummy-wrapped gangly figure with a large crossbow and a big hat. The party is rightfully panicked that the Cinderlander might be back. I'm wondering if mummy rot-inflicting crossbow bolts on a Bolt Ace Gunslinger pale stranger/mummy combo is too over the top... =D)

Also LMAO at incorporeal clown car. That fight is going to be fun/interesting, that's for certain. Especially since if the ghosts need to bail out of Dovan for some reason, they can jump into Sharptooth as well.


Orthos wrote:
Said new member said he got captured by a mummy-wrapped gangly figure with a large crossbow and a big hat. The party is rightfully panicked that the Cinderlander might be back. I'm wondering if mummy rot-inflicting crossbow bolts on a Bolt Ace Gunslinger pale stranger/mummy combo is too over the top... =D

Probably not, even without foreshadowing it. Your party has the knowledge and resources to mop up mummy rot when it comes up, and it takes a full minute for the initial effects to sink in(if the fort save isn't made, that is). Unless the Cinderlander can hold out for 10 rounds, he's not going to be benefiting from it much.

Now, putting him just before another big fight might make things much more interesting...

I look forward to the reactions of the players during the Dovan and Co. fight, for sure. It seems funny on the outside, but imagine a whole lair like this! Open to the sky and still full to the brim with incorporeal undead, getting by by possessing objects like statues, zombies, or even the occasional PC? Player's worst nightmare, DM's greatest dream...


Muahahhahahahahah!


Perhaps have the Cinderlander try to finish the job against the tribes he hunted before?


That is certainly his plan once his killers are dealt with.


More like, use the tribes as bait.


Ah, perhaps I should explain the situation.

The Cinderlander and other slain villains were revived by the vampire necromancer who's also Lilith's sire, who invited the PCs to his castle with the intent of returning Lilith to his "family", as well as adding her companions to their numbers. The party is currently at said castle, which is well away from Nomen lands. As much as he'd love to resume where he left off, Father has not let him go off hunting yet.

I think I am going to devote tonight to getting the Journals updated for both Kingmaker and Age of Worms. Both are a few months behind because I've been either lazy or too busy with overtime.


And got Kingmaker's updated at least =) Will tackle the other tomorrow or so.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

My players and I are really enjoying the changes you've made to the Kingmaker campaign, but I do have one question:

Did you add any safeguards to keep the PCs from taking the various rings of the jabberwock that you placed around? They add great flavor, but they also seem like irresistable buffs to player characters and yet nobody seems to have become a half-jabberwock.


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...Well, if this wasn't an interesting nostalgia trip. Elegy's player here. We finally wrapped up Sound of A Thousand Screams late last year.

Year and a half past your response, I don't recall that concern ever coming up. Our group had a bad case of weaponized paranoia and never even thought to wear the things.


Well, as somebody who's gone with a "this dump isn't another worldwound only because we're here to stop it" attitude to later events, I'd have been extremely careful about possible corruptions.

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