5-21 - The Merchant's Wake


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Scarab Sages 2/5

I was reading through the scenario at the beginning, and came across an interesting tidbit. Apparently the Trade Prince has a husband and daughters. I was not aware that he had family. Was this stated in any other scenario?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

While I wait for my copy to arrive (free for Gencon GM's), can someone tell me what maps it has?

Scarab Sages 2/5

4 Custom Mini-maps, Necropolis Flip-Mat, and the Crypt Map-Pack.

Though taking a look at the location on the Flip-Map, you do not really need it for the most part, since the area in question takes only about a 1/10th of the map.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

Thanks.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I assume that one batters doors down with Strength and not Swim?

Also the tracking sheet calls it the Marchant's Wake.

As for the Trade Prince's family, his daughters were mentioned in multiple faction missions back in Seasons 3 + 4. Apparently his husband was also mentioned somewhere, but I have yet to find it. (I also haven't been looking that hard.)

Shadow Lodge

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One of my players said one of the field guides mentions Aaqir's family.

I ran this yesterday after not as much usual prep as I normally invest (mostly due to the delay in release date and having the game already scheduled for a Saturday).

I chuckled at the Swim check to break down the door and also how the "S" on the flip-mat at the end was large-sized instead of medium-sized.

I feel like just an hour of extra editing and maybe a little more layout work would've made this scenario extremely awesome. I did find myself flipping from page 7 through to page 12 furiously searching for things.

I haven't had a chance to do a second reading, but some of the things I remember searching for during the game.

1) The optional checks for the merchants (Appraise, Knowledge). How do the PCs learn about these? I know prior scenarios have used Sense Motive for the PCs to learn these, but in the heat of the game I couldn't find any explicit way these are determined.

Some of the NPCs also may not want to outwardly discuss the skill check that is applicable for them - specifically Jak'ti and the use of Knowledge religion to influence him. The way I read him is that he may not open up about that check until someone's influenced him enough to make him friendly first, and then he may open this up by commenting or inquiring about the PC's religion. Ultimately this would've been a great 1-2 sentence addition, which is how each NPC prompts the PCs who are talking about them to guide the discussion towards their respective interests. For example, for Jak'ti specifically, I had him ask if the Society needed a steady supply of scrolls - magical, historical, etc and then somewhat judge the PC by their religious convictions.

2) The favors for Metella and Temel. If the PCs perform these favors, it's not clear when the aftermath of them comes into effect. I noticed that when each merchant stands up and speaks during that section that both Metella and Temel were omitted from having a sentence or two summarizing their speech. Specifically, the favor for Temel seems to indicate that Metella would potentially have a comedic moment when she can't find her speech. As such, I opted to have both of those merchants also be speakers and have the after-effects of the favors kick in during their moment to speak, which I think played out very well.

3) The favor for Jak'ti. This doesn't seem to require any sort of skill check, so it's a bit weird that Jak'ti doesn't just ask the staff himself. I opted to run it that the staff was undermanned and simply too busy to do the task themselves, so it required some convincing from a PC (improvised skill check, pretty much any skill and a low DC) to convince the staff this was important at this time.

I also personally had my PCs pre-roll their Knowledge Religion and Sense Motive checks so I could resolve them "in secret" at the appropriate times. The DCs are high enough though, this may not be necessary.

Otherwise, the bones of this scenario are great. I could see how in development, a simple playtest and maybe 1-2 hours of polish could've made it a legendary one (and addressed over a dozen typos/mistakes which are easily caught while running it).

Shadow Lodge

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One more comment. The way this ran, I had half my players who very much favored and bonded with Metella. The other half very much favored and bonded with Temel.

When the zombies attack, they REALLY wanted to split up - the folks who favored Temel going to check on him, and the folks who favored Metella going to check on her. To complicate this further, one of my players really wanted to check on Doritannia first - the reasoning being that Metella's a dwarf and can likely protect herself better than poor, feeble Doritannia.

This worked counter to the scenario's core assumption that the party sticks together at this moment to check on a single merchant first.

I suppose I could have run two sub-groups each through the chase, and whichever one completed the chase first would've triggered the next encounter (while sadly the other players were at the wrong end of the manor and essentially missed that combat). This took our table about 15 minutes to sort through (first in character, and then a healthy out-of-character discussion). I can see this desire to split the party happening quite often based on our local PFS players, though - so much so, it might have been interesting to actually be able to have printed tactics should this occur.

In a home game, I'd likely have both merchants require defending from a slightly easier opponent (1 zombie, 1 lower level assassin). This condition could've probably been covered in the scenario with a single sentence or two and a reference to a stat block from the NPC Codex (although there's really no matching NPC in NPC Codex that fits here for a 4-5 subtier challenge).

Sovereign Court 4/5

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A couple hours ago, I agreed to run this scenario tomorrow morning having not looked at it. What was I thinking?! There's so much stuff going on! .... It's brilliant! I can't wait! Just hope I can do it justice.

As mentioned by wakedown, there were far too many errors from (assuming rushed) editing which made it difficult to read at first. Also, the format for the final encounter over two rooms was a little odd. At first I thought the second portion was omitted only to find it had its own section. Ah well.

I am ashamed to say that I did not catch the Swim bit with the not-a-chase-scene.

Re: Splitting the party and future revision/home game suggestions:
Perhaps a mechanic should be added where the party experiences the warning given; that splitting the party would make it very difficult. Raise the DCs in the chase scene by 2, 5, or even 10 depending on author/editor approval. And I would just have the same fight in both rooms; assassin and zombies each. They wanted to do it the hard way, so...
Thinking of it now, maybe have Jakti accompany one of the groups to make their fight easier. How to decide? Roll of the die? Can ponder that.

Overall, I am very excited to run this in 8 hours after a little sleep. Very very VERY excited. I have not been this excited to run a scenario since Night March of Kalkamedes. Great job, Ser Juan!

The Exchange 5/5 RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

The novelty of "influence a bunch of NPC" scenarios has worn off. After Blakros Matrimony and Hellknight's Feast, and now Merchant's Wake, I'm pretty satisfied that we have enough of this type of scenario.

--

There's no mechanic that insists the PCs must stick together; it's okay to split the party. It's the smart move, if the PCs believe both Temel and Metella are in danger. Simply run the same encounters for each half of the party.

One question, though: is there a maximum amount of damage that the undead can take? For example, if a PC throws a 6d6 fireball, that might reasonably do, oh 24 points of damage. Can the undead take 24 points of fire damage? (That is, does that just give the skill check a +12 modifier, or does it clear the hall of any threats? Or do the walking dead only have, like 12 hp, so the fireball can only net a +6 or something?)

Is there any guidance as to what sort of combat maneuvers should be appropriate to get through the undead hordes? I would imagine that Trip would work, but would Disarm? I presume that attempting combat maneuvers against opponents, without any Improved Maneuver feats, provokes attacks of opportunity, as usual?

--

I usually don't notice the editing on a scenario, but there were dozens of egregious errors in this text: sentences that didn't make sense, non-parallel constructions, sentences that shift from present to past tense and back again.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Chris, I don't think the pseudo chase mechanic checks are supposed to elicit any sort of response from the zombies other than what's specifically written in the scenario.

After all, climb checks in other chases don't result in damage if they are failed.

Shadow Lodge

After some noodling on the post-chase encounter, I do think if it ended up happening when I run it a second time, I'd run the same encounter for both split groups.

The fight isn't very challenging for a prepared party (at least at the 4-5 subtier).

I know this is the GM thread, but I'm going to use a spoiler anyway.

Post-Chase Scene:
Our party used glitterdust right away which almost entirely shut down the ninja's ability to get sneak attack going. Without it, 1d6+4 isn't that scary at the 4-5 subtier. I know the tactics suggest he flanks with zombies, but our party also got the drop on initiative and was quick to prevent such.

Luckily the ninja does carry a smokestick, which is the only way he was able to dig out the encounter after being hit with glitterdust to get a couple sneak attacks on. In the case of my party, I had a summoner continuously summoning creatures with scent/tremorsense to go into the cloud and battle him. I think the summoner could've easily solo'd this fight, so splitting the party may not have been too bad. It was a bit disappointing that he didn't carry more than 2 darts.

The first fight is beautiful though. Such an excellent CR6 challenge. :)

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

I really hate to be critical, since I enjoyed reading this scenario...but the typos - oy, the typos...

A few questions before I run this in a few days...

wakedown (edited slightly to not run on too long...) wrote:

I chuckled at the Swim check to break down the door and also how the "S" on the flip-mat at the end was large-sized instead of medium-sized.

1) The optional checks for the merchants (Appraise, Knowledge). How do the PCs learn about these?

2) The favors for Metella and Temel. If the PCs perform these favors, it's not clear when the aftermath of them comes into effect. I noticed that when each merchant stands up and speaks during that section that both Metella and Temel were omitted from having a sentence or two summarizing their speech.

3) The favor for Jak'ti. This doesn't seem to require any sort of skill check, so it's a bit weird that Jak'ti doesn't just ask the staff himself.

3.1) Say some PCs wonder the exact same thing "why is he asking us to ask the staff for him? Why doesn't he have one of his bodyguards ask a staff member?" and scrutinize him or keep a careful eye on him or something (especially since I like to use the NPC art whenever it's provided, so I plan to have the pictures out - and especially if local PCs have played 5-01, he's the only unknown with a face, at this point).

3.2) Let's say somehow the PCs get an idea that Jakti is a danger and/or figure out a connection between him and the Cult (similar holy symbols hidden in similar folds-of-the-belt, etc) - I can (and will, if this happens) try to deflect that by using the other story elements to push the scenario on, but it's still a sticking point.

4) Just to clarify - since he didn't know about the zombies, Jakti sent assassins after both Metella and Temel, and had each one carry coins minted in their rival's coinage (even though they weren't supposed to get caught...) but when the PCs rush to save one, Jakti will save the other, right? Even if the assassin "knows of Jakti" but doesn't know his involvement, if the PCs force the issue with Jakti, are there any DCs for PCs to figure out if he's lying about sending the killers?

5) Map B2 - is it safe to assume that these are on two different "levels", stairs leading down into the lower area? (the copy I have from my FLGS got smudged a little during printing this page apparently)

6) How much about Zarmina is al'Hakam willing to tell the PCs? If they're expected to make a speech at the funeral but don't know anything about her other than that she was Aaqir's mentor...?

Sorry for all the questions - I really like the feel of this scenario, but the writing/editing made reading/prepping kind of difficult (see above posts from others...).

Lantern Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Has anyone written speech and toast templates for the NPCs? I want to save myself some work, I'll be posting mine if I can't locate any by this weekend.

4/5

Christopher Donnangelo wrote:
Has anyone written speech and toast templates for the NPCs? I want to save myself some work, I'll be posting mine if I can't locate any by this weekend.

I just ran this on Sunday and it ran 5.5 hours, with me often cutting the players off to keep the story moving. I don't think you need to worry about providing significant additional material for the NPCs, though I understand the desire. I think the paragraph as written provided a sufficient montage of people's speeches to keep the story moving.

I'm glad a have a couple months to figure out where to cut time before I have to run this at Gen Con.

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

I ran this tonight and it went really smoothly - we started almost a full hour late due to traffic holding up the car with half the table, but finished on-time, so this one clocked in at 3 hours. The players loved the interaction and doing the favor for their favorite Dwarf (compliments from my players on having the NPCs from 5-01 remember the PCs and interact with them as such).

Than again, with a party of talkers and role-players, I could see how this could easily run longer. If you're running this at a con, I'd recommend summarizing the NPC speeches using the text from the scenario as written - i.e. I agree with Mimo above.

Fun scenario to run (once you prepped enough to get past the typos and editing issues)!

4/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

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I've run this scenario twice now, at low tier. Both times it has been a success, as the interactions with the merchants have been thoroughly enjoyable. The first fight could be a bit dangerous, but neither group had too much trouble with it.

It's a fun scenario, but there are places where I have to wrestle the fun out of it a little. Not helped by the abundance of errors and oddities.

1. On page 12, when convincing Aaqir al'Hakam to perform a financial service for one of the lesser merchants, it says this:

Page 12 wrote:
A PC can convince the faction leader to invest in either merchant with a successful DC 26 Bluff or Diplomacy check (DC 29 in Subtier 4–5), though he is more willing to accept the offer if the PCs have done particularly well in their assignment thus far; any such check receives a circumstance bonus equal to the total number of Influence Points the PCs have earned with him.

This is obviously incorrect, as there's no way that the PCs can gain Influence Points with Aaqir al'Hakam. Maybe that final "him" is referring to "the merchant in question." I'm unsure.

2. The chase was a little bit awkward to run both times. The players just want to fight the zombies. Both times I felt like I was rail-roading them by pushing them to go save the merchant. Although I like that the author has tried to change up chases (a much-disliked mechanic), it feels messy just having everyone roll and then assist the highest.

3. The Assassin's HP looks incorrect (too low) in both tiers.

4. After the chase the zombies just...disappear? Apparently there's enough that they're attacking all over the manor and there's too many for the PCs to fight, and then they're just gone. Makes the PCs seem a little unnecessary if there's guards/people around strong enough to get rid of a horde of zombies.

5. Both times the players have - right after the mummy fight - wanted to go to the Graveyard. The first time they didn't even think that anything had gone wrong with the ceremony, they just figured that the priest did it anyway. The second group knew that something was up. There's very little reason why they shouldn't just go to the Graveyard, other than Aaqir al'Hakam asking them to stick around and needing the PCs to stick around for the assassination to be prevented.

6. The assassin only goes for the merchant the PCs protect. Both times they were surprised that Temel Passad (they saved Metella) was still alive. People don't enjoy false choices. Jakti's motivation for the assassination and subsequent ignoring of the merchants seems underdeveloped.

7. Poor Umat/Shirin. Both times she's been mobbed on and beaten up before having a chance to do very much. She's just far too suspicious. Also she pings as evil - since she's a cleric - invalidating all her possible lying. The skeletons are an awkward fight since they've had to come up the stairs both times and fight in a tight space.

It really feels like this scenario just needed another draft or two, and a thorough editing pass. It's still a really good 1-5 scenario thanks to the overwhelming leap in quality of season 5 scenarios, but the editing/plot issues are a serious problem.

Shadow Lodge

Mike Bramnik wrote:
3.1) Say some PCs wonder the exact same thing "why is he asking us to ask the staff for him? Why doesn't he have one of his bodyguards ask a staff member?"

I played him as a bit grating, and not at all very diplomatic. His guards, much the same way - gruff and short on words. As a PC has come up to him and started chatting away, he refers to them as seeming very charismatic and persuasive and I suggest that Jakti has himself already asked and rebuffed as he says he's "not very good at convincing others". The player totally bought this and with their ego stroked a bit believed that they could accomplish asking the staff for this favor. I had them roll a Diplomacy check for the request of the staff (no risk of failure) so it seemed like it was a non-trivial request.

Isaac White wrote:
7. Poor Umat/Shirin. Both times she's been mobbed on and beaten up before having a chance to do very much. She's just far too suspicious. Also she pings as evil...

She shouldn't. She has Undetectable Alignment up.

I also ensured that early on, our group had some roleplay with her and played her as a doting old lady (with a comedic twist on "mawwage is what bwings us togever..." to divert any suspicion). With a bladed belt, she also appears unarmed for the most part, which is why it's a bit of a shocker when suddenly she's carrying a scythe. The bladed belt really should be in both subtiers for this reason in my opinion.

In addition, before I began the scenario, I took a look at all the player's Sense Motive and Knowledge Religion skills, wrote them on my notes, and then had each player roll five d20 rolls so I could resolve those checks in secret.


Isaac White wrote:
7. Poor Umat/Shirin. Both times she's been mobbed on and beaten up before having a chance to do very much. She's just far too suspicious. Also she pings as evil...

As Pharasma's a neutral deity, having an evil cleric of her isn't unheard of, and even if the actual Umat was an evil cleric, it would certainly not the first time we've encountered an evil person who wishes the party no harm.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Note that Undetectable Alignment grants a save.

Amusingly enough, when I ran it, the paladin detected her as evil, but they trusted her anyway due to really, really bad sense motive rolls and a knowledge that Parasma does have Evil clerics.

5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Isaac White wrote:
1. On page 12, when convincing Aaqir al'Hakam to perform a financial service for one of the lesser merchants, it says this:
Page 12 wrote:
A PC can convince the faction leader to invest in either merchant with a successful DC 26 Bluff or Diplomacy check (DC 29 in Subtier 4–5), though he is more willing to accept the offer if the PCs have done particularly well in their assignment thus far; any such check receives a circumstance bonus equal to the total number of Influence Points the PCs have earned with him.
This is obviously incorrect, as there's no way that the PCs can gain Influence Points with Aaqir al'Hakam. Maybe that final "him" is referring to "the merchant in question." I'm unsure.

That's how I read it at first, but "with him" could also mean the total Influence points they've acquired while working this assignment with him.

That would be a very important clarification (+1 vs. +10 or so in my group's case).

Jeff Merola wrote:
Note that Undetectable Alignment grants a save.

That's a save for the target of the spell, not those using divinations.

4/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

wakedown wrote:
Isaac White wrote:
7. Poor Umat/Shirin. Both times she's been mobbed on and beaten up before having a chance to do very much. She's just far too suspicious. Also she pings as evil...
She shouldn't. She has Undetectable Alignment up.

Aha. I thought she did, I just overlooked it the second time around. It wouldn't have made much of a difference: the players were sure she wasn't to be trusted, they were just trying to find out how legitimate beating her up was...

The first time I ran it, however, I managed to dissuade the eager PCs by having her cast doubt on Jakti by saying that it was his gift that caused the wave of necromantic energy.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Majuba wrote:

Jeff Merola wrote:
Note that Undetectable Alignment grants a save.
That's a save for the target of the spell, not those using divinations.

If that was the case, it would have (Harmless) in the saving throw line. It doesn't.

Edit: Although I suppose it could just be a case of the spell being poorly written.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jeff Merola wrote:
Majuba wrote:

Jeff Merola wrote:
Note that Undetectable Alignment grants a save.
That's a save for the target of the spell, not those using divinations.

If that was the case, it would have (Harmless) in the saving throw line. It doesn't.

Edit: Although I suppose it could just be a case of the spell being poorly written.

No, the save is for the target of the spell. The target of the spell is the person whose alignment is being obscured. Since the spell doesn't specify saves for anyone trying to detect her alignment, it doesn't give any.

It's pretty clear when you look at how other such spells are worded.

Grand Lodge 4/5

James McTeague wrote:
Jeff Merola wrote:
Majuba wrote:

Jeff Merola wrote:
Note that Undetectable Alignment grants a save.
That's a save for the target of the spell, not those using divinations.

If that was the case, it would have (Harmless) in the saving throw line. It doesn't.

Edit: Although I suppose it could just be a case of the spell being poorly written.

No, the save is for the target of the spell. The target of the spell is the person whose alignment is being obscured. Since the spell doesn't specify saves for anyone trying to detect her alignment, it doesn't give any.

It's pretty clear when you look at how other such spells are worded.

Yeah, the bit about "or maybe it's just poorly written" was in reference to the fact that apparently this buff spell grants the target a save AND counts as harmful. Nondetection is (Harmless) while Misdirection doesn't grant the target of the buff part a save at all.

4/5 *

So I ran this cold last night for a party of 7. Not exactly the best situation. The party consisted of a fighter, shaman, bloodrager, warpriest, barbarian, another fighter, and pregen Harsk. We were firmly in the lower tier.

First of all I love the feel of the whole scenario. The influence checks were appropriate for the tiers. Even with my party geared towards combat, they still did a marvellous job at Roleplaying it out. That combined with some lucky dice rolls in the influence stage got them a lot of influence. And they seemed to have fun at that point.

My problems came later:

Spoiler:

All fights were ridiculously easy for my group. True they were all combat driven as PCs but I still think they could have been a little tougher. The mummy at the lower tier could have benefitted from a lower version of mummy rot. Such as a 1d4 Con dmg with a DC 11 fort save.

The chase scene was a nightmare. My players took 5 rounds just to get off the first square. It's been a while since I've read in depth the chase rules but shouldn't one check for the square have a lower DC than the other? And of course by the time they got there the assassin killed the dwarf. Was her AC listed anywhere? Don't even get me started on swimming the door. I had to start giving my players handouts just to get the scenario moving.

And as mentioned above, the party saw right through the ploy of the fake. They killed her before she even acted. All she got was a free action to call her skeletons. Now that I think of it I should have used dim light rules for the 20% miss chance and difficult terrain from the disturbed mass graves. Does anybody think this section would have benefited from a haunt? A haunt that caused blindness or slow for 1d4+1 rounds would have helped.

And finally how is the party supposed to find out about the debt of the Andoran or Rafella? It doesn't clearly mention that.

Overall good and I intend to read it very thoroughly later on so I can see if some of my questions are answered. I still think my players had fun, even with my less than stellar prep job.

4/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Ross Tait wrote:
The chase scene was a nightmare. My players took 5 rounds just to get off the first square. It's been a while since I've read in depth the chase rules but shouldn't one check for the square have a lower DC than the other? And of course by the time they got there the assassin killed the dwarf. Was her AC listed anywhere? Don't even get me started on swimming the door. I had to start giving my players handouts just to get the scenario moving.

It sounds like some pretty integral parts of the chase were missed:

Page 13 wrote:

What’s more, the PCs overcome obstacles as a group and not individually. Each PC rolls one of the two checks to overcome the obstacle, taking the highest result. Any other PCs’ checks that result in a 10 or higher are treated as having used the aid another action for the higher result.

If the PCs fail the check to overcome an obstacle, they take additional time to overcome the challenge but do not need to attempt the check again; move on to the next obstacle but track how many checks the PCs fail. Each failure grants the Dawnflower assassin in area A3 more time to attack his target. In addition, if the PCs fail their check to overcome either of the first two obstacles, the zombie horde deals 1d6+1 points of damage to each of them (2d6+6 in Subtier 4–5).

Also, the merchant's stats are a shopkeep (low tier) or a traveling merchant (high tier) from the GMG, these stats are freely available on the PRD.

Ross Tait wrote:
And finally how is the party supposed to find out about the debt of the Andoran or Rafella? It doesn't clearly mention that.

After the mummy attack while they're checking out the house for any further dangers they should receive notes from one of the merchants and from Jakti.

Page 12 wrote:

By and large, there is little evidence for the PCs to find at this time, though the GM might encourage the players to attempt a Perception check or two as they look around. As they patrol the manor, several of the visiting merchants contact the PCs through delivered messages.

If the PCs have more Influence Points with Metella Rauger than with Temel Passad, they receive a note from Doritannia Raffella; give the players Player Handout #2. If the PCs have more Influence Points with Temel Passad, they instead receive a note from Pellius Melkior; give the players Player Handout #3. In the case of a tie, the PCs receive Doritannia’s letter. In addition, the PCs receive a missive from Jakti al’Awar regardless of how many Influence Points they have earn; give the players Player Handout #4.

I also discovered another editing error in the scenario when finding these quotes:

Page 12 wrote:
Jakti’s message simply invites the PCs to meet him in his apartments, which is detailed in the following encounter.

The message instructs the PCs to meet him in the temple, which is where he actually is.

Grand Lodge 3/5

Here's some of my thoughts after reading through the scenario twice and reading the boards.

I'm suspecting that if the players split up the party, go ahead and let them. I'd let each group have a shot at the chase, moving one square at a time. When the PCs get to the rooms, there should only be one assassin sent, not two.

Quick question for everyone on the chase:

With the normal chase rules, the PC can attempt both checks as a full round action and if they pass both, they move ahead 3 spaces. Is that something that's still allowed in this chase or since the PCs are moving as one, do they only get to try one check per square?

The players in my area love chase scenes, so I want to make sure everything is done right.

Sovereign Court 5/5 *

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Ross Tait wrote:

So I ran this cold last night for a party of 7. Not exactly the best situation. The party consisted of a fighter, shaman, bloodrager, warpriest, barbarian, another fighter, and pregen Harsk. We were firmly in the lower tier.

My problems came later:

** spoiler omitted **

Overall good and I intend to read it very thoroughly later on so I can see if some of my questions are...

So I ran this cold and ran the chase incorrectly as well (the only way they made it was that one of the PC's was level 4 in a 1-2 game).

It is supposed to be played as every PC makes a check, you take the highest check rolled and add +2 to it for each other PC that got 10 or above and move the party as a group. Moving past a square even if they fail, then use the number of total failures to determine what has happened so far in the next encounter.

3/5

I really enjoy the influence scenarios like this. The changes are definately makign them better.

As a DM I get creative and get to role play with the characters. As a player I get to heavily roleplay my character.

My group played this is a group high cha of 9. My alchemist barbarian pesh addict was a huge comic relief. When I retell the story I say with my 26 strength I swam through zombies.

I really loved the way the chase scene was done and can easily be made dramatic. Along with the penalty for failing is great.

We could not save our ward due to a crit, but those things happen. My rage mutagen knocked me down to a -8 will save after the last fight.

It was interesting the boss had 2 holy symbols. When we broke both my friend screamed "Wheres your god now?" That was awesome.

The players and the Dm I had easily made it the best game in the 4 day con I was at.

Also I would love to thank my VC Mike Clark for getting a second table for us.

Liberty's Edge 4/5

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Isaac White wrote:
6. The assassin only goes for the merchant the PCs protect. Both times they were surprised that Temel Passad (they saved Metella) was still alive. People don't enjoy false choices. Jakti's motivation for the assassination and subsequent ignoring of the merchants seems underdeveloped.

I interpreted this a little differently.

Spoiler:
Upon seeing the foreign coins, the merchant storms out of the room to confront his or her rival, whom Jakti aided. The two loudly accuse one another of being responsible for the recent attack. Aaqir al’Hakam—perhaps with the PCs’ help—is able to calm the two.

To me, this meant that there was an assassin sent to each room with the other person's coins on them.

When I ran this, my party wanted to split up with part wanting to help Temel, part wanting to help Metella, and part wanting to protect Jakti (since that was what Jakti was originally requesting).

I had Aaqir lean out and yell at them because of

Spoiler:
Aaqir al’Hakam emerges from one of the upstairs hallways and calls to the PCs to “protect the guests,” though he stresses the last word as if to imply one of the other critical guests.

As they couldn't decide what to do, I had Aaqir tell them he was going to help the other merchant and Jakti tell them he could handle the zombies himself.

Based on what was in my first spoiler, the PC's knew that something was amiss and both merchant's were accusing the other for trying to be assassinated and had the evidence.

Silver Crusade 4/5

I played this one recently. Knowing it was a social scenario, and the rest of the party had minimal social skills, I brought my nagaji battle oracle. He's mostly a combat focused character, but he has some charisma and diplomacy as a class skill, so I've got him up to +10 diplomacy. So he's pretty good at talking to people, even though he's not the type to take the lead at such things unless he has to. He gave a pretty good speech at the funeral, his Tien upbringing sneaking in as he talked about honor and respect for the deceased and gathered associates.

He has the tongues curse, and nobody else could speak Infernal, so he couldn't communicate with anyone during combat. This made the zombie chase scene entertaining, since they were talking about going to save a merchant and my guy had no idea what was going on, only that there were undead all over, and his allies seemed to want to go somewhere instead of slicing them open.

Our group decided early that we didn't like Temel, and we didn't have the social skills to get in good with ALL the merchants, so we just gave up on him to focus on the others. It didn't help that the only member of our party with sleight of hand trained only had a +5 or something, and rolled low on his attempt to get the snuff bag. But this made for an easy decision on who to save when the zombie chase began. Needless to say, we only got one prestige point out of this, and apparently, even that one was close.

Also, being lawful good, my character was a little reluctant at the end to let Jak'ti go free. He was eventually convinced that Qadiran law made it the decision of the host to punish him for hiring assassins to come to his house, but he wasn't happy about it. But being a former Lantern Lodger from Tian Xia, he's already convinced that the entire Inner Sea region lacks honor, and that he occasionally has to play along with things he doesn't like, so this just gave me another occasion to grumble about irrational mammals in character.

All in all, fun scenario. I like these social influence scenarios, but I agree that we have enough of them for now. I'd say 1-2 per year is good.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/5 RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8

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Had an excellent time playing this scenario last night!

We had a table of four and really enjoyed all the roleplaying. The GM did an excellent job making the most mundane things enjoyable, like opening and closing windows or stealing some speech notes. It felt a lot more like a murder mystery than anything else, and we enjoyed the "race to the finish" to save the NPCs.

When it became clear that we'd have to choose between one or the other, the GM allowed me to branch off and go after the dwarf, while everyone else went to the snuff-man. I was able to fly out a window and zoom over to the other room while the rest of the team vaulted over undead and did their best Mummy impersonation to get through the chase. The GM again did an excellent job as he ran two combat simultaneously, moving through each initiative order in turn.

I was able to get my NPC to safety by casting fly on them and covering their escape out the window. The assassin, seeing his quarry flee, booked it out the door—which was still booby trapped, since I came in through the window. Poor sap. I left my room to the screams of the man stuck in glue getting eaten alive by zombies. The rest of the party did a good job of tidying up their end of things, and we were able to save both PCs.

Overall I think that this scenario did a good job having some vibrant NPCs, and allowed the PCs to make decisions that directly effected how those NPCs reacted (like when the PCs speak at the wake, or whom they side with when stealing notes or dousing snuff). I also enjoyed the undead theme, as it fit very well with the wake. Big shout out to our GM, Stephen Trone for rolling with the punches and enduring our shenanigans.

The only thing I wonder about now is the placement of the ultimate and penultimate fights. I think that the flow of the scenario might have been better served by fighting the mummy, then the cleric's powerful undead, then the cleric herself, then finishing with the chase and assassin fight. This would have definitely brought up the intensity of that chase, and the whole Joker-esque "you can only save one, Batman," feeling that I got from it.

4/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston

I'm about to run this several times at PaizoCon, so I'm looking forward to how many different ways players will approach this in one weekend.

4/5

Isaac White wrote:


5. Both times the players have - right after the mummy fight - wanted to go to the Graveyard. The first time they didn't even think that anything had gone wrong with the ceremony, they just figured that the priest did it anyway. The second group knew that something was up. There's very little reason why they shouldn't just go to the Graveyard, other than Aaqir al'Hakam asking them to stick around and needing the PCs to stick around for the assassination to be prevented.

That's how my game went as well. The inquisitor actually started following the Cleric out of the building after the ceremony and rolled a sky high stealth check. So I had the Mummy start the fight right as she was getting to the front door and said that the cleric was too far away to hear the commotion. For the rest of the scenario, I basically had to interrupt the players with another emergency/insistent NPC as soon as they handled the previous one in order to keep them from running off to the graveyard.

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Akerlof wrote:
Isaac White wrote:


5. Both times the players have - right after the mummy fight - wanted to go to the Graveyard. The first time they didn't even think that anything had gone wrong with the ceremony, they just figured that the priest did it anyway. The second group knew that something was up. There's very little reason why they shouldn't just go to the Graveyard, other than Aaqir al'Hakam asking them to stick around and needing the PCs to stick around for the assassination to be prevented.
That's how my game went as well. The inquisitor actually started following the Cleric out of the building after the ceremony and rolled a sky high stealth check. So I had the Mummy start the fight right as she was getting to the front door and said that the cleric was too far away to hear the commotion. For the rest of the scenario, I basically had to interrupt the players with another emergency/insistent NPC as soon as they handled the previous one in order to keep them from running off to the graveyard.

I had a similar situation come up one of the times I ran this, and did the same thing as you with the Mummy fight, but thankfully the players sort of "forgot" that they wanted to follow the cleric to the graveyard after that.

I think that if they had wanted to just go after being instructed by al'Hakam to stick around (remember the Venture Captain's letter - "obey his requests as if they were my own"), they'd end up with the consequences of that - emerging to find zombies swarming the building, forcing them to either rush back inside (directly into the chase), or perhaps getting to the graveyard as the horde of zombies is leaving. Either way, the assassination would be taking place regardless of the zombies (since Jakti is caught by surprise too), they'd end up with the likely consequence of a merchant being killed (and also perhaps missing the opportunity to do a favor for one of the minor merchants).

Lantern Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Walter Sheppard wrote:


The only thing I wonder about now is the placement of the ultimate and penultimate fights. I think that the flow of the scenario might have been better served by fighting the mummy, then the cleric's powerful...

I see a lot of people with this comment, and I played this last night and am downloading and looking to prep it myself now... and while I know we can't change any DCs or combat stats, it really does sound like it would make massively more sense to do it this way... Mummy fight, scream from outside as the powerful undead start attacking while the cleric laughs in the background, obviously summoning something massive... get to the cleric after the undead fight in the hall, have a few minutes afterwards to pat yourself on the back at having 'stopped' her, as the guests go to their rooms.. do a quick glance around to see just WHAT she was doing.. get the messages, talk to him in the chapel... learn about the assassains.. and THEN massive zombie swarm... and assassain choice...

That way not only do you feel like the whole situation in the manor could have been Worse if you hadn't put the cleric down since she could direct the swarm.... but you still get that edge of your seat moment rushing to the aid of someone. (though the dual choice that doesn't really matter seems kind of silly to me... ) I really feel this flow would be much better for the adventure, and it doesn't change a single Mechanical thing with the scenario. So I while I know we don't have any mechanical flexibility with the scenario, would altering the story in this form be within the boundary of what a GM is allowed to tweak? And does it even sound like a good idea to anyone else the way I have laid it out?

Sovereign Court 1/5

So quick request. I'll be running this as Gencon and was wondering if there was any advice on how to keep the time manageable do to the amount of roleplay involved?

4/5

TarnisLockhart wrote:
So quick request. I'll be running this as Gencon and was wondering if there was any advice on how to keep the time manageable do to the amount of roleplay involved?

I would limit the amount of strategizing before each round of influence checks. Give them a decent amount of time before they start to come up with a general strategy, but then just a minute or two between each round after that.

Also, maybe RP it out for the first round of checks, (or the first time they try to influence any specific individual,) but then just sketch out what happens on subsequent rounds: What do you want to say/how do you want to approach them? Roll your check. Give them the merchant's response. Respond in character, but don't RP out every conversation.

That's what comes to mind for me. In my experience, the quality of RP generally degrades after the first round of influence attempts as players get to understand the system anyways. So you shouldn't be missing out on much unless you have a great group or RPers.

Another idea might be to let a player make multiple influence checks (up to the limit the scenario allows) during one RP conversation instead of breaking them out to separate conversations per check. Though that might limit their opportunity to influence multiple NPCs, especially if they've got a good diplomacy score and can have a major impact with each check.

Sovereign Court 1/5

Fantastic, I was a little concerned because the only other high influence one I've run was Hellknights feast and my table went way over time.

5/5 **** Venture-Lieutenant, Michigan—Detroit

wakedown wrote:

She shouldn't. She has Undetectable Alignment up.

I missed this on my read through, then went back after looking at this post. Shirin has undetectable alignment on her spell list, but no where that I saw does it say she has it up. It would be stupid for her to have it on her spell list and not cast it, since it's a 24 hour spell, but the mod doesn't mention it. She'll certainly have it up when I run this tonight. :-)

Shadow Lodge

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When I run the scenario, I have the rooms printed and I use miniatures for each of the major NPCs that the PCs can approach. I also include a miniature for "Ooh-moot Tip'em Cow".

I roleplay her a little like the priest from Princess Bride... "Fyun-ah-wahls..."

As the Trade Prince walks around with the PCs and does introductions, I have him introduce "Tip'em Cow" along with everyone else, and have her a bit "fumbly" with words and a bit shaky and weak when she shakes hands with the PCs. Thus, it's no surprise that she's not perfect when performing the funerary service.

I believe if she's portrayed as a bit elderly and less-than-competent along with the Trade Prince fawning over her a bit, it makes for a better run of the scenario. Folks should be looking to protect her when she's injured at the end.

Scarab Sages

About to run this tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.

I think I can bring the chase in a cool way (I intend to use zombie minis to make them able to see where they are physically).

I do have one concern, namely the cleric of 'Pharasma'. My players see her kiss the head of the diseased and then close the eyes, they will smell 'it was her!' and go after her.

I do see some other people had that problem. I am playing with some ideas in my head. I do believe my players would not really go after her on a out of character hunge, but I'd like to be able to actually trick them in thinking she had nothing to do with it.

Maybe humanize her, indeed, by making her roleplay a bit. Not make her seem too old and 'weak', because that would only make them think 'she is looking weak... so she can BACKSTAB us!'

:) Advice?

Shadow Lodge

Yep, humanize and roleplay her.

Play her like that old aunt or grandmother.

Make sure she kisses the PCs as well. Have a charismatic young paladin? Have her comment how handsome he is and lean in for a grandmotherly kiss or two. Or, three.

Then when you have her kiss the body, don't be reading boxed text. Instead close the scenario booklet and act as if you are roleplaying her spontaneously. Have her a little shakey and stumble up to the coffin. Have her smile and look down and say "What a handsome man..." and lean down and kiss the forehead.

Get your table to roll five d20 rolls way in advance of even starting the scenario. Review their sheets and write down their Knowledge (religion) and Sense Motive modifiers. Resolve this moment by checking off a column of d20 rolls at least 5-10 minutes before you roleplay it, so you're not shuffling and looking like you're obviously resolving something secret when you are supposed to be doing spontaneous roleplay.

A lot of tables won't have a single PC who spots the mistakes, but the players will still feel compelled to jump to conclusions... depending on how well you pull this off, they really will be shocked.

This is one I look forward to GMing again and again in the future to really perfect pulling this off.

Scarab Sages

Yeah I see it as a challenge, not a obstacle. I am taking the day off to prep for the session. I was thinking of adding some extra mood with maybe some props.

Will be playing in a game shop, so not a lot of options. Perhaps have printouts of the art of the merchants in front of the screen, held up, so the players see who these people are.

Sovereign Court 1/5

I want to shout out thanks for the advice Wakedown. Im running this on saturday as my pre GenCon. Then I Have it for 6 slots at the con. IM really looking forward to this as I think it will be a blast. Especially with the tips this forum is giving me.

Shadow Lodge

TarnisLockhart wrote:
Then I Have it for 6 slots at the con. IM really looking forward to this as I think it will be a blast. Especially with the tips this forum is giving me.

Awesome! You're very lucky then, as I think this is one of the highlights of Season 5. Getting to run it for all your slots at GenCon means you're very lucky.

Come back and let us know how you did with the six tables... how many of them caught on versus didn't.

Also, give yourself a personal challenge to get half those tables to favor Temel over Metella. I think players naturally favor a classic, down-to-earth dwarf over the "I don't want to touch anything without gloves on" Temel.

Some things I try to get the party to consider while making their choice (perhaps through comments from the trade prince):
* Metella, as a dwarf, is likely better able to defend herself than Temel
* Doritannia's room is likely next to or across the hall from Temel's, so rushing down his side of the complex means you'd also be helping to save Doritannia.

In both sessions I've seen of Merchant's Wake, Doritannia was a romance interest for a PC as they tried to woo her away from Temel. I think this is always a good way to play her. It was extremely amusing when the fighter (a rough, thug type) realized she was all skittish and wanted to be intimidated. He quickly ascended to that challenge, telling her that she better "fall in line" with his demands. Of course, she started to swoon at that treatment from an apparently even stronger man than Temel.

The fight with the assassin is trivial for most groups, so with a six-person table, I imagine that splitting the party and getting two simultaneous assassin fights isn't that big of a deal.

Remember also that the assassin's smoke stick can be used in the event of glitterdust, a smog pellet or see invisibility to still give them the ability to get their sneak attack on, which is essential for them to provide an interesting combat if the party is so prepared. Depending on what happens in the first round, the poison on their weapon or dart can be fairly interesting as well (if a party member interposes themself, as they should).

Scarab Sages

My session went very well. There was some 'oh no a chase' (mainly from me), but it was quite ok.

The combat was really way too easy though, but that didn't influence any of the fun. It even introduced some pretty cool stories.

I ended up really playing around with the servants. They got names, looked in on players to 'help them', some of them got bribed so two players could have 'private' time (read: put sneezing powder in Passad's room), etc.

Good scenario.

Dark Archive 3/5 *** Venture-Agent, United Kingdom—England—Sheffield

wakedown wrote:

In both sessions I've seen of Merchant's Wake, Doritannia was a romance interest for a PC as they tried to woo her away from Temel. I think this is always a good way to play her. It was extremely amusing when the fighter (a rough, thug type) realized she was all skittish and wanted to be intimidated. He quickly ascended to that challenge, telling her that she better "fall in line" with his demands. Of course, she started to swoon at that treatment from an apparently even stronger man than Temel.

...I may have accidentally proposed.

Grand Lodge 4/5

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Here are notes from my preparations for those interested:

I enjoy showing off the artwork that Paizo has taken the time to commission and include. Unfortunately, when there is a social gathering and the players only get to see a few portraits it feels like a dead give away. I pulled artwork from previous scenarios and assembled them into supplementary materials to have at the table. You can download a PDF below.

Jakti’s favor doesn’t list a skill check, so as long as the PCs talk to the servants about opening windows I’ll assume success.

During the first combat encounter of subtier 4–5, The Guest of Honor Rises, The desiccated mummy is listed as having the desert wind aura and is a variant advanced mummy. I did my best to confirm whether desert wind is in addition to, or replaces, despair (aura) of a unmodified mummy. I decided to rule on the side of the players and have desert wind replace despair.

The modified chase rules make running this chase much easier and a group effort. I approve! It’s a little confusing as written, however. It seems like players individually pick one of the two options and that the player with the highest result might be aided by others. If so, then the player with the highest result might try to “knock them aside” and aided by someone attempting “we can jump it”. I’m going to err on the side of the players and run it this way, despite it falling outside the norm.

The Subtier 4–5 Bahjari Scion is an advanced skeletal champion, which brings its AC from 21 to 25. The scaling text references his AC at 19, which appears to be an error.

I’m personally disappointed that the Pathfinder Society staff chose to have Temel and Metella so childishly subvert and attack the other. I was even more disappointed to see the coins found on the assassin change depending on whom the PCs aided. I’m not clear on who hired this assassin either. Is it supposed to be Jakti? What evidence suggests that Temel and Metella are enemies of the Cult of the Dawnflower? Am I to infer that Shirin planted the evidence? She really went out of her way to make a ruckus of this funeral… These details are distracting, unconvincing, and the weakness of this scenario.

All in all, I look forward to running this tonight. I’ll share my reflections afterword.

Downloadable Content
Links Redacted

Sovereign Court 1/5

Hi all. Got to run this at GenCon and had a blast. The advice was all trully helpful. Every group had enjoyed themselves. The only big issue was when I TPK my party of level ones in the last combat. 12 damage on a chanel and everyone fails the save is a bad day when you have no healer in your party. Over all was great. Will probably keep running this as I have not yet run the high teir. Again thanks for all the help and advice.
Also Every table I had wrote a speech for he funeral. Fantastic.

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