Contributor—Canadian Maplecakes
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. Just for curiosity HIllman , Does the female archon has some romantics feelings for Oppian?
I would say that the archon doesn't have any romantic interest in Oppian. Their relationship is based on duty and honor, as the archon is a divine agent sent by Iomedae to assist in keeping Oppian—Kantaria's stabilizing force—protected.
The PCs could likely perceive the archon as having a 'romantic' interest, but I don't think it'd be a correct assumption. Admittedly, depending on the interactions, it could be interesting to play a rivalry between Loredana and Mindaliel. To outsiders it might appear to be jealousy, but in truth it would be the dogged devotion of the archon to keep Oppian away from corrupting influences.
Well, just my 2 cents anyways! :)
I was wondering whether anyone had run this without the meeting of the council members at the start? Rather than a meal something else, either chance encounters or simply rumours allowing PCs to pick who they went to see?
I have come to about the same conclusion. My group will be starting the book this weekend, and they're not exactly the Blend In type. We're talking a hobgoblin, tiefling, catfolk, a freaking dhamphir, and a human. And none of them are exactly the Face, skill-wise. So, yeah being invited to a very High Society type event their first day, that would not go well for anyone involved!
My plan is similar to Two Headed Snake's: They'll get some free rumors and names from Loredana, do the halfling slave quest, and then I'll let them venture into town to meet some of the NPCs and get themselves into trouble.
However, my group has been surprising me with some of their plans and actions in the first book, so I am curious to see how it plays out. I'm hoping for some good Yojimbo/Fist Full of Dollars playing all sides kind of action, but I fear it's going to be more of a "Whaddya mean you think Thrune sent us?!" as weapons are drawn and Initiatives are rolled at every other encounter...could be fun watching them have to clean up their messes before people catch on to them though.
I'm pleased it wasn't just me who was worried about that meal! I like the idea of having Oppan drop in then send them out into the world to meet some of the people themselves. It's a little less forced and gives them the choice who to go after.
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The PCs have messed up royally. The whole town is under martial law now looking for them.
Oppian is about to personally read one of the PCs' rights and arrest him.
I'm thinking something along the lines of "in the name of the Glorious Reclamation, you are under arrest..."
Any suggestions on wording? :)
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Contributor—Canadian Maplecakes
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The PCs have messed up royally. The whole town is under martial law now looking for them.
Oppian is about to personally read one of the PCs' rights and arrest him.
I'm thinking something along the lines of "in the name of the Glorious Reclamation, you are under arrest..."
Any suggestions on wording? :)
Well, it would depend on a few things.
1) Are the PCs holed up in Loredana's inn? If so, it might work best to NOT have Oppian show up. Since he'd probably not want to make himself seem like the bad (err.... good) guy around Loredana. Instead, Oppian might send a detachment of Glorious Reclamation soldiers to apprehend the PCs. Perhaps including Kalcyra the Just, and the Hircaprath. This should give the PCs a chance to fight their would-be captors, but leave the end of the scenario intact.
2) If Oppian does approach the inn himself, then I'd probably have him decry the PCs actions, ALA 'reading them their rights'. I'd use Loredana as a distraction, possibly having her buy the PCs a chance to escape. Depending on their relationship with the local citizens, this might be a chance for the loyal Imperial citizens to rise up, or for the PCs to flee into the nearby wilderness and prepare a more guerrilla campaign. If the PCs do retreat... they can always ally with the myceloids and make a suitably horrific fungal-infected army.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts that came to mind! :)
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A PC had an affair with Loredana and made sure Oppian learned of it. Loredana told Oppian she was seduced by magic and Oppian forgave her. With their covers blown, one of the PCs assumed a new cover id with his massive disguise mod. The others are hiding in a farm ditch covered in cow, pig and horse manure. The one PC getting arrested will be transfered to hardships heart.
My PC's also were pretty close to getting caught - the two Spyglass Archons happened to be trailing them when they decided to burn down the docks. Even then, they remembered and decided to use Jana's get-out-of-jail-free card and they decided to leave town for a bit, messing around in the Blooming Caves and setting up deals with the Faceless Stalkers.
If the player of that PC is going to be absent next session, then you have a nice little jail break storyline, but it will be boring for him to have to be out of the story for so long - at least until the rest of the party breaks him out again.
What despair rating has your party hit?
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Low, probably just around 15 or so at this point... but they went straight to the manor to take on the wizard and failed... and the wizard escaped and told Oppian the whole party are agents of thrune (they triggered the agents of thrune trap)
Oppian emptied the keep and instituted curfew/martial law. Paladins and walking the streets and detecting evil wherever they go.
So I think I can indirectly trigger 'high despair' encounters at this point. Sending the spyglass archons and the big holy bull is only logical a this point as there are 5 fugitives on the loose! :)
Has anyone run the final assault on Valor's Fastness? It's coming up quick, maybe even next session and I'm a bit concerned.
My group starts on it tonight! Start listening for the death cries of villainous PCs around 6:30pm CST!
The group, consisting of a human Insinuator Antipaladin, human Infernal Binder Wizard, human Arcanist, and an ifrit Pyrokineticist, and they're all pretty scared to take on Valor's Fastness. I *think* they can handle it, but I'm a worried about it too. This group has already had 2 near-TPK's (only the wizard has lived through both) and they're not set up to use the typical kick-down-the-door style tactics.
Has anyone run the final assault on Valor's Fastness? It's coming up quick, maybe even next session and I'm a bit concerned.My group starts on it tonight! Start listening for the death cries of villainous PCs around 6:30pm CST!
The group, consisting of a human Insinuator Antipaladin, human Infernal Binder Wizard, human Arcanist, and an ifrit Pyrokineticist, and they're all pretty scared to take on Valor's Fastness. I *think* they can handle it, but I'm a worried about it too. This group has already had 2 near-TPK's (only the wizard has lived through both) and they're not set up to use the typical kick-down-the-door style tactics.
How did your group do? Mine will start on Valor's Fastness at our next session in a month or so.
How did your group do? Mine will start on Valor's Fastness at our next session in a month or so.
Overall, I'd say it went good. They decided to attack at night (wise decision) but then realized that most of the group couldn't climb the wall, including the antipaladin. They did come up with the idea to have the arcanist use his dimensional slide exploit to teleport to the top of the wall and tie a rope off there, but then for some reason dismissed that idea. Instead, they tried a frontal assault on the main gate. The group used the Discord Bottle from earlier in the adventure, figuring the gasses could reach the guards in the guard towers that flanked the gate. All the guards rolled their Fort save. :/ A few other hi-jinks and miscommunications happened and the (pyro)kineticist decided to fire blast the gates down.
The guards let loose their arrows and the party's wizard began to summon a whole bunch of lemure demons into both towers. After smashing down the gate, finally, they all charged into the courtyard, only to be met by Exemplar. The kineticist was the only one affected by the dog's howl and fled for 7 rounds (the rest of the fight). The arcanist took a bite from the dog and decided it would be wiser to withdraw, so he did. The antipaladin tried to fight the dog and the wizard failed his Knowledge check to figure out what Exemplar really was. The summoned devils took on the guards in the towers.
Eventually the wizard decided to retreat but the antipaladin wanted to still fight the dog. After taking a critical bite, the antipaladin was down to a Wis of 3 (after all the Wisdom damage) and withdrew as well. They fled back into the night.
The group was rather disappointed - I think they thought they could make it farther into Valor's Fastness - but I told them no PC character died, they learned some valuable intel, and they whittled away at the defenders of the temple. They might have to do a few more hit and runs before they can make it further inside.
So things were going ok, they were keeping their heads down and doing a little digging... One of them has got into Jara's "good books", they'd found the smithy, they debated disrupting the market (and decided not to) and generally did some investigating. It was good.
Then the Cleric of Asmodeus said he wanted to visit the new temple to Torag.
Then he made me think on my feet (a lot) as he challenged their decisions and rights around repurposing the site from Asmodeus to Torag. Then he demanded to serve the religious rights of the prisoners in Hardship's Hearth. It was quite brilliant as he's scoped out the area and I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't let him.
Anyway, now I'm wondering how much he (and they) are going to be under suspicion. It's very early days so I don't want to hamper them and spoil the story too much. I also worked in someone else's idea of having another group running interference, so that group could do something drastic to distract Oppian...
Anyway - anyone got any ideas how I can move this forward? I'm relatively new to GMing still so these sorts of things take a while for me to work through still!
So things were going ok, they were keeping their heads down and doing a little digging... One of them has got into Jara's "good books", they'd found the smithy, they debated disrupting the market (and decided not to) and generally did some investigating. It was good.
Then the Cleric of Asmodeus said he wanted to visit the new temple to Torag.
Then he made me think on my feet (a lot) as he challenged their decisions and rights around repurposing the site from Asmodeus to Torag. Then he demanded to serve the religious rights of the prisoners in Hardship's Hearth. It was quite brilliant as he's scoped out the area and I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't let him.
Anyway, now I'm wondering how much he (and they) are going to be under suspicion. It's very early days so I don't want to hamper them and spoil the story too much. I also worked in someone else's idea of having another group running interference, so that group could do something drastic to distract Oppian...
Anyway - anyone got any ideas how I can move this forward? I'm relatively new to GMing still so these sorts of things take a while for me to work through still!
My group was also unhappy with the presence of the Shrine of the Hammer, and went to investigate it. They ended up being questioned by Kalcyra, the dwarf inquisitor and it eventually led to combat. If they've already headed to the temple and questioned its provenance, it should be a simple task for Kalcyra to return to town, and mount a public inquisition of the party. Depending on how much your party likes combat vs. roleplay, you could either have it resolved by combat, or by a social skills event. The book specifically calls out Kalcyra's no-nonsense attitude, so if her church is being questioned by some newcomers in town, I'm sure she'd have a strong and swift response to that.
My group was also unhappy with the presence of the Shrine of the Hammer, and went to investigate it. They ended up being questioned by Kalcyra, the dwarf inquisitor and it eventually led to combat. If they've already headed to the temple and questioned its provenance, it should be a simple task for Kalcyra to return to town, and mount a public inquisition of the party. Depending on how much your party likes combat vs. roleplay, you could either have it resolved by combat, or by a social skills event. The book specifically calls out Kalcyra's no-nonsense attitude, so if her church is being questioned by some newcomers in town, I'm sure she'd have a strong and swift response to that.
What sorts of things do you think she'd say...? This particular player is so good at thinking on his feet, so I get outmatched sometimes when the characters wouldn't. I'm trying to get prepared for another good-natured run-in ;)
I'm flabbergasted by my party. They have taken the train right off the track, and stole a few rails too. After about a week of blending in, getting intel, and spreading their own rumors of thrune taking back the town, they unleashed a blitz attack. Taking the prison, arming the prisoners, taking all 3 guard towers and further arming the prisoners while calling on thrune loyalists to join the fight, burning the docks, and assaulting faydreth's manor between midnight and 6am.
They have actually taken two thirds of the town and raised their own militia and now they want mass combat haha.
so I'm giving it to them. I've already decided I have to scale this down to days instead of months, and I'm adjusting troop numbers to better reflect urban warfare. My biggest concern is how to handle numbers. I'm not quite sure how many glorious reclamation soldiers exist, or what percentage of the population is loyal. It'll be a fun challenge to homebrew and everyone is loving this idea that the antipaladin is leading a ragtag militia now, but numbers are a messy messy thing. any suggestions?
What sorts of things do you think she'd say...? This particular player is so good at thinking on his feet, so I get outmatched sometimes when the characters wouldn't. I'm trying to get prepared for another good-natured run-in ;)
If she was going to actually talk to them, she might mention things like entropy, economic philosophies, how Asmodeus' stock in town is on the decline, and it is only by the divine presence of the Glorious Reclamation that Cheliax can move forward. Abadar is all about progress and trade, and she must have some feeling that the GR is going to help her god accomplish those things within Cheliax.
However, I think she's much more likely to mount an offensive against the group after they questioned her new temple. The enemies (good guys) that are affiliated with the GR all have major weaknesses. Hers might be the fact that she backed the wrong horse, and maybe Abadar would rather his inquisitors stay out of this situation - after all, worship of Abadar is allowed by the Thrunes - but it's too late now - her stubbornness will lead to her downfall.
Lovely, thank you!
So my group starts Valor's Fastness this month. For area H23, the trap says that it is triggered once someone steps into the area from the staircase, but the trap area is in the middle of the room according to the map. Based on the stats, I think it's supposed to trigger as an immediate action, so I don't really see the point. At the same time, I feel like Oppian is maybe going insane and setting traps poorly in a state of paranoia. I am thinking about moving the trap if my group is crushing the fortress and needs an extra challenge, or just have them see it go off haphazardly just before Mindaliel starts throwing down javelins at them and some of them have to face the haunt on the stairs. Has anybody run it differently?
Sounds like you had a pretty epic battle so far! My players tend to get into trouble with traps - Faydreth's bookshelf trap nearly took out two members of their party. I'll probably run it like you say, the wording in the paragraph before it is just kind of confusing.
I've been most looking forward to the Exemplar fight for sure. I think his howl is going to hit hard, and so will his touch wisdom attack. We run next Tuesday just for a few hours so I'm interested to see how far they get. They'll clean it up on a Sunday session later this month.
In the vulpinal's stat block it says she dimension doors into the chapel with the graven guardian, but I might steal your idea of her going up and bolstering/getting healed by Oppian.
I might also give Oppian the archon-graced template from advanced bestiary, so then it would make sense for Kelinti to go bolster his defenses.
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My group took the rails off the track then put them together once more and had them hooking up to another track so that two trains would hit each other.
but first some food for thought, your players might try to dig a tunnel from under the inn to the fort, easy way to stop that is say the fort is on solid stone. Also in this line of thought is if the party has a necromancer and made the undead dig.
My group has a fiendish vessel cleric who has a free imp familiar, they made this plan up after killing the monk. they told Oppian that the wizard was conducting foul rituals in his home, they were on friendly enough terms with him so he took 6 guards some of them named and went with them to the wizards manor, just before they got there, the imp with a bag of holding went in the window of the second story manor and put dead body's in a ritual configuration. they arrive with Oppian and get the wizard to come out he is confused as to what is going on, Oppian sends up one of his men to look for confirmation that some dark ritual is being done. the man comes back down says yes it is. party is behind oppian and his guard and has the imp act once more using the discord bottle, all but the wizard and Oppian failed, the party bard casts glitter dust on the wizard and two guards they all fail, the fiendish vessel casts lesser confusion. in short order the party wins by much trickery. with that i ended the book, the town lost its GR leadership in two days. they never had to storm the fort. But i was the one running the game, and we don't get that much play time a session for reasons.
My group took the rails off the track then put them together once more and had them hooking up to another track so that two trains would hit each other.
but first some food for thought, your players might try to dig a tunnel from under the inn to the fort, easy way to stop that is say the fort is on solid stone. Also in this line of thought is if the party has a necromancer and made the undead dig.My group has a fiendish vessel cleric who has a free imp familiar, they made this plan up after killing the monk. they told Oppian that the wizard was conducting foul rituals in his home, they were on friendly enough terms with him so he took 6 guards some of them named and went with them to the wizards manor, just before they got there, the imp with a bag of holding went in the window of the second story manor and put dead body's in a ritual configuration. they arrive with Oppian and get the wizard to come out he is confused as to what is going on, Oppian sends up one of his men to look for confirmation that some dark ritual is being done. the man comes back down says yes it is. party is behind oppian and his guard and has the imp act once more using the discord bottle, all but the wizard and Oppian failed, the party bard casts glitter dust on the wizard and two guards they all fail, the fiendish vessel casts lesser confusion. in short order the party wins by much trickery. with that i ended the book, the town lost its GR leadership in two days. they never had to storm the fort. But i was the one running the game, and we don't get that much play time a session for reasons.
My party had a similar idea to put the blame on Faydreth, but sounds like your party came up with a clever idea to have Faydreth get caught red-handed.
They've started their attack on the temple, and killed Exemplar. The fight in the courtyard took all night after about an hour of planning, and people were working the next day so we stopped right after they cleared the courtyard. Since they have no divine casters they should be ok to return twice before Exemplar rejuvenates.
As a GM, I've found the premise for this chapter more compelling than The Hellfire Compact, though I have twisted its start to fit my vision for it. How so?
To my players, I've made clear that this chapter is a reversal from the first, that they'd be expected to take on the role of undercover agents. Par for the course, right? However, after explaining the larger situation, my Fex urged them to develop a cover story of their own, never once suggesting that they be mercenaries, albeit with some assistance by him.
Fex thereafter provided each with 600 gp and then, collectively, a wand of Undetectable Alignment with 20 charges on it. This set the tone for what they should expect, and they got the message.
The group chose to go as a simple villager family fleeing Thrune territory in the hope of finding refuge in Kantaria. To complete their ruse, they manufactured Caps of Disguise and appear as a group of humans with one already deceptive and mysterious human "child" in tow. (The other members of the group don't even know what she really is -- she's been disguise from the time they first met!)
Fex also had Razelago zip off to explain the party's cover with Loredana, so she has laid the foundation a little before they arrived.
I then created a skill challenge to cover the two-week journey to Kantaria. The challenge's central part consisted of a group Disguise check that had to be made each turn. As they neared Kantaria (their rate of travel measured in the count of success and failures overall), the DC of this check increased substantially to represent Iomedean snitches, spies and patrols among the villages and other travelers. (They could also beat a difficult Diplomacy check to counter-act the inflating Disguise DC.)
Toward the end, the party was plunged into a tense and climatic encounter against a bridge patrol of Glorious Reclamation soldiers (squires, a sergeant as well as the witch, Rhysak, who'd survived the tree fort). The patrol stopped the group to ask a few questions, but a misstep by the party soon led to a full melee and an exciting battle. A few flash maneuvers shifted the combat to the party's favor but there was a complication -- a squire was across the bridge and making way to a horse she intended to use to warn others. Even as they put down the last of the tough defenders, they scrambled to solve this problem.
Alas, the party manage to stop her at the last moment by attacking the field's horses and chasing them off. The squire, now facing certain doom, launched an arrow that took down the party necromancer, kicking in her Thrune trait, a fact that undoubtedly saved her life.
Soon thereafter, like her fellows, the squire was dead. Had she escaped, the disguise DC would've jumped significantly and, as it turns out, the skill challenge came down to a single win/lose check that may well have gone differently if not for their success at the bridge.
But because they beat the skill challenge, they received a 24-hour boost to Disguise and Bluff checks, furthered by Loredana's good word. When they encountered Oppian and his impressive retinue at the Uskwood, the "child" party member nearly failed an important Bluff check against Oppian's Sense Motive. The bonuses paid off and their cover was established!
But at the next session, they'll test their ruse more fully when they go to the council gathering at Narikopolous Manor for the afternoon.
In all, the scene is set for some delicious evil as they balance their manufactured cover against the need to disrupt the town. I have no idea what they'll latch on to after the manor get-together -- it really could go in a dozen directions.
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I created a reference sheet for despair that some of you may find useful. The first part denotes what events or other consequences happen as the despair reaches a threshold. The second part lists the despair gained and the cause for the gain.
0
* Normal
15
* Event 6 occurs
* "Glorious Spies" can occur (Spyglass archons)
30
* Patrols reinforced with sergeants
* Good cost 20% more (except Linton's)
* Oppian may no longer be influenced
40
* Patrols reinforced with militia volunteers
* Inspections are frequent
* Kantaria gains Hunted disadvantage
* Event 8 occurs (Heaven's Retaliation)
* Event 9 occurs (Friend in Need | Linton Demeer)
55
* Citizens riot! Citizens flee town!
* Kantara gains the Anarchy disadvantage
* Kantaria is no longer considered a settlement but a battleground
* Remaining soldiers retreat into Valor's Fastness
* PCs can now strike Valor's to return rule to House Thrune
* Defenders in Valor's Fastness no longer replenish
* Micheri (Andoren diplomat) is sequestered by Oppian
* Oppian begins writing a confessional letter
DESPAIR | CAUSE
+5 Loredana is befriended and has relationship with PCs that Oppian learns about.
+3 Nicolae's halfling slaves are recaptured
+5 Disrupting Oathday marketplace
+2 Slaying the marketplace Hound Archon
+4 Capturing or destroying the metals supply shipment
+6 Kalcyra the Just is defeated
+4 Hiracapath is defeated
+5 Ugothols take advantage of chaos in town to take vengeance.
+5 Killing of Linton | Driving out faceless stalkers
-5 Revealing the presence and defeating faceless stalkers
+4 Allying with Brextur | Brextur causes chaos
+4 Destroying or stealing healing supplies in north sword tower
+5 Destroying the docks
+2 Killing or driving off Jonas Reikman.
+5 Killing prisoners at Hardship's Hearth
+1 Using Jalila's skin to flaunt insurrection
+5 Defeating Jalila
+6 Killing Faydreth Zaine
+3 Defeating Foo Lion on walls of Valor's Fastness
+2 Accomplishing "secondary objective" in Valor's Fastness that causes chaos
+10 Slay townsfolk inside the sanctuary
That's an amaing list, thanks for sharing that.
My group have started to cause a little havok in the town, they've checked out a few things and gained some info as to what the town is like.
it's going to be a fun ride.
:)
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I am running this for a mostly CE group who are in their element. The aspiring hellknight just recently cut off the hands of pious Pete and nailed them to the door frame of the house of iomedae for making profit off of his loose understanding of her life. Unfortunately for him pete got a look at who did it. At the brunch the devil impostor summoner noticed oppians feelings and decided to help him get back at loredana by proposing a tryst to make her jealous and want him. It has so far worked out ok. Loredana was purposely made aware if this plot. Our serial killer vigilante has quietly murdered 2 drunks who have yet to be found. Our pyrokineticist has not been let off leash to torch stuff but is chomping at the bit. The halfling twins were easily lulled into a false security and easily captured.
I am running this for a mostly CE group who are in their element. The aspiring hellknight just recently cut off the hands of pious Pete and nailed them to the door frame of the house of iomedae for making profit off of his loose understanding of her life. Unfortunately for him pete got a look at who did it. At the brunch the devil impostor summoner noticed oppians feelings and decided to help him get back at loredana by proposing a tryst to make her jealous and want him. It has so far worked out ok. Loredana was purposely made aware if this plot. Our serial killer vigilante has quietly murdered 2 drunks who have yet to be found. Our pyrokineticist has not been let off leash to torch stuff but is chomping at the bit. The halfling twins were easily lulled into a false security and easily captured.
Nice one. I have goody guys. The aspiring hellknight got into a religious nationalistic debate with Oppian and wanted a duel for the glory of Cheliax. The bard after sleeping with the one inkeeper (Jana I think), was after that sleeping with Loredana to make Oppian depressed. The halflings were taken care by Cirmi cause like I said my guys are too nice and one is an escaped slave :P And the necro (dhampir, with a preference for elven blood) was exchanging recipes with Lindon.
I have to say that this is maaaybe the best part of the campaign though. The adversaries in the other books are not too fleshed out.
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My party have decided to frame Linton Demeer as the perpetrator for all the events in Kantaria such as the market disruption and the supply wagon going missing. I'm not sure why my party hate Linton Demeer so much, I didn't portray him as suspiscious or anything but for some reason they have decided he is the fall guy.
This obviously will change his normal attitude towards the party as potential allies. I'm a bit torn about whether Linton will approach the party and be like "Hey we got off on the wrong foot" or will just attack them when the time is right. Basically the PCs are directly sabotaging his part in the Kantaria community and are indirectly threatening the unguthol community.
So i might just be blind and missing the obvious but in the study of Nariko manor theres an evil book of summoning as treasure but i cant find anything about which type it is (Lesser, Medium or Greater), any ideas?
"Resting on the desk atop
the other tomes is an evil book of extended summoning
(Ultimate Equipment 283)"
If the PCs befriend Faydreth Zane he shows them around the manor right? How do they avoid setting off the Thrune trap in that situation?