Aubrey's Wrath of the Righteous (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

Ithers and some of us did a stint of doing PFS scenarios as PbP, that went quite nicely too for a good while.

Yeah, I was playing in some of Ith's PFS games before I did my disappearing act.

Other options for pirate themed adventures or campaigns are Plunder and Peril and Razor Coast, both of which I own and neither of which I've quite got around to reading yet ... I had sort of thought I would use bits of them in my Skull and Shackles campaign, but probably not.

There's a thread around here about combining the Razor Coast material and Skull & Shackles material and some other bits. Ingenious stuff, much of it, but I have read neither in any depth though I own copies of both.

I would love to play in a Mothman game, but my current here-again, gone-again status makes me a pretty sorry excuse for a player. After the semester will help, of course, but still, I would understand if you put me low on the list.

Full disclosure: I started both Jade Regent (liked it very much) and Skull & Shackles (liked it very much also) with another DM who had to pull a disappearing act of his own when his life situation changed. I was in several of his games and it stranded several characters I had a lot of hope for. *sad face*

Oh, and I'm pretty familiar with Darkmoon Vale's first and second installments, but that doesn't mean my character will know anything he/she/they shouldn't. At least, I try to keep that separation.

No worries, I understand that life happens - I think most of us in Aubrey's games have slowed our posting rates a lot from when we first started.

I also have no problem if people are familiar with the source material, most of us know how to separate player and character knowledge pretty well. I'd be glad to have you along if you are interested.

Were you playing Skull and Shackles as a pbp game? If so, how did your GM handle the first part of the first adventure, where the PCs are doing day to day tasks, learning the ropes, making friends etc.? I'm not sure how well that phase of the game would translate to pbp, it was a little repetitive in face-to-face (but somewhat necessary for the PCs to gain allies and equipment).

I will find the link and you can see it yourself. It has been a while since we did that part, but I thought at the time that he did fine.

Also, if you are familiar with Oladon on these boards, he was part of a S&S game that was apparently very successful - and actually completed in a very short amount of time, comparatively - but I have not read that thread to avoid spoilers.

This should be it.

I don't know anything about Darkmoon Vale, but I'm interested in playing. I've played the first few encounters of Jade Regent about 5 times.

I also ran a Skull and Shackles HERE which died from a mix of slow pacing and player rotation. If you want to see how I handled the first part.

Troy, you're welcome to play if and when I get a game going.

Thanks to both of you for the Skull and Shackles links, I'll check them out when I have a chance.

So far it looks like Nevynxxx, Aubrey, Pixie Rogue and Troy are all interested or potentially interested. I can probably accommodate about 6 players easily enough if there is further interest.

By the way Pixie Rogue and Troy, are those your preferred names / aliases on the boards or something else?

Pixie Rogue or AinvarG is fine. I thought that the 'first' alias was really a container that the others were attached to rather than a real alias, so I made Pixie Rogue as the first alias with plans to use AinvarG.

But that was many years ago and I've become accustomed to being called either. I get Pixie Rogue or PR more often lately than AinvarG or AG.

Yeah, I wasn't sure, I used to call you AinvarG, just noticed that you're using the Pixie Rogue alias more these days.

Either's fine. I have plenty to worry about in RL. Why bring stress here where I go to escape?

So whichever suits you is fine. Alternate just to confuse people, even!

Sadly, I built my profile back when I was still a Dungeon and Dragon magazine subscriber. I never realized it would always stay my permanent primary. Most of my non-PbP posting is done from Aardvark Barbarian.

Ideally, I prefer, and use whatever the PC name is (either mine or the player's) when posting. Otherwise, I prefer Aardvark. Most of my CharGen will be done with the Aardvark profile, until I have a icon and profile for my PC.

Mothman, I wanted to give your longer term comrades first shot, but I'd be interested in your game, whatever the subject matter. Following earlier examples of full disclosure, I played Hollow's Last Hope (in company with the Eldritch Mr. Shiny and run by Fake Healer -- it was a good time) And we even started the second chapter, but didn't get far. I read through Jade Regent when it came out. I wouldn't anticipate any trouble separating player and PC knowledge.

I've got this axe and board, barbarian, ranger, fighter in mind. Eljoy Skinner is nasty, narrow, shallow and sallow.

Therealthom, no problem, glad to have you on board - if you don't mind playing through Hollow's Last Hope again, as it looks like I will be going with Darkmoon Vale, starting with that adventure.

I think I vaguely recall Fake Healer running that one back in the day now that you mention it.

Awesome! Now to pick out one of the classes I've never played.....

I'll stop hijacking Aubrey's thread soon and set up a thread where we can discuss this game - I'll probably do so over the weekend or next week.

Sorry for continuing the hijack, but knowing nothing about this, could someone just give me an idea so I can think of character concepts? Is it a module or a PFS scenario? What level does it start, and in which region of Golarion does it take place? Lastly, if it doesn't give too much away, what's the theme (eg. water, wilderness, city, dungeon, mix of any of them...)? Thanks in advance.

We'll start at 1st level and the mini campaign will probably take characters up to level 7 or so. It is based off a series of modules (not PFS). Darkmoon Vale is located in northern Andoran in Golarion. It is a sparsely settled area with lots of wilderness and rural industry. It will be a mix of wilderness and dungeon adventures, probably more skewed towards dungeons.

Just to let you all know, I am away for the weekend and won't be posting much until Monday evening.

To continue the hijack of my own thread, I shall consider my character concept. Just to let you all know, I am away for the weekend and won't be posting much until Monday evening.

Hey guys, discussion thread for the Darkmoon Vale campaign is up here. (Adventures in Darkmoon Vale Discussion).

Post there to dot the thread and confirm your interest.

So, Aubrey, 3 quasits? Did you juice this one up a little for us?

And the howlers at the librarium door, was that an extra gift too?

Just curious.

The whole game is a gift for my players, from me to you.

But yes. The AP assumes a default of four players and we are operating with seven plus a diminishing band of hangers-on. So things have been given "added colour". The AP is also assuming that you will have some "random" encounters to pimp your xp levels as well as demonstrate that Kenabres is now a dangerous place, and provides some examples.

So there is an encounter in the book with a howler (nothing special, you just bump into a howler) but I decided to make it a bit more of a challenge by throwing in an extra one to take account of the larger number of PCs (plus howlers are vaguely intelligent, and so presumably social creatures up to a point). And since that was fun, I thought it might be good to have the PCs hunted through the ruins of Kenabres by a couple more, and round it off with a sort of "skill challenge" to get everyone through the door. This added a bit of tension without necessarily a stand-up, drag-out fight, and also gave you some more xp. That last bit wasn't in the AP, I just came up with that, but I was gratified it went quite well.

The quasits are presented more-or-less as is in the book, only two quasits are increased to three to take account of the bigger party.

There are some other encounters suggested too, which I might or might not use, depending on how the xp levels are going and whether I like the encounters much or not.

So there is an encounter in the book with a howler (nothing special, you just bump into a howler) but I decided to make it a bit more of a challenge by throwing in an extra one to take account of the larger number of PCs (plus howlers are vaguely intelligent, and so presumably social creatures up to a point). And since that was fun, I thought it might be good to have the PCs hunted through the ruins of Kenabres by a couple more, and round it off with a sort of "skill challenge" to get everyone through the door. This added a bit of tension without necessarily a stand-up, drag-out fight, and also gave you some more xp. That last bit wasn't in the AP, I just came up with that, but I was gratified it went quite well.

Yeah, I really liked that encounter. It's so easy to fall into the trap of "It's an enemy it must be killed dead to be defeated". That encounter made a really nice change.

Here's a headline you don't see every day:
Eagle carries off policeman's kangaroo

I agree, the Howlers at the door was a fun and tense challenge. Quasits are likely to be tough at this level – flying and invisible are a bad combo for low level characters to face. We might need to prepare a lot of readied actions to shoot when they come visible. I think we’ll struggle to kill all three of them, but if we can kill one or wound several badly enough we might force them to flee.

Since flying targets with presumed DR is going to be tough, I thought I might remind everyone about the dragon scales. One can levitate, not ideal for battling a flying creature, but it might come in handy to pop up and grapple one. One can do alter self which could get a climb speed if we find one perched on a building out of reach. Another lets you align your weapon to bypass DR. They could make a difference.

Looks like Kira will be using her smiting judgemnet then... Her attacks will bypass DR.

She also has magic weapon prepped.

Good idea on the climb speed, but I'm not sure. Form is limited to humanoid types. Monkeys? Aubrey?

Scent might help.

Looks like I remembered that wrong. I thought climb and swim were movement types you could get with alter self, but it doesn't call it out in the text.

Monkey would have been an animal anyway, but I was thinking charau-ka (demonic ape-like humanoids) or grippli (tree frog humanoids).

Oh- and I had completely forgotten you need a piece of the creature. Not sure if a magic item gets around that, but if not you might want to start collecting some locks of hair, horns, claws, etc.

The whole game is a gift for my players, from me to you.

I knew you loved us!

But yes. The AP assumes a default of four players and we are operating with seven plus a diminishing band of hangers-on. So things have been given "added colour". The AP is also assuming that you will have some "random" encounters to pimp your xp levels as well as demonstrate that Kenabres is now a dangerous place, and provides some examples.

So there is an encounter in the book with a howler (nothing special, you just bump into a howler) but I decided to make it a bit more of a challenge by throwing in an extra one to take account of the larger number of PCs (plus howlers are vaguely intelligent, and so presumably social creatures up to a point). And since that was fun, I thought it might be good to have the PCs hunted through the ruins of Kenabres by a couple more, and round it off with a sort of "skill challenge" to get everyone through the door. This added a bit of tension without necessarily a stand-up, drag-out fight, and also gave you some more xp. That last bit wasn't in the AP, I just came up with that, but I was gratified it went quite well.

The quasits are presented more-or-less as is in the book, only two quasits are increased to three to take account of the bigger party.

There are some other encounters suggested too, which I might or might not use, depending on how the xp levels are going and whether I like the encounters much or not.

The howler door was great and didn't feel 'AP-standard'. That's why I asked.

Two quasits for a second level party of four seems a bit high given my experience with the imp. I am little surprised the AP was written that way. Given the AP encounter, I'm not surprised at the way you scaled it.

I'm not complaining here, just curious.

Monkey would have been an animal anyway, but I was thinking charau-ka (demonic ape-like humanoids) or grippli (tree frog humanoids).

Oh- and I had completely forgotten you need a piece of the creature. Not sure if a magic item gets around that, but if not you might want to start collecting some locks of hair, horns, claws, etc.

Trophy-takers unite! That's going to go over well with Mulluq I'm sure.

I guess I'd been assuming the scale would handle material components.

I would expect it to handle it similarly to a wand - material components are considered to have been consumed during the making of the magic item. Plus these are artifacts, so I think that should give them a bit more juice.

Someone might want to educate Jod on exactly when and why he would want to align his weapons. I'm not sure that's something he would know - maybe with his knowledge (planes), I guess.

My take is that the information in the 'Campaign Info' tab is general knowledge that would be known by all characters in this area - the face that demons have DR that is typically overcome by cold iron and/or good is contained there - so if you know these are demons you have a good idea how to damage them.

Guys, I've had a player drop out of my OTHER Eberron campaign at very short notice and was wondering if anyone was interested in stepping in. The intention with this one is to go mythic, using the mythic rules but in the context of Eberron. Currently the PCs are about to go attack the enemy's secret base in a volcano, so there might be a little delay bring in a new character. Also, there might be limited options as to what will work in the context of where the game is now, but I'm interested to hear any ideas should anyone be interested.

Guys, I will be out of action for a week to a week or a half from tomorrow. Please NPC my character as necessary in my absence.

See you soon Mothman. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Yeah, the version of Smite Evil that a celestial creature has doesn't negate DR, while a paladin's does. I wonder if that is deliberate or a failure to update that power to be in line with a paladin's ability with exactly the same name. Given that we have a summoner in the party and we will be facing lots of demonic creatures with DR, I'm inclined to change the Smite Evil ability in the Bestiary to being exactly the same as the paladin ability.

I thought there must be a feat to address this among the 3500 they have published by now, but I'm not finding one that really does it. Closest I've found is a druid feat that requires you to be able to cast summon nature's ally, but treats natural attacks of summoned creatures as cold iron (and grants the blind fight feat and +5 to perception and stealth in dim light or darkness)

Found it. Regional Trait, only for Sarkorian summoners.

Monster Summoner's Handbook p 11

The Worldwound

Nowhere are the effects of summoning felt more directly than the Worldwound. With the death of Aroden, a horrendous, metaphysical event consumed the land of Sarkoris. Demons and other abominations spewed forth from a terrible rift to the Abyss and destroyed the god callers of the region. Since then, multiple crusades have marched upon the Worldwound in hopes of stopping the assault of demonic hordes once and for all.

Demonbane Summoner (The Worldwound):
Your line is derived directly from the god callers of Sarkoris. You adamantly oppose the demonic forces of the Worldwound in hopes of reclaiming your lost lands. The attacks of creatures you summon are treated as cold iron for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Maybe when we level in a minute, I could drop the Planar Savant trait in favor of this one?

You can if you want, but as things get tougher you'll find that might stop working. That said, I'm happy to have it that Smite Evil works exactly the same way as the paladin ability (including DR negation).

Okay. I'll take it ;)
I was just surprised that the rules hadn't addressed this as some option other than later level equipment.

Just a quick note, but I will be away from Saturday for a week on holiday and will not have any internet access.

Bon voyagey! If in doubt make the left turn at Albuquerque.

At risk of telling the same folks the same thing repeatedly, I will share this here, as well.

I will be traveling next week, but expect to have access to post in the evenings. A little jaunt to try new cycling trails that have been built on retired railbeds. Primary concern right now is the storms that seem to be a nightly occurrence in that part of the country.

Hey guys, just in case anyone in the Darkmoon Vale game hasn't been keeping track of the thread, we've kicked off the game.

I'm AFK this weekend - headed to the mountains for Memorial Day. See you on Monday!

Also, rails to trails sounds awesome. My wife's a keen cyclist, so we'll check it out once my daughter's a little older.

There are several in place or under development in the Kansas/Nebraska/Iowa/Missouri area. If it's something you are into, it's worth a look.

The best-maintained I have seen runs south of Ottawa, Kansas. It is literally a state park and the little communities along its length all seem to pitch in.

Note, if you are one of those people that requires big cities and fancy hotels, this might not work for you. The great draw for me is to be able to go cross-country without having to deal with traffic. The railbed being mostly level is great for those of us that aren't really up to a lot of climbing.

Enjoy your weekend in the mountains!