GM Endless Forms' PFS 03-24 The Golden Serpent (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

Hello everyone! We'll get started as soon as a team is assembled.

Welcome back from Gen-Con. I hope you had a great time.

Finally met The Chap Man (Ezren/Shin). It was great but I'm still pretty wiped out from four days of all-day gaming.

Here! I need to update Shin's profile since I leveled him up on paper, fifteen minutes before I played him in Bonekeep.

Shin, I see that you've posted for DM Feral's stuff. I've got Maaarv in his Hydra's Fang scenario which we are almost done with. He is really keen on finishing these up quick - we just started last Tuesday.

There's five of us, so we can definitely take one more on. I hope Jarlgur or another associate can join up.

Hey everyone! Had a lab meeting this morning and then I've been on the road all afternoon. I'll ask around about getting a few more players so we can get started soon.

I've opened up the gameplay thread for dotting.

Shan is here if you will have him. I need to level him as well. If not, you can all go fu¢k yourself in the most Zen way as possible.[/s] =v)

Very UN-Zen man. ;)

Tell me about it! ;)

So no VL Mike, EF ?

I asked him. He's thinking about it.

And WHOA! If there were a monk-equivalent of atonement, you would need it right now.

Also, I believe "in the most Zen way as possible" = tantric?

Shin should be all updated.

Tell Mike he owes me for taking over his taxi service. Oh, and promise not to kill him this time.

I promise nothing, haha. I've GM'd quite a few PbP and only killed one character so far. He played in two PbP games and died in both of them. I don't think it's up to me.

Shan, have you used your Way of Kirin boon yet? I noticed that the Bodywrap of Mighty Strikes +1 is exactly 3000 gp.

I'm going to invite a player. He's new to Society, but he could play a pre-gen. And he had some good posting in the very quick (8 days, over gencon weekend) scenario that we just ran through.

I don't know if he'd be interested. I hope it's okay that I invite him.

Sure! We need at least one more at this point. Haven't heard back from Mike B yet so let's assume no for now. Once we get at least one more player I'll get things started.

Des, if your guy isn't coming, I'm fairly certain I can get someone.

Yeah, it doesn't look like he's going to make it.

Omrax's player has a PC he could bring.

Right now we only have three so we have plenty of room.

Faction missions are no longer required but if anyone wants to read through theirs just for flavor or to see if there's any extra info in there, let me know and I'll post it. You're still not obligated to do it, although you're welcome to. Failing it won't affect your PP anymore.

Checking in...Dora is the only character I have in range.

Love the name, Dora. My 3-year-old would definitely approve!

Dora's background was unusual in that she was a throw-away character to play a one-shot mod with a group of 4 barbarians that needed a face/skill person. Never thought she would make it this far in her career.

Sorry for the delay getting my first post in. Was closing down a table I just finished running and starting two more. I should be good now.

Just noticed the invite via private message. If you still have room I have a cleric 9 available, or can play a pregen.

Yep, we've still got room. Welcome aboard!

Keith Goudreau. Nice to meet everybody; this is my cleric.

Welcome Geser. Good to have some healing,

Does that force us to play high tier? Or do we still get a choice with year 3 mods?

5+5+5+9+9/ 5. = 6.6. I am still not sure how the new rules apply to old mods.

APL rounds up to 7 and this is a 5-9 so you guys are between subtiers.

For scenarios written in Seasons 0 to 3, when the APL is in between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters must play the lower subtier. In the fringe case where there are no players that are high enough to have reached the subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd level characters), the group may decide to play down to the lower subtier.

So it looks like we're playing down (5-6 subtier) unless you guys want to find a sixth person of level 7+ in order to play up. I think everyone's ready to get going at this point though.

I vote play down. The two level nines will still get Out of Tier gold, so a least it is a little better for them.

I vote play down. The two level nines will still get Out of Tier gold, so a least it is a little better for them.

Is this a new rule, or has it been the rule for some time?

Shinkeer Aswander wrote:

I vote play down. The two level nines will still get Out of Tier gold, so a least it is a little better for them.

Is this a new rule, or has it been the rule for some time?

New rule that came out with the new guide, right before GenCon.

I really need to read through the new Guide fully. Thanks Shinkeer.

I'm down . . . with playing down ;)

Down is fine with Dora. That was my concern if we were forced to play up with the new rules. :)

Down is fine with Dora. That was my concern if we were forced to play up with the new rules. :)

X2

To Dora
LOL, I promise I am not slow, but I just noticed your full name. Wicked funny.

LOL - now that's funny, I don't care who you are. :-)

Who's going to be the mystery guest?

Also, I was thinking, there's got to be a scenario where instead of killing the bad guy, we capture him. Then, we remove the mask he was wearing and it turns out to be Old Man Withers, who runs the haunted amusement park. Then he says, "I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddlin' Pathfinders!"

Sorry, watching the crap that passes for Saturday morning kids shows just makes me yearn for those of my childhood - which I'm sure my parents thought were crap. It's the circle of life...

Hooray for favored enemies!

I had to look this up because it didn't sound right. Then there it is, right at the end of the paragraph. Talk about sh!t hitting pants! I need to go back figure out a new animal companion for my undead slaying ranger in Carrion Crown. My poor DM. We are overwhelming him, and this just made it worse.

I missed it too when I first got Sahrek. I read over everything again when Des leveled up and saw that the animal companion shares favored enemies and favored terrain. Sahrek became much more useful from a combat point of view.

Just a quick note:

Healing Nonlethal Damage: You heal nonlethal damage at the rate of 1 hit point per hour per character level. When a spell or ability cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.

So with 55 pts non lethal, I think we need to heal him more. Correct me if I have this wrong.

Nope, that sounds right. Not sure where I got the "gets rid of nonlethal" thing. Probably just one of those endemic mistakes people make.

You'll just need to heal him enough to get his nonlethal to be less than his current HP.

I'll update later.

So, I think I've finally convinced some of my old 4E group to try out Pathfinder. They don't have any interest in doing Society play - it looks like we will play exclusively on roll20.net - we all have kids and a regular meeting time that doesn't piss of the spouses is an issue.

My concern is, I have very little discretionary money to spend - and I will likely be the GM. I don't have the imagination to create a campaign. What is a good module/adventure path to start with?

I'm thinking of running Them through the first steps - they're free and they give a good overview of the rules. After that...I'm at a loss.

Any suggestions?

I am running a group IRL trough Reign of Witer. We are half way through book three and are loving it. Really great story hook and lots of fun NPCs to interact with (specifically they've loved Nadya, Hatch, Zorka, Ratibor the Bold, Gurragurra). We'd still got three books to go but I highly recommend it.

Crypt of the Everburning flame is an excellent introduction module. The premise is that all the PCs grew up together in the same town and need to go on "quest" for a transition to adulthood. It is a basic dungeon crawl that shines for different gaming mechanics (combat, traps, puzzle solving, etc).

It is part of a series of 3 modules. Having played and now running the 2nd part, Masks of the Living God, I do find something lacking.

I haven't played the last party, City of Golden Death

While brand new, check out Dragon's Demand. It goes from level 1-7, and you fight a dragon at least one along the way. Who doesn't want to fight a dragon?!?

I wouldn't start them off with a full on Adventure Path as that is a lot of time and effort to run. If people are enjoying themselves, you can always browse through the different AP and select one to your group's tastes.

Shan, so I'm a little unsure of how modules work. I see that 'Crypt of the Everflame' is for 1st-level characters, and Masks of the Living God is for 3rd Level.

If Masks is Part two of Everflame, shouldn't it be for 2nd Level characters? Because, I was under the impression that a module provided enough XP for one Level advancement.

I am likely mistaken.

You're right. That trilogy skips around. City of Golden Death (part III) is for level 5 I think. So you'd have to stick some stuff between each of them.

One last question, is the Gamemastery guide necessary if I only run published modules or APs? Or will the core rulebook suffice?

You can run the games under fast advancement, they might make it to level 3 by the end of Crypts. I haven't done the math to be sure. Or just level them 1/2 through the module to level 2.

That's what I decided to do since almost ever PC had a different account of what the XP total was.

City of Golden Death is for level 5 PCs.

Shan will scout out ahead, observing the unseen.

[dice=Stealth]1d20+9
[dice=Perception]1d20+15

Before Shan enters the glass show, he will request a tap of his mage armor wand on himself.

Ohh, a necklace of fireballs and a glass shop. Who's ready to let this motha sucka burn? ;)

Shan actually didn't have mage armor up for the restaurant fight, but he did request mage armor right before entering the shop. Therefore he should be good.

And Shan auto searches for traps within stonework, but I don't believe a 21 would have detected this trap. ;)