GM Kamro's Curse of the Crimson Throne

Game Master overlord_laharl

You have to believe, Marvel. Just believe. Then you can fly, you can fly, you can FLY!!

*shoves off cliff*

...Wait, had Shaeda throw the dust on him yet? Oh...

We need a new Wendy on the set here! Take two! And someone grab that belt off his body. It was borrowed.

Hey! I wasn't even done celebrating that Marvel survived the encounter with Gobblegut :-(

In other news - I've reached the conclusion that my research is boring. I'm combing through bibliographies today, searching for interesting sources and developing a headache.

The bloke I'm sharing an office with? He is on his way out to buy a protective suit, gas masks and the like, while worrying about whether his students and he will be alive tomorrow and if they are alive then if they are hospitalized. They have had a 2 month long experiment which just failed, and apparently in the cleanup process they have a high likelyhood of developing chlorine gas!

MY biggest worry is how to keep my theoretical framework under 20 pages so I can get it published.

You should tell him that he's lucky an alligator hasn't tried to eat him alive after having to crawl through a ship of human killing house spiders and only just having found your daughter in the clutches of a dwarf and half-orc only a few minutes ago. That man lives such a mundane tame life.

MY hand? No, no! Aerel is the one with the long hair and he's melee - he'll make a far better Captain Hook!

I need both hands. Spells don't work as well if you don't have fingers for the somatic components. A hook could be used to pull a bowstring back, though...

Also, wow. That's kind of terrifying. o_o

We should let the gator live. Maybe we can awaken it at some point! :D

Awaken it, then bring it to trial for all of its consumption of children as a sentient being.

The last time I told other people about my adventures while explaining they are real, men in white coats came after me :-(

I need both hands. Spells don't work as well if you don't have fingers for the somatic components. A hook could be used to pull a bowstring back, though...

Rather difficult to hold the arrows with a hook though.

In regards to awakening it - you do realise that with how Gaedran has been feeding it drugs the first thing it'll do is to search for a dealer once its awakened?

Good point... We can follow it and hunt them down one by one! Shiver will be off the streets in no time! Ingenious!

Huh. Waitaminute... how the heck is Marvel a lawyer with a -1 to Bluff?

No one said he was actually any good at being one.

He is good at the paperwork, procedures and knowing stuff. Less so at the theatrical bits in court, appealing to feelings and such :-)

He is good at the paperwork, procedures and knowing stuff. Less so at the theatrical bits in court, appealing to feelings and such :-)

So an intern. XD

Nah - more of the boring, bookish type, thriving best behind his desk rather than in front of people. Order, discipline and predictability - rationality, not all of this feely, wishwashy intuitive stuff!

It's kind of a shame that we don't have anyone more willing to say we ought not to donate all the treasure to the children's care - there's something moderately unwholesome about it, from an OOC perspective. xD

I've updated the loot sheet with all the stuff you've found, much of which is art objects that will need appraisal.

I've also included a link to a handy map of Korvosa on the campaign tab.

And in case you didn't see the message, everyone is now level 2.

Oh, good. Would you like us to post what we've changed here?

I can't quite remember - do we roll HP or go for average HP? :-)

Oh, good. Would you like us to post what we've changed here?

Sure, especially if it's anything I may need to look up (weird feats or obscure spells and such).

I can't quite remember - do we roll HP or go for average HP? :-)

* HP: Max + Con for 1st level, 1/2 HD + 1 + Con for subsequent levels (so d6=4, d8=5, d10=6, d12=7)

Awesome, thanks :-)

Aerel got:

+5 HP

+1 Fortitude
+1 Will

+1 BAB

Spellstrike Supernatural ability.

Skills (5 from class and int, 1 from favored class)
+1 rank of Acrobatics
+1 rank of Spellcraft
+1 rank of Knowledge (Arcana)
+1 rank of Knowledge (Planes)
+1 rank of Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
+1 rank of UMD despite not having a Charisma modifier, it's trained only, so...

Background Skills
+1 rank of Perform (Dance)
+1 rank of Lore (Korvosa) Assuming Kamro thinks that that's fine - personally, I'm kind of... eh, about the idea, because what else is knowledge (local) supposed to be but this?

Spellbook
Thunderstomp
Obscuring Mist since we might want to do sneaking again, I thought it a good idea...

He also got +1 cantrip per day and +1 1st level spell per day, but he can't use those until tomorrow, one assumes.

I am a little torn on the spells. I can get a combat spell = shadow trap, Hideous Laughter,

utility spell = [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/comprehend-languages]Comprehend Languages, Cultural Adaptation

I like all the spells for various reason. But I am not sure what I want yet. I have to go to work though. If anyone has a suggestion I am open to listening.

Background skill
Sleight of Hand +1, Appraise +1
Skills
Bluff +1, Escape Artist +1, Knowledge (Engineering) +1, Knowledge (History) +1, Knowledge (Local) +1, Knowledge (Nobility) +1, Knowledge (Religion) +1, Perform singing +1, Stealth +1, UMD +1

BAB +1, Reflex + 1, Will +1

Not sure which versatile performance thing I want. And my spells are not done.

Comprehend Languages is handy, especially as Emma's an intuitive caster - she doesn't need to encounter the language, sleep, then cast it, for instance, if we come across any ancient inscriptions or something. Mind, if we do, given that we're in Varisia, it'll probably be in Thassilonian, which... Sparrow speaks, for some reason. xD

Cultural Adaptation... it might be useful, if Emma wants to fit into the various subcultures of Korvosa - the high class Chelaxians, the lower class Chelaxian-Varisian mixes, the occasional Shoanti subgroup...

Shadow Trap looks like it'll be hellishly useful for those of us who practice more mobile styles of fighting - Aerel can dance around, Marvel can shoot things if they don't charge him, etc.

Also, as a side note, I feel like Emma should take Lamm's magical dagger, or his - wait, it was a hand crossbow, and Bards aren't proficient. Never mind that last.

Hideous Laughter can be pretty useful, too.

The dagger was more an RP than something Nicholas will actually use, so if anyone actually plans to use it, ask away.

As for Thassilonian, Nicholas is just awesome like that. :D But really, I saw it as a language he might have picked up from the many strange connections and items Gaedren had and his position of helping to decipher stuff, just like his local knowledge skills (which is a +10 now!).

Oh, Lamm's dagger and the key dagger are different, I think. One's not magical, and key shaped, addressed to some father or another, and the other's a +1 dagger.

Oh, Lamm's dagger and the key dagger are different, I think. One's not magical, and key shaped, addressed to some father or another, and the other's a +1 dagger.

Yes, the one Lamm had one him was a regular +1 dagger.

The key shaped one is just masterwork.

Okay. Keeping the key dagger then if no one wants it for actual use.

But, but, think of the children! 150gp will feed them for a long time! And clothing!

The brooch will probably set them for life...as long as they don't become adventurer. And anything with a description like that must be a key item to some plot point along the way.

I'll probably level up on Sunday, if that's ok. I'm resuming GM'ing Wrath of the Righteous tomorrow with lots of tweaking and additions from my side, so I need to focus on having that ready for the group.

That's also why Marvel's posts haven't been all that descriptive these last few days XD

So, from what I can tell, there are five orphanages in Korvosa - I'm tempted to roll for Aerel's knowledge of them, but each one has its quirks, and those with better Knowledge (local) or Diplomacy than Aerel may wish to investigate about them, once we get out. First, though, I believe it was getting dark when we entered, so you may want to consider that Zellara's house is relatively close by to the Fishery, so spending the night there is an option.

I still advocate for the Calistrian priesthood for some of them!

So I don't mean to sound obtuse when Shaeda says she's done, but my assumption is that the AP has some compelling thing to pull the group back together.

A group of total strangers, brought together for the purpose of avenging loved ones and their own grievances, would not naturally have some altruistic reason to need to avenge the death of the dead Harrow woman, nor to look into the oddness of the dagger or stolen crown.

Marvel's whole purpose is to get back to his family, and the death of Lamm pretty much satisfies all of our bloodlust. Even the death of Lamm likely avenges the dead Harrow dealer. Shaeda certainly seems to think so.

Anyways, Shaeda is leveled up! She added no loot whatsoever from the adventure, believing she didn't get involved for personal enrichment, it was to redress wrongs.

Actually it depends on he person. Emma would want to return the brooch because it is the right thing to do and if she can get a favor out of it all the better. The dagger could lead to the removal of a cereal killer and Emma would at the least want it given to the guard. But they are inept so she may look into it herself. And the Harrower is an odd circumstance. Curiosity pulls at her to know what happened.

I get it that some will, but the AP can't assume that everyone will be so altruistic.

There will be a reason to stick together, I'm sure. There usually is, that isn't just... GM/player fiat. That said, I think there's more than one - I think that one of them is the assumption that PCs will want to know why Zellara is dead, and why she contacted them without letting them know that.

Sticking together typically falls on the players.

Emma, do you want the new wand of magic missile, or should Aerel take it? You've got UMD now, and a decent Cha modifier (unlike Aerel), so you could probably make it work on a fairly regular basis.

My players just killed a nascent demon lord and an ancient dragon in normal combat, and something like 144.000 demons, with an army of just over 7.000, losing 15 men, in mass combat. They were supposed to be the diversionary attack, draw the attention away from the main attacks and then flee once a certain amount of time had passed. I rolled my dice more than 200 times in the battle - 7 times I rolled higher than 12. They, on the other hand, got 17 - 20 constantly AND the casters decided to use stuff like tsunamis all the time while the ranged characters and paladins assassinated all the demon (balor) generals in the first two hours of the battle.

I don't think I've ever been this tempted to cheat on my dice rolls XD

Wraith of the Righteous?

Yup. Although what we played today isn't in the AP - a bit of an extra in between module 4 and 5, letting them see some of the results of their work so far :-)

Noice. I'd love to do Wrath of the Righteous someday. Do you find the mythic stuff hard to balance? I played in a Runelords game once with a little mythic thrown in to make up for the party being small, and we wound up way too powerful. Does it work better in an AP designed for it?

Mythic is something I never really got into - I mean, I know why it exists: so that players can play big important stories even at low levels (like saving the world or something), whereas normal play usually builds up towards that potential. That said... I'm not terribly engaged with it.

I would be fine taking a wand.

Mythic is a little difficult to balance for, though that might be due to my doing this from scratch. I am running a homebrew game with the mythic rules. Action economy is weird. With the right abilities a melee type can basically decide to get two full round actions and the same for a caster. I have heard that the Wrath of the Righteous needs to be modified but I have yet to get to play it.

Honestly it depends on the players. Some of the mythic spells can get insane, especially the utility spells. If the players only pick the overpowered options then yeah it looks like it.

I have found that describing what happens when they use their mythic powers has curbed their use of it in every fight. They know that they will catch a lot of attention using their powers in public fights. It seems to add a bit of tension.

I didn't like mythic so we don't use the system. It seemed way too overpowered and reading the forum for Wrath that seemed to be the general consensus as well. I opted to go for a few stat increases instead and have been largely roleplaying the mythic bits so far, with a few added abilities. One of the PCs is able to grant his worshippers first level clerical spells and hears their prayers, two others just started hearing prayers, and cosmetic stuff like halos and funny and circumstancially useful abilities, like being able to see gas (minus the normal composition of the atmosphere).

Even with that their opponents so far have been underpowered as written. I've addedd two advanced templates to all normal opponents and one of the members here on Paizo's forums has a brilliant reworking of boss encounters, which has meant that a good few battles have been challenging. Don't' want to think about how much I would have had to rework with the PCs being mythic as well - just the artifacts PCs receive and the insane amount of loot is enough really.

That said I just implemented my own version of mythic last session.The AP as written doesn't have many chances for Mass Combat, so I decided to promote the PCs in the military hierarchy of the crusades (only natural with their mythic deeds and singlehandedly turning the tide), allowing them to decide on tactics and leading battles either by telling me what they do or playing out the battles, depending on what they feel like. Borrowing from some of the older lore (Sigil and such) I quite like the idea that belief shapes reality, so I've given them some Mass Combat mythic abilities, which are "powered" by the faith of those they lead, the different power levels being activated depending on how many people "believing in them" surround them (not a requirement that they worship them). The mythic abilities I've given them depend on their personalities - the archmage being very much of a prankster and often playing out fart based jokes gained the ability to see gases, and all gas based spells gain extra properties in mass combat as well as the ability to teleport armies through gas fields, while it's become a bit of a running joke that the cleric (only joining the group recently) is that "other guy with the heroes no one remembers", him therefore receiving the ability that any demon seeing him in a mass combat situation must save or be confused, wondering who on earth that guy is. Demons in Mass Combat are insaaaaaanely powerful (and many!) so they need the power boost to even stand a chance in mass combat - provided I roll rather more normally than last session XD

So, our current issues come from the fact that we want to bring our prisoners along, keep the children safe, and investigate the whole... "questgiver was a ghost" thing.

I don't have a solid idea of what we ought to do, so I'm just going to lay out our possible relatively short term goals.
1. Zellara's House, both as an investigation of her nature and as a place to stay with the children where it's relatively safe.
2. The Longacre building or Citadel Volshyenek (the Guard's Headquarters), so we can drop off our prisoners.
3. The various orphanages, because it seems like our characters don't actually know where they are, only that they exist.
4. The Sanctuary of Shelyn, to return the abalone holy symbol.
5. Castle Korvosa, to return the newly widowed queen's brooch.

Aerel will also want to go visit the South Shore to see if his people are in need of aid, but that's just his personal goal.

Marvel would like to get to his wife and son as well, which we also need to do in order to not walk around with his daughter for our various quests :-)

But I don't think it would be a problem to take the prisoners along for the night. They should be unconscious for a while, someone will be keeping guard anyway and we managed to beat them when they were at full HP, had weapons and armor and were not tied up.

Aerel's reluctance comes more from awareness about boundaries - it's just impolite to bring prisoners into someone else's demesne, really (from his perspective). Even though Zellara is dead, it's not right to bring murderers into her home, to his mind. Mixing the outside, dangerous world with someone's personal sanctuary is... off-putting, to his mind.

My RotR game is going great. I've added a few more goblin events in there for hilarity, because they're fun to play with. Now the group is connecting every little event into a massive overarching plan of the goblins to accomplish a great evil...and this is before the Glassworks in book 1. I can't wait until we reach the Skinsaw Murders.