GM Ladile's League of Kick-Ass Dudes: A Pathfinder Society Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Lady Ladile

Internet was down for the past 2 days at the dig site. Up now and will post...

Hey-ho, I'm working today so updates will happen a bit later this afternoon/evening :)

So, Happy 4th of July guys! I'll be around tomorrow but don't feel obligated to post; post if you feel like it and have the time and I'll respond but if not, then no worries :)

Also...allow me to say that while we're approaching the end of this scenario we aren't quite done yet... :D

Hey folks, as we're staring down the oncoming Faithless & Forgotten Part 3: The Infernal Inheritance I've started giving some thought as to what scenarios I might run for this group once we wrap up the trilogy. But to help narrow things down a little, it'd help if I had an idea of what levels/tiers we'd be looking at when it's all said and done.

I know Eric Swanson wants to bring in his sorcerer Wadi, who's 6th.

If I remember correctly, Lazarus will jump to 5th after the third scenario + the application of some GM chronicles.

Meredith is already 4th level and may or may not jump to 5th after finishing the third scenario.

Frankie will hit 3rd level after this scenario and be at 3.1 after the third scenario finishes.

Jan is currently 3rd level but I'm not sure if he'll hit 4th or not by the time we're done with the third scenario.

Brayden will hit 2nd after the third scenario is done.

Dalen would also hit 2nd level but I believe the plan is still for Adam (Dalen's player) to swap out and Eric to swap in after we finish, since Adam is also playing at the lower-level TL;DR table.

Sooo...that's potentially a rather large level spread. Thoughts? I'd rather not have anyone feel forced to slow-track or swap characters but there'll likely have to be some finagling done in order for all of you as players to be able to play. There *are* some older 1-7 scenarios as well as more recent 3-7s I can look into, though that might get a little dangerous for our lower-leveled characters if we end up playing some of those at high-tier. Another option might be for me to run some modules and just fill in the gaps here and there with scenarios as I can.

Not trying to be a worrywart or anything about it, just trying to plan ahead so I can budget the time/resources to properly prepare (and get some preparations done in advance, such as maps) :)

Meredith is at 9 XP now, she'll hit 10 after this and be at 11 XP once the trilogy is over (assuming I don't do a slow progression).

Some of this relies on Frankie- Meredith has really good chemistry with him. So if he leave, Meredith will gladly join him.

But if we all stick together, Meredith should play at a slow progression rate. She would be at 10 XP at the end of the trilogy. We could play more level 1-5 scenarios with level 4-5 encounters but with the 4 PC adjustment as needed.

The only other PC I've got free right now is Zavubak, who's level 3. Zav has some chemistry with Frankie and Meredith from playing Wounded Wisp. I believe Erlathan is continuing with Larry's next game (if I remember correctly?), and Tiffany's playing throughout Gameday. However, Serge ought to be freed up soon and he will be Level 4 after that game.
All that to say - I'd gladly bring Zav and Serge along if it helps smooth out the level curve.

@Meredith - That's definitely an idea. I'm admittedly a little fuzzy on how the different adjustments work but that's a thing you can do - play the upper tier with a 4 player adjustment, even if you've got more than 4 PCs?

@Brayden - Okay, good to know! I'll wait to see what everyone else has to say but I appreciate you being okay with swapping characters if need be :)

I have plenty of PCs at lower levels I can substitute into the party, so Frankie-Meredith can keep their thing going.

I love playing Lazarus, but I'm sure I'll have another opportunity in the future.

Here's the calculus:

DETERMINING AVERAGE PARTY LEVEL

In order to determine which subtier a mixed-level group of PCs must play in, calculate the group’s Average Party Level (APL).

APL = sum of character levels/number of characters

Divide the total number of character levels by the number of characters in the party, rounding to the nearest whole number. If the result of the Average Party Level calculation ends with 0.5, the players should decide whether to round up or down.

The selection of pregenerated characters might affect the APL. In some cases, there is one pregenerated character level that is clearly more fitting to the PCs' levels, such as when all or most of the PCs fall in the same subtier. In corner cases, the GM should choose the level of pregenerated characters to provide a fun and fair experience for her table.

Scenarios in Seasons 0 through 3 were designed for four characters. For these scenarios, if the APL is 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.

Starting with Season 4, scenarios were designed for six characters and contained methods to adjust for tables with four players. When the APL of a table is between two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario), a party of four characters must play the lower tier without any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven characters whose APL falls between two subtiers must play the higher tier with the four-character adjustments found throughout the scenario.

In the fringe case where there are no PCs that are high enough level to have reached the subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd-level characters), the group can decide to play the lower subtier.

^If it's possible to have levels 2nd through 6th in a group and do a few high-tier 1-5s with a 4 player adjustment then that'd be the easiest thing to do for sure.

(At work, more later!)

Jan will be 4th level when this scenario is concluded.

Ya Frankie is definitely a pair with Meredith and his bestie Denair. I wish he was a tad higher but alas no such luck.

We could consider one of the Tier 1-7 scenarios from Seasons 0-2. If we play subtier 3-4, anyone below or above the subtier would earn out-of-subtier rewards.

A tier 1-5 scenario wouldn't work, if one of the PCs is level 6.

TIERS AND SUBTIERS

Roleplaying Guild Scenarios are designed so that players of a variety of levels can participate in a given adventure together. Every scenario has a tier range and many have associated subtiers. Tiers indicate which character levels are legal for that scenario. If a PC’s level does not fall within the tier, that character cannot legally play in that scenario.

Wow, reading comprehension fail on my part. No worries though, I'll check the tracker a bit later and see if there's any 1-7 or 3-7s we can squeeze into :)

Yeah, I'll be bowing out after Part 3 of this. Dalen's going to be way behind and to be honest, I'm probably stretching myself thin with the games I'm in.

It's been fun so far and I hope that one day I'll be able to play with you guys again.

Well, there's still one more scenario to go...not to mention there's a whole lodge of PFS players and GMs right here on the forums if you ever get the hankerin' to do more than just my games :)

Also it looks like GM Red will be swapping Brayden out for a character slightly higher in level once we finish the trilogy; while I only saw one 1-7 scenario that no one in the tracker group has played, I counted about thirteen 3-7 scenarios that could be done (not to mention there's several 5-9s and 7-11s too once the group advances a bit further) and so I think that's what we'll do....though we may still do the 1-7 too just to knock it out! Here's the list of 1-7s/3-7s:

#0-24 Decline of Glory
#3-08 Among the Gods
#4-23 Rivalry's End
#5-99 The Paths We Choose
#6-19 Test of Tar Kuata
#7-02 Six Seconds to Midnight
#8-02 Ward Asunder
#8-19 Treacherous Waves
#8-23 Graves of Crystalmaw Pass
#9-02 A Case of Missing Persons
#9-05 Call of the Copper Gate
#9-09 Beyond the Halflight Path (3-7 evergreen)
#9-15 The Bloodcove Blockade
#9-21 In the Grandmaster's Name

Jan, please let me know if you've already played any of these since you're the only one I don't have on the PFS Tracker. Everyone, please let me know if you're planning to play any of these in the future. Thanks! :)

I've played 8-23 before. Sorry I didn't mark that down.

I played 6-19 in CORE, and I've GMed 8-02. I've played 9-09 but that's an Evergreen.

No worries, Meredith! I'm also fine with folks burning replay options and/or playing in something that they might've played in CORE; I've gamed with all of you enough that I trust you to avoid metagaming :)

As long as no one has playd #9-09 with these particular characters, we'd be good to run through it ourselves. I'm curious about running it anyway after having played it with Corona at DieCon last month!

Also, I'm off work today but do have a lunch to go to and a couple of errands to run after that so I'll get updates here (and elsewhere if we share games) probably sometime early this afternoon :)

My Replay star recharges in November so I may be able to use it then.

Thanks for reminding me to update my player and GM sessions on PFSTracker.net (I just now finished doing so).

Wow, it's been a while.

(I use a google doc spreadsheet to track things within my local F2F community, and I'd forgotten about PFS Tracker. It's a great website tool.)

I wouldn't mind playing #9-09 again, especially if you're going to be the GM. My recent experience playing it was a big disappointment. I'm adding it to my list of repressed memories.

I'm playing Half light path at present with HMM as our fearless, kobold harrying leader. The rest I have no played.

Okay cool beans; I'll check the tracker again in a bit and see if things have been narrowed down any further now that a couple of you have updated some things.

As best as I can tell, Halflight Path has several potential 'arcs' built into it and so hopefully even though some of you have played it on other characters I can hit something that you've not seen yet :)

Still happy to play the evergreen #9-09, but I took a closer look at the list you put together. (Thanks for that!)

Of the scenarios you listed, I've neither played nor GM'ed #4-23 Rivalry's End (Tier 3-7). Despite mixed reviews, it sounds very interesting. If anybody can make an imperfect product better, it's you, GM.

I've GM'ed #3-08 Among the Gods (Tier 3-7) and #7-02 Six Seconds to Midnight Tier (3-7). I'd be happy to play either one, though some people like to play #3-08 as part of the "Among the ...." arc, including #7 Among the Living and #49 Among the Dead.

I'd like to steer clear of any non-evergreen Season 9 scenarios until after August, because I might end up playing them at Gen Con or Dragonflight.

I've already played the rest of the scenarios on the list.

^Not a problem, Lazarus! Thank you for the note about #3-08 Among the Gods - if it's got ties to previous scenarios then we can skip that one unless there's no other options for play.

Looks like the recent updates (and the request to hold off on Season 9 stuff until after August, which is fine) we have:

#4-23 Rivalry's End
#7-02 Six Seconds to Midnight
#9-09 Beyond the Halflight Path

Still enough to bump people up another level and open up more play options, which is all we really need :)

Since I'm feeling froggy and have the time, we've also got the following for options further on down the line:

By the way folks, bear with me a little bit as we wrap up the scenario - while I know that some of your characters (*cough*Dalen*cough*) might want to take matters into their own hands in trying to track down and rescue Zefiro...you might want to report back to the Society in Absalom first. Especially since they might be able to offer some help on the matter...*whistles*

Honestly, Dalen wants out of Cheliax as soon as possible. She's not about to try storming that castle by herself.

And we are officially done with Part 2! I'm currently at work but I will get your chronicles up tonight. I'm also going to take some liberties with the 'end' of Part 2 and the beginning of Part 3 to hopefully make things flow a little better.

Thanks you for another great adventure, GM Ladile. Looking forward to Part 3, ready as soon as you are.

Lazarus Logos will still be level 3, no major purchases planned.

Okay, so noted and glad you enjoyed it! And speaking of chronicles, here (again) is the information I need from each of you:

***Basic Information Form***

This Chronicle #:
Starting XP:
Initial Prestige:
Initial Fame:
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle:
Starting Gold:
Day Job Roll:
Gold Spent on this Chronicle:
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

Most of this I can simply find by referencing your chronicles for Part 1 sans purchases and special notes but I decided to paste it all again for simplicity's sake.

How soon will folks be ready to start Part 3? Lazarus is good to go anytime; what say the rest of you?

Player: Larry Smith
Character: Lazarus Logos
Pathfinder Society Number: 67083-24
Faction: Scarab Sages
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 16
Starting XP: 7
Initial Prestige: 2
Initial Fame: 14
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 697gp
Day Job Roll: NA
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 40gp to copy Resist Energy into his spellbook.
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle: No

Question: Did we recover any scrolls or spellbooks in this scenario? (I'll check myself, but I thought I'd ask.) I always like to spend the gold necessary to scribe such spells at a discount.

*EDIT* Looks like we found a scroll of resist energy. Lazarus will attempt to copy the scroll to his spellbook.
Spellcraft DC17 to copy a level 2 spell into his spell book.: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Having succeeded, he'll pay 40gp (the cost of materials) to scribe the spell in his spell book.

Player: Chadius
Character: Meredith Ulmari
Pathfinder Society Number: 133608-6
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 10 (for Part 2)
Starting XP: 9
Initial Prestige: 14
Initial Fame: 18
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 3342
Day Job Roll: Profession (Farmhand): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 GM Reroll +1: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 4 + 1 = 18
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 1550
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:
Did I achieve this faction goal? If I did, please note it.

Defy local law or tradition in a way that assists you and your allies without endangering the mission or threatening innocent lives.

Player: GM Red
Character: Brayden Valdrin
Pathfinder Society Number: 205498-17
Faction: S. Court
Slow Track or Normal: Normal!

This Chronicle #: 3
Starting XP: 1
Initial Prestige: 2
Initial Fame: 2
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 526
Day Job Roll:
Craft (Weapons): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
I don't think I used the reroll, but I will go to my post history after this and confirm, and edit this after.
Craft (Weapons), Folio reroll, 2 stars: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 2 = 13
I did use it! Go with the roll of 8, GM.
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle: GM Star Replay

Player: Massee
Character: Lil Frankie
Pathfinder Society Number: 202046-1
Faction: Liberty's Edge
Slow Track or Normal: Extreme!

This Chronicle #: 6
Starting XP: 5
Initial Prestige: 4
Initial Fame: 10
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 661.4
Day Job Roll: Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (14) + 13 = 27
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 80g
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle: A+ Pathfinder Extraordinaire.

Okay! The game is reported and I've got everyone's chronicles more or less ready except for Dalen's and Jan's. Since I believe Jan and Frankie will both need to level up as well, I'm happy to give you guys a day or two to get all of that done before we start Part 3. This works out for me anyway since I work again tomorrow and Monday. We'll tentatively plan to start Part 3 either Monday evening or Tuesday if that will work for everyone :)

Oh and the APL calculation (once everyone levels up) will be 2.67 which rounds us up to 3 - putting us out of subtier for both the 1-2 and the 4-5 subtiers. Since we've got 6 players, this means we'll be playing high tier with the 4-PC adjustment - just a FYI :)

I'm back. I am so sorry I fell off the radar, but I was in Bulgaria this last weekend and although I had internet access, I was unable to log onto the Paizo website. Why? Who knows... I am back in Romania and everything works fine.

No worries, Jan! Will you need some extra time to get ready for Part 3 since you're traveling?

Player: Adam Warnock
Character: Dalen Stonestep
Pathfinder Society Number: 26828-9
Faction: Shining Crusade
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 3
Starting XP: 2
Initial Prestige: 2
Initial Fame: 4
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0
Starting Gold: 1050
Day Job Roll: Profession(Brewer): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 88
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:

^Noted and thank you. I'll get the chronicles posted tonight after work!

By the way, while we're taking this short breather, I do want to solicit some feedback regarding the 'dungeon' section of this scenario:

Were room descriptions and such easy to understand?

Was the manner that I used to present possible items/locations of interest - the 'If You Look at <X>' spoilers - easy to understand or too confusing? Was it too 'meta' for anyone's tastes - you'd rather try to figure out on your own what to look at next time?

I ask since the majority of the scenarios I have ran to date have featured outdoor combats or single-room encounters. This was my first 'dungeon' proper and I'm still working on my dungeon-fu skills :)

Honestly, I think things were fine. I'm not much for dungeon crawls as a GM, so I don't have much to say. I found things easy to follow and understand, so hopefully that helps a little.

Putting the spoilers was in a good idea. This is information we would remember if it was in the last hour, but since this is PbP it's been weeks, so our memory is flakier.

This dungeon was pretty linear, but for more complicated dungeons we should have a Standard Operating Procedure.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun!

My compliments to you, GM, and to all the players, for making a dungeon crawl interesting to me. (Popular with many gamers, I've never quite acquired the taste.)

Until Meredith mentioned it, I hadn't realized that we'd never actually set up a door entry or room-clearing SOP, which is so fundamental to most successful PbP dungeon crawls.

I think it's to your credit, that your ability to paint the picture each step along the way enabled the PCs to react without even realizing an SOP would be helpful. We just reacted in-character, saying and doing what seemed appropriate in each setting and situation.

The spoilers summarizing the clues (with invaluable hyperlinks to the specific posts) we'd picked up along the way were really helpful, making it unnecessary to scroll through pages and pages of posts hunting for things that were relevant. I really appreciated that, and I plan to adopt a similar technique when I'm GMing.

Once again, kudos for your great execution, possible because of the time and effort you put into preparation and the creativity you display responding to each of the PCs.

Well then, I'm glad that my execution seems to have worked for everyone! You guys setting up a SOP for future dungeon-delving would definitely be appreciated by me - especially since we're continuing on to other adventures after Part 3. And I'll keep on doing what I've been doing :)

I've also found that as a player (and now, as a GM) that IC chatter among the characters can also make dungeon crawling more entertaining and less tedious. Really enjoyed the interlude with the card game, for example!

Hokay, I've got everyone's chronicles ready but Jan's. You can find them >>here<<. Please let me know if there are any corrections that need to be made and I'll get you an updated chronicle as soon as I can.

Regarding the boons on the chronicle - the Imperium Initiate boon is earned by exploring the last big room in the temple, where you fought the serpent effigy. That one is basically a group boon. Archaeological Expert is an individual boon based on whether someone was able to correctly suss out (by making the required skill check) the various pieces of planted archaeological evidence throughout the upper part of the ruins.

(Spoiler Alert - As some of you surmised relatively early on yes, the site was altered with imported Taldan relics to strengthen Cheliax's claim to the region and shut down Rahadoum who would really like to have their province back.)

Rereading to double-check, Jan was the only one to actually make a successful check to notice something amiss (with the altered buildings). For whatever reason, noting the shard of Taldan pottery up top in the entrance where you fought the skeletons doesn't count and I narrative-nudged Dalen's reveal of the illusionary statue so that doesn't count either :\

Jan, I still need all of the above information for your chronicle when you get a good chance :)

Imperium Initiate
Your study of Jistkan ruins and golems has taught you a few tricks for handling the supernatural soldiers of ancient Garund. You can cross this boon off your Chronicle sheet before casting a spell to make it especially effective against constructs and divs. Those creatures take a –2 penalty on all saving throws made against the spell for 1 round. Alternatively, you can cross this boon off your Chronicle sheet as a free action to treat the hardness and damage reduction of all constructs and divs as 5 lower against your attacks for 1 round.

The chronicle sheet looks good to me, thanks GM!

Looks good. Thank you, GM.

Did a quick check and looked good, I'll double check it tomorrow night when I've got more time and can level up the little fella!

Player: Adam Warnock
Character: Dalen Stonestep
Pathfinder Society Number: 26828-9
Faction: Shining Crusade
Slow Track or Normal: Normal

This Chronicle #: 4
Starting XP: 3
Initial Prestige: 4
Initial Fame: 6
Prestige Spent on this Chronicle: 0 (so far)
Starting Gold: 1492.4
Day Job Roll: Profession(Brewer): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Gold Spent on this Chronicle: 1460 gp
Anything else you want me to note on your Chronicle:
Bought:
Mithral Shirt - 1100 gp
MW Greatsword - 350 gp
10x Durable Arrows - 10 gp

Sold:
Studded Leather - 12.5 gp

Would it be possible for me to buy some cold iron and silver durable arrows in bundles of less than 50?

Alas, I don't think so but I'll try to check again to make sure.

Also since I know Frankie's player has been busy as well as Jan's, I'll push our start date back a little further to Wednesday; I'll begin the mission briefing and opening section at least.

Hey folks, got called in to work tonight on somewhat-short notice so updates here and elsewhere will be delayed a bit to either later tonight or tomorrow morning.