Something Wicked This Way Comes (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

I'm trying new things!

I've dabbled with Roll20 as a player, but this is the first time I've actually put together any content with it. The learning curve isn't too bad.

So, this is the map of the Horn of Abbadon that the GM linked us earlier. It's huge. I've labeled everything important we have discovered so far and I'll continue to update it as we go. Since the map is so big, I recommend using the tool bar to view it at about 40%

There's something screwy going on with my ability to upload tokens, so right now, Haruk is the only one in the party that shows up so he represents the whole group.

I have the caverns below done as well, but I can only put us on one map at a time. Next time we go down there in game I'll change the map.

https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/2779916/something-wicked-this-way- comes-a-way-of-the-wicked-campaign

^ here is the game page link without the invite thing. GM, if you want to put it in the campaign info so it shows up at the top of the page, that would be awesome.

Very nicely done Xanos!! Thanks buddy!!

Done.

Thanks for doing this! I admit I am mostly just waiting on something to fight--there are just so many rooms that I experience information overload otherwise.

Yeah, there're definitely some of that in this section. My suspicion is that the author wanted to give GMs the option of either "getting on with it" or populating the dungeon themselves.

In a face to face game, it would be pretty easy to slap the map down and say "here's what you find, and maybe put sticky notes all over with some basic descriptions. That's what I would do in a home game, so I thought I'd basically do the same thing with Roll20. It's a pretty easy program to learn. Tonight I'm going to try to figure out why uploading the PC tokens didn't work last time.

I've played through the end of this exploration section and into the beginning of the next part. I feel like it's pretty obvious at this point that this will be our base of operations for a while, so I wanted to make a To Do list and ask a few GM questions just to get that ball rolling. I'll make another post for that stuff for ease of tracking.

Having a notated map will definitely help with that. I haven't played this far in the series yet, so it is interesting to think we will spend some time here. Hopefully we will find some cash to support some crafting during that time.

Here's my To Do list, so far. Ca anyone think of anything I've missed?

1) Destroy Mitran Shrine
2) Fix Golem
3) Renovate Tavern/Forge/Lab
4) Fix pit traps
5) Get book out of wall
6) Read Journal of Zander Trask
7) Arm and armor Boggards
8) Animate Treant and Minotaur
9) Renovate defenses
10) Figure out Thrones/words
11) Recruit minions
12) Contact the 7th Knot for supply delivery
13) Seal hole in wall
14) Figure out giant magic gem
15) Recruit/Capture/Train guard monsters from surrounding forest.

Having a notated map will definitely help with that. I haven't played this far in the series yet, so it is interesting to think we will spend some time here. Hopefully we will find some cash to support some crafting during that time.

This leads into my next item on the agenda-

GM, assuming we can come up with some cash, would you be alright with us buying an Adamantine pick and shovel, and a Lyre of Building?

I want to make some alterations to the structure of this place.

Maybe make use of the downtime rules?

Also, while I've played in several WotW as both Haruk and my necromancer Veldrin, I've never actually escaped Branderscar, except one, and that game ended right after the like next scene.

So, all of this is new to me :)

I think I've been in somewhere around 10 versions of this AP now. Most of them died in Branderscar. Some got to Ballentyne but died off during prep to siege the fortress. One made it slightly further than we are now.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I could run the first book of this AP without actually using the book. >.<

@Xanos: Basically any item can be procured via the Baron, or just by ordering it from standard merchants. Specialty items will just take time to arrive.

@all: Without giving too much away and ruining the fun, yes the PCs will be stuck in the Horn for an extended period of time (months) and you will very much want to rebuild the defenses. You can definitely take advantage of downtime activities or crafting.

Does gradually turning a tribe of boggards into vampire thralls count as crafting? :)

More seriously Sariana has nothing to contribute on the crafting front - she'll be more use on manual work/exploring jobs into the surrounding forest etc.

(And when do we get 7th level? I want more vampirism! :D)

Well, for some reason I can no longer edit my avatar. The Change key just recycles the page and tells me that "the name is in use by someone else."

Soooo, I'm switching to a different alias rather than argue with Paizo's tech support about it.

The concept for Xanos was originally as a character for a Hyboria game (the Conan setting). Xanos was an ancient ancestor of Thulsa Doom.

That game ended and I recycled the name and concept for Way of the Wicked. When the recruitment thread went up I decided to drop the "Doom" thing because it was a little too pretentious and I thought it might hurt my chances of getting into a game. So I made another avatar.

Now, you're stuck with me so I can be as pretentious as I want. So, Xanos Doom is back.

On the up side, I got all the tokens working on Roll20. Even added Albrekt's Aura of the Grave and the burning auras of the undead boggards. All 50 of them.

Xanos, Xanos Doom, Xanos' Left Hand...

OH GODS ITS ANAXIAN ALL OVER AGAIN!!

Sheesh, no. I came up with Xanos first.

Anaxian is like Xanos squared. I like Fanguar and would not want to inflict that upon him. I don't even want to inflict that on myself again. It was a fun experiment, but I've learned to enjoy simplicity.

Edit: Now that I think about it, Anaxian is really more like Xanos cubed. There were a whole lot of that little dragon.

Here's my To Do list, so far. Ca anyone think of anything I've missed?

1) Destroy Mitran Shrine
2) Fix Golem
3) Renovate Tavern/Forge/Lab
4) Fix pit traps
5) Get book out of wall
6) Read Journal of Zander Trask
7) Arm and armor Boggards
8) Animate Treant and Minotaur
9) Renovate defenses
10) Figure out Thrones/words
11) Recruit minions
12) Contact the 7th Knot for supply delivery
13) Seal hole in wall
14) Figure out giant magic gem
15) Recruit/Capture/Train guard monsters from surrounding forest.

I can't think of anything else to add at the moment. I could probably take a point next level in Craft (trap) and be able to repair some of what we found.

If we're making this a base, it's time for Rose to create a proper temple for her goddess.

Not much to add - perhaps a hidden crypt to allow the vampyr's to nest and recuperate.

Albrέkt has some basic skills in Crafting Weapons from his mortal time as an armiger - he could assist in arming up risen dead and their boggard minions etc.

I'm sure there will be more things to add as we continue exploring this place. Once we fix the forge, Albrekt can start making gear for our minions. That and the alchemy lab should probably be priority one. Rose has laid claim to the mitran shrine room for her goddess, so I'll mark that too. If there's any other rooms people want to claim, let me know.

For now, I'm going to start on my renovation planning. I'm going to start with the first floor and Boggardland. I'll map my proposals in bright purple to make it really obvious.

My basic ideas, just to kickstart the discussion are:

1) Use undead/boggard labor to dig some tunnels connecting the pools of water. Boggards are amphibious. Having them be able to move4 around their territory in underwater tunnels would make them incredible ambushers. The aquatic terrain rules are very generous to creatures attacking from water. We'd be stupid not to take advantage of that.

2) Traps in the caves. There's a bunch of unused space that's just begging to made nasty.

3) The entrances note that there are arrow slits. I've added them, but we need more defenses. I want to knock out a few walls and add a few in other places to turn the main entrances into horrible shooting galleries.

4) The 2nd floor water fountain area is Thunderdome. I want to make it so that's the only way to go, and anyone that gets there get's mobbed.

I'm sure there will be more for the upper areas, but that's a good start. Thoughts?

Nice ideas Old Vun.

1) Very sound stratagem. Equipping their skirmishers with weapons such as Kumades and blowguns (w/ poison darts) would be canny.

2) Regards traps - Albrέkt would lean toward something simple like a Tainted Water Pit Trap and my personal fave The Changing Pit Trap. {Love me a pack of festerog's lol) - The latter "corpse pits" would also provide Albrέkt with nest sites (which in turn could give an additional surprise/caution to anyone stirring the contents...)

3) Shooting galleries are indeed a killer. If we can recruit some henchmonsters/folk with an natural aptitude for sniping so much the better.

I was planning on using Bloody Skeletal Archers for that. They're surprisingly effective and can stand guard forever.

Given that this place should play to our strengths... Sari would be best somewhere with lots of cover and obstacles, especially once she picks up Spider Climb next level! :)

I'm not going to be much help with the renovation side of things - I could scout the area though.

GM, can you please remove my original Xanos alias from the active players list?

I soo wish I could go off on Al in game about how not that great his goddess is, but in game Haruk doesn't nearly as much about her, the planes, and such as Monkey does....

Don't play that game unless you want Xanos to take the ball and run over every god with it. :)

I mean, let's be fair here.

Xanos is a PC. He is cool, and powerful, but he is no god.

You would get squished by an Infernal Duke, let alone any of the demigods or actual gods.

Nice ideas Old Vun.

1) Very sound stratagem. Equipping their skirmishers with weapons such as Kumades and blowguns (w/ poison darts) would be canny.

We did find those poisonous fish in the caves below. Perhaps we can harvest the poison for our guardians to use. Wait, it may be dangerous. Let's have some of the boggards do it!

Sacrificing Minions: Is there any problem it can't solve?

I mean, let's be fair here.

Xanos is a PC. He is cool, and powerful, but he is no god.

You would get squished by an Infernal Duke, let alone any of the demigods or actual gods.

Oh, sure. I was mostly just talking about Haruk wanting to get educational about how much Urgathoa sucks. Xanos feels that way about all of them.

He's basically George Carlin as a necromancer.

I soo wish I could go off on Al in game about how not that great his goddess is, but in game Haruk doesn't nearly as much about her, the planes, and such as Monkey does....

Hehe. Please do, Haruk might just be fed up of Albrέkt being such a blinkered zealot... However as a zealot its not like any intelligent deconstruction will make a dent ;)

On the flipside Xanos can dismiss the influence of all gods and demons, but when we have living embodiments of their bloodlines, faith and risen servants stalking our ranks, then he's more likely to be written off as the crazy old naysayer...

@Molesbar: Aye - forgot about the fish - good call.

Given that this place should play to our strengths... Sari would be best somewhere with lots of cover and obstacles, especially once she picks up Spider Climb next level! :)

I'm not going to be much help with the renovation side of things - I could scout the area though.

I wouldn't sell yourself short. As the commander of the boggards, you can make a lot of those chores happen. The boggards can clean out some of the places we want to renovate, and they may be able to fix or set traps and other defenses. You can help recruit more boggards from the swamps to swell their numbers. You can use them to procure "food" for you and Albreckt, and to capture and train guard monsters.

haruk, I think 2-20 is just a long hallway. It's a continuation of where you and I are now. We've probably already walked the length of it while doing our research.

Check your map. 2-20 is labeled 'temple' and according to my devil it's similar to the one downstairs.

This is what Fang said:

Temple similar to that you found on level one. There is also a throne in it. The walls are decorated with elaborate murals.

Oh, I saw "elaborate murals" and thought that was where we were. Nevermind.

Wee heads up Knotters - been in discussion with GM-Fang o'er Albrέkt's archetype - which from a flavour sense "Seal Breaker" was a great fit - but had no real crunch relating to their purpose of being dedicated to finding and destroying seals that bind ancient malevolent beings within forgotten tombs.

We discussed possible mechanic tweaks, but to little clear decision.

However I came across a 3PP archetype which our unholy overlord has agreed is a better fit and provides something different in fetid flavour (and keeping a distinct link to our current quest):

As such Albrέkt will soon be reconstituted as a Hand of Pestilence...

... hope you've all had your inoculations ;)

What's Hand of Pestilence from?

And why not Daemon Knight?

How many feats does it take to become a full-fledged vampire? What are you doing with the rest of your build?

@Haruk: Hand of Pestilence archetype is from the aptly titled Ultimate Evil which I'm trolling through at the moment. Its not

Not familiar with Daemon Knight? Where's that from?

@Xanos: We've couple of feats still to gain: The Initiated @ 7th level (or above) and True Vampire @ 9th (or above). Not planning on changing anything major on the build - it was more an issue with the archetype that got the wheels mulling between GM-F and myself.

Daemon Knight is from Heralds of the Apocalypse.

@Xanos: We've couple of feats still to gain: The Initiated @ 7th level (or above) and True Vampire @ 9th (or above).

We are so close! So close!

Let me just say, when Molasbar is crafting it won't all be paper mache decorations for Asmodeus Day.

Too smart by half (orc)... ;)

There will also be paper mache decorations though, right?

Of course! It wouldn't be Asmodeus Day without them!

And before Albreckt asks, he CANNOT be in charge of filling the paladin pinata. I can't imagine what would shower out of it... :P

To Albrekt and Sariana, paladins are already pinatas. Delicious candy, splattering everywhere.

To Albrekt and Sariana, paladins are already pinatas. Delicious candy, splattering everywhere.

They taste really sweet - but their insistence on wrapping the pinata up in metal does make the breaking part harder...

Just a wee heads up to GMF and my fellow Knotters - me and the missus are heading off to Dubai for the festives with my bro-in-law and family from this Wednesday.

I'm not back until the 30th of Dec, and while I hope to post if/when I can, I've no idea on how often I'll manage

I'll hopefully get some posting done tomorrow, but we've a busy run-up until the flight Wednesday so wanted to give everyone the heads up now.

GMF please DMPC Albrekt as necessary - I'm sure the rest of the group will enjoy the respite from his pestilent zeal while I'm on my wee sojourn :)

Regardless have a hope everyone has a superb festive holiday when it comes - looking forward to continuing our evil adventures into the new year!

Cheers!

Oh, no! Without Albreckt, who will smear feces and gore all over our new base of operations?!!? ;)

Have a wonder time in Dubai! I hope all goes well, and I look forward to having you back in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the heads up. Have fun.