[AP] The Shackled City Adventure Path by GM Rutseg (Inactive)

Game Master Balacertar

Congrats Lil' Miss

Just give us a shout when the housewarming party is :)

Seconding the congrats! New house, new creaking sounds, new shadows in the corner of your eye, all on Halloween... brilliant ;)

The back half of the year is going to be interesting, as I'm getting ported places, in spot weld travels over weekends. I'll do m'best to keep up with you chittering kittens, but soldier on, despite my spottiness...

Slammed at work at present - 2020 offshore service budget estimates eating up my time, normal service will hopefully be resumed by weekend.

I am a bit confused if you first want to visit your acquaintances and loved ones or first you want to invest some hours on research :d

Marigold can go either way; was waiting for a little additional input from anyone else though before committing to one or the other.

So...any super-specific questions we want to research? I'm assuming that we're making Knowledge checks for these (I think?) so Marigold can easily roll her own checks or help someone else with an Aid Another.

*edit* JJ, I think you might've missed it but we actually rested 'overnight' on Occipitus before teleporting back to Cauldron.

oopse. Gota read more carefully.

@Gang: Just a wee heads up that I'm off down to Edinburgh (Auld Reekie) tomorrow for a couple of days catching up with an old buddy.

Back Friday but likely (a little) worse for wear. Anticipate normal service will resume o'er the weekend.

Please bot me as necessary :)

Thanks for the head's up Maxim. Have a good toast at your health and old friendship!

I will wait to see what all research before summing up a first round of information. If I have to bot Maxim on this, I likely accept suggestions from others in the group to remain neutral, as I would know what is relevant or not otherwise.

Long knowledge post is coming.

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes...

You are starting to match pieces of the big picture, keep it going :)

About demodands, each type of demodand has its quirks, but some relevant generalities mechanical-wise are they require good magical weapons to be damaged, which is no problem for this group, are immune to poison and have SR and some varied spell-likes.

As about the undead dragon research, did you have into account the library +6 in your roll Kikinnin? If you all want to invest an extra hour on that research before going to drink, you can attempt both arcana (because of dragon) and religion (because undead) to try guess what might it be and important information about it.

I figured Kikinnin wouldn’t benefit from the +6, if he’s not picking up the books ;)

Kikinnin is encouraging the research, but only himself lends the +2 Aid Another.

Great! Thanks Kikinnin. Of course there is nothing in-game that stops Kikinnin from picking up books from the library and reading them, I understand that is a character-wise decision.

I don't want to disturb the current conversation about the relation between Carceri and the Cagewrights by introducing the undead dragon topic. But please, give me a main roll for that to which Kikinnin efforts will then contribute. Remember, either arcana or religion are valuable here

Marigold did came up with a very interesting post reference on Kaurophon information release. Good catch ;)

Air Walking to the City of Lost Wages for the weekend, starting tomorrows. Will bring a Chromebook, and will mull over posts, should the muse speak to me during less addled states. Bot as necessary.

Enjoy London.

Hey guys, I'm headed off to AVL Scarefest tomorrow and won't be back until Monday. While my time isn't booked solid I have no idea what the internet situation will be so my posting here may be slow or nonexistent until I return.

(I wanted to try and make one round of updates tonight but noooooo, internet is not being cooperative and my patience is limited.)

So, please feel free to bot Marigold as necessary, if necessary :)

Enjoy the travels and scary sights folks (I speak of London lol)...

With regards to the loot - am thinking Lil' Miss should snag the Scrolls of Flame Strike and Plane Shift? Former can damage the dragolich... second one is a contingency escape plan (shift to Occupitus?)

Maxim is grabbing Mirror Image (can cast it as a 3rd Level spell) and the Wasp Poison... have some pitted bullets that are beggin' to be filled with venom ;)

Once everyone's picked o'er the bones I'll offload and we can start looking at sourcing items - Skie's always a good start, but with the stakes this high best we explore all options (churches and the like).

As you are 4, I can make Ryan NPC to move along with you and set a camp near you, so you can count with easy access to breath water and other healing as if he was still with you.

Those of you who are traveling... have a nice trip! :)

I do not object to Ryan anchoring us somewhere, with another caster to blink us into the clear, should things go south...

Successfully accessed our hotel wifi :) With a new Chromebook, I might actually be able to post here and there... hehehe

We might want to also do some research on getting a fork for caceri. That might take some time to find, so if we could leave folk working on it while we head off it may save us time later. I think sooner or later it sounds like we will end up there.

When do you get a new 5th level spell Marigold, I'm thinking plane shift is going to become your new favourite spell for getting back home again.

I am fine with leaving Prof. Juraan charged with looking for such a fork-like object.

Do you want to research any more bit of info in the library or shall we move the scene to the tavern while you finish sorting out details about the equipment selling/buying and spells/gear preparation for the research of Karran-Kural?

Kikinnin wants one last dive into the Invisible Mark sported by Marigold et al. It might be too cryptic to uncover, but Bluecrater is a great roll of the dice.

Wrangled some free time tonight!

Marigold will take the scrolls of Flame Strike and Plane Shift.

(She'll gain another 5th level spell next level and can add Plane Shift permanently then.)

Um....there's not really much else on the Unclaimed tab that she could make much use of; she doesn't have Heavy Armor Proficiency so can't use any of the various magical plate armors we've found. I suppose she could maybe take the +1 Light Shield since she rarely needs to try and use her longspear these days?

I'm also fine with taking just a little bit longer to try and research the strange Mark before we advance the action/scene a bit.

I'm back from beautiful Montreat, NC!

(Technically I got back late Sunday night but I had other stuff come up that kept me busy most of yesterday.)

Had fun at the convention but it has been SO nice to sleep in my own bed again :)

Hey DM, will look things over tonight. Thank you once more for the invite!

Based on character levels looks like I would need to move up to 12th, likely going to stick with straight Cleric as that was the original idea from inception with the character.

*gasp*

New Person!

Hello New Person! :D

Hi Kythel! Welcome to the campaign.

I am sure you have noticed I have not pushed the game too much as of late. I wanted to make sure you did not leave to new adventure before we have at least a party of 5.

Kythel was playing on a Shackled City campaign that closed 3 years ago while they were stranded in Occipitus. Thus, he is mostly aware of how the campaign works.

Moreover, his character was a cleric of Pharasma on that campaign. That gave me a good introduction to your campaign while preserving for him the opportunity to play his character until the end of Shackled City.

We still have to sort out the details, but basically Kythel has been sent from Sasserine to investigate about the recent events in the Cathedral of Wee Jass (Pharasma). After some divinations that point out to your group, he will find you in the next scene.

Its up to you to handle how all the scene will happen. But I can foresee after an initial confrontation you are probably able to convince him about the truth and he will most likely motivated to put an end to the guilty ones that forced anathema into Pharasmas church.

Understood! Welcome aboard, Kythel :)

Sounds like our GM took it upon himself to orchestrate an alignment of the constellations. Plucked a cold star from the sky, and set it alight in our world, where I hope it will burn brightly of creativity, and feel like it's found its way home.

Welcome, Kythel.

Welcome to the party Kythel :)

Welcome to our poor, benighted city.

I hope you have a cape and mask

As there is a TON of history in a 10,000 post game, just few quick questions:

1. Is the World of Greyhawk or Golarion?
2. If Golarion, where is Cauldron located vis a vis the rest of the world?
3. Should I assume that any prior play of Kythel did not exist in the campaign he was in and is now just getting involved in the events of SCAP?

Thanks!

We are using Golarion deities, although with local names (i.e. Greyhawk names).

Given we have not travelled far afield (apart from other planes) the issue of larger geography has not come up for us.

Believe the word is as the AP detailed - Greyhawk by any other name? We've know of Sasserine and other city/areas/regions nearby, but like JJ says nothing wider than that.

With Kythel hailing from Sasserine, he could easily be "out of the loop". Interestingly we've crossed swords with assassins from that city (and also heard of some folk fleeing Cauldron to there - would be interesting tie in if Kythel is aware of/has some history there??)

1. It's Golarion, but we are using the Greyhawk original names of the deities as local naming convention for their churches. You can find an equivalence in the player's guide.
2. It's one of the islands near the Eye of Abendego. Which one exactly should not be relevant for the course of the adventure. The climate in the area is matching with the jungle environment of the adventure outdoors, and I think to remember the Sasserine region was set in a similar remote island on Greyhawk.
3. I think it is better if you use prior play as player knowledge for an easier entrance into the campaign, but you adjust your character background as not having participated directly in the events as that would break the sense of belief for the other players. An option might be you have had a series of dreams or visions at the time you were investigating that might provide the campaign knowledge to your character. Another option would involve String Theory and the multiverse but I think it would end being more complicated for everybody... xD

Kythel has little in the way of magic items, should I take any or leave him as is?

With regards the Loot split: everyone gets 11,202.50GP from the latest cache (have worked off the assumption that Kythel will be included in the next round of treasure-divvying?)...

We have a "Commons" total that is available for the group's running costs/collective research/whatnot. Currently sits at 16,997.50 Gold - sure any sortfalls for Kythel could be covered with that once he's part of the gang :)

@Kythel: Other considerations - Maxim can enchant weapons are armour to +1 (he's 1 Caster Level away from enchanting to +2). Can do that relatively cheaply so if you end up being strapped for coin bear that in mind :)

Edit (Gentle Reminder): Before I "wipe" the current loot - please update your sheets with anything claimed :) Cheers Quartermaster Maxim

As always, thank you for the bookkeeping, bror.

I debate whether we're tapping the 'Commons' for our gearing up to get into Karran Kural.

Reminder minded- added Cloak of Resistance +2 to last Hero Lab stats/inventory

@Kythel, the campaign is also low on magic equipment. Feel free to expend 40,000 gp starting gold on any corerulebook equipment. Once you join the party and Maxim shares coin or equipment with you as he suggested, you are free to also expend that money.

The level increases sound all good. That Water domain sounds it will come of use pretty soon to bypass Karran-Kural flooded entrance ;)

@All, remember there is a 4800 gp limit for available items. If you need more expensive items, you can check Skie's Treasury catalogue, or otherwise order stuff from Sasserine. The normal time for orders is two weeks, but through magic sending and Maxim's Prime subscription trait the time is reduced to only 3 days for you.

I don't think there's anything else on the 'unclaimed' list that Marigold could really use at this time; I added those two scrolls to her sheet earlier.

After looking at my equipment I realize that I don't think I ever applied that Cloak of Resistance +3 to Marigold's sheet *or* her stats! Note to self: check/update HeroLab when you get home in the morning.

Happy Halloween! The temperature tanked here today; it was mid 60s when I got home from work this morning and now it's mid 30s and spitting precipitation.

Brr!

Oh and as of 2:30 this afternoon we officially own our own (and first) home. Can't move in just yet as the sellers requested another two weeks to get moved out but still - we own a home :D

New Feat: Homeowners(Teamwork)

Prerequisite: Down Payment, Masterwork Mortgage Papers

Benefit: After attuning for two weeks, whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you receive a +2 competence bonus to your Weather Defense, as well as Adulting. This bonus increases to +4 if the house has all four walls and a roof, on the same plane.

That line reminds me a bit of a tramping hut I stayed in once, with two and a half walls and a bit of a hole in the roof.

Iron roof, that condensation ran down, hit the beams and then dropped onto the poor sleeping folks sleeping bags. I woke up with stripes of dampness across me.

Still, beats being outside... well, it was kinda outside now I think about it... but...

Thanks guys! There's still a lot to do but we're really happy and really excited :)
______________

In other news, I updated Marigold's sheet & saves to reflect the Cloak of Resistance +3 that I'd totally forgotten about - d'oh!

If the above payout of 11,202.50 is still correct, that puts Marigold's personal cash total at 15,932 and some change. Still thinking on what she might want to pick up from Skie's.

Congrats Lil' Miss - enjoy the new abode :)

Amount is indeed correct - I'll belay leaving Skie's incase yourself or JJ had some purchasing orders for me to pick up.

@JJ/Marigold: If either of you want me to snag something from Skie's then drop ii here in the OOC and we'll presume I got your item(s) as well as me bror's.

@GMR: I've some other role-play to complete with Skie before I head back to the group with any acquired items :)

Congrats on the new home!

I am going to finalize Kythel today and update the character sheet today.

Loot sheet is now cleared and Kythel added to the roster for divvying up - welcome to the Cauldron Watcher's Benevolent Fund :)

Kythel, let me know when you are ready and I will proceed to introduce your character.

Do any of you have any petitions/suggestions? We can make it here in the temple, or we can make Kythel approach the group in the street, in a tavern or on Cauldron outskirts as you walk to your new destination.