The Slumbering Tsar Saga (Inactive)

Game Master Something Wicked

Perched on the verge of the war-torn wasteland known as the Desolation stands a settlement of dire reputation. Known only as The Camp, this wretched collection of criminals and scoundrels, the desperate and the hopeless, all eking out an existence on the far fringes of civilization make this truly a place of new beginnings and horrific endings. Now things stir within the Desolation and call to heroes seeking secrets and treasures lost to the knowledge of men. The promises of reward dare the brave and the foolish both to seek their fortune in The Camp—out on the very edge of oblivion.

Building a Character:
-Starting Level: 7
-25 point buy. Your lowest stat, after racial modifiers, cannot be below 8.
-Races: Core preferred. Others allowed with compelling justification.
-Classes: any Paizo. Summoners must be Unchained. No guns, though the Bolt Ace archetype for Gunslinger is allowed.
-No Third Party
-HP: max at first level, ½ +1 thereafter.
-Starting Wealth: 23,500
-Alignment. Any, including evil; however, I expect party cooperation and cohesion. If you are evil, you should think about ways to promote your character’s willingness to be part of a team.
-Deities: Any Golarion or Lost Lands. Our campaign exists somewhere in between these two universes.
-Traits: Two
-Unchained Rules: background skills, VMC
-Encumbrance: not tracked, within reason. Sometimes I may require justification as to how you’re going to transport heavy items.
-Reflavoring: I enjoy creativity in reflavoring abilities to suit your character’s concept. The literal wording of descriptions is subject to liberal interpretation.
-Maps: Roll20 (with mobile access)

There are myriad reasons why a party of adventurers might come to this locale to test themselves against the challenges that await.

1. To Boldly Go: The Desolation is a largely ignored and unexplored wasteland where two massive armies virtually smashed themselves to pieces. Those who have braved its depths have hurriedly passed through studiously ignoring the battleground around them and the ruined city it surrounds. Surely something of value remains to be gleaned from such a cataclysmic conflict of old. In this instance, the party, having gained enough power to attempt it, can be one of the few to have ever tried plumbing the great unknown that is the Desolation. Most have deemed it too dangerous or devoid of anything of value, but there are always legends of some great knight who fell on the battlefield clutching his powerful sword that was never recovered or some powerful wizard whose mighty staff disappeared in the melee and must still be lying out there somewhere. Perhaps the party just wants to be the first to have successfully braved the farthest corners of the Desolation and lived to tell of it. Parties of a less lawful bent might be interested in the rumors of burial mounds that were erected for noble warriors who fell in battle and were interred with portions of their riches.

2. Trail Blazers: A party of this level has many connections gained over their career. One of these, a merchant-lord and sometimes patron of their expeditions, has his eye on the lucrative trade of the distant north. There are fortunes to be made but the risks and expense are too great to make caravans through the Desolation worthwhile. However, if a party of proven adventurers could tame the area and open a safe trade route, a monopoly on the new route could be established and a fortune made by all. Maybe he wants someone to clear the monsters out of the Desolation altogether, or perhaps he just wants a safe route to be found that can easily be controlled and kept secret. Either way such an endeavor has never been successfully accomplished, but if the right group could be persuaded to undertake the task…

3. Land Grant: Rewards come in many forms to parties of successful adventurers, not always just heaps of gold and magic items. For the successful completion of a recent mission a king has bestowed upon a member of the party noble title and grant to land at the farthest flung reaches of his holdings. The land just so happens to be in the Desolation. The party must come to the Desolation to try and not only bring order to the Camp but tame the wilds of the Desolation as well in order to establish their fiefdom. A variation on this theme is that a newly ennobled baron has just received such a grant and needs to hire a party of adventurers to reclaim his lands for him. Perhaps minor titles and land grants await them if they are successful.

4. Save the Forest: If the party is of a more naturalist demeanor (druids, rangers, barbarians, etc.) they could come to the Desolation in order to erase the centuries-old blight from the lands. Common wisdom says that surely some source of evil taint remains to keep the land corrupted, so if such a taint were discovered and removed the forces of Nature could begin their process of rehabilitating the accursed ground.

5. Sleepless Knights: A cleric of Muir has located in the temple archives a set of orders issued by Zelkor during the Battle of Tsar that somehow survived and were transported back to civilized lands. These orders detail the assignment of the paladin lord Bishu and his company,
adherents to the faith of Muir, to hold the city of Tsar and await relief from the Army of Light. Lord Bishu was always thought lost in the Dungeon of Graves like the rest of the Army of Light. The fact that he never returned and the possibility that he or some of his command may have survived for some time at Tsar holding to their duty has ignited the church hierarchy. What did Bishu accomplish during his time in the city? Do his bones, surely now sacred relics of the church, still rest there awaiting repatriation? Could he or any of his knights somehow by the grace of the gods have survived all the intervening span of years and man their posts still awaiting relief? The church cannot afford to send any of its own on a possibly foolhardy mission into unknown danger with only a small hope of success, but adventuring parties are often to known to undertake such assignments.

6. Sinister Secrets: Zelkor was not the only one suspicious of the disciples’ sudden withdrawal from the city after the Battle of Tsar. The record of that event is well-known and has been pondered by many since that day. Was it all just to trap to destroy the Army of Light at Rappan Athuk? If so why not reoccupy Tsar, a vast and defensible temple-city along a lucrative trade route, instead of settling for a dingy hole in the ground in some far flung forest. Could the entire withdrawal and debacle in the Forest of Hope have been a ruse within ruse to draw attention away from seemingly abandoned Tsar for some other, altogether unguessed reason? Questions such as these and more have been on the minds of the patriarchs of the temples of Thyr and Muir for some time. Now they wish to send in a small group to infiltrate the unplumbed ruins and discover what sinister secret may have been kept so well for so long. This hook works well with parties of a noble or holy content. It could also be used in conjunction with Adventure Hook 5 above.

Level 7! Gadzooks. Anybody have any strong ideas out the gate what they want to play? How many PC's we fielding?

I'm shooting for five PCs--that's comfortable for both players and GM. Any more or less and things can get awkward and overly-complicated.

Class choices are completely up to you all, but note that the challenges of this campaign warrant a well-rounded party. I always suggest The Forge of Combat to those who haven't read it.

How would you feel about a Inquisitor with the Heretic/Monster Summoner archetypes?

Hmm Monster Summoner? Do you mean Monster Tactician archetype?

Sorry, yes: Monster Tactician.

Wow the monster tactician is powerful! And both are fine!

This just caught my eye as I've never had the chance to play Tsar. Is this a private game or is there a recruitment thread somewhere?

Hi EJC, rappan athuk still misses your Good Thomas.

Hi Wabbit. Unfortunately this is a private game for the time being, as I wait to hear from invited players.

I completely understand. Happy gaming ;)

Hi EJC, rappan athuk still misses your Good Thomas.

Hey Wabbit! I miss Good Thomas and the fun we had at the start of that game. Pity it turned to grindery for my tastes. Hope you guys are having a blast over there!

Hello all and thanks for the invitation.

I have some ideas but often like to see what others are making before I settle on a class unless something just clicks and makes me think wow that'd be a lot of fun to play. Clerics, Fighters, Bards and Wizards are common choices for me I'm interested in a lot of classes and more important roles to help the party.

Hey! Just noticed the invitation. I'm still on my vacation, but as seeing as I'm home, I've got some time to look at things.

I've wondered, and pondered, but I think I'll settle for a particularly insane alchemist build I've been waiting to unleash.

Hello all. This looks fun. Thanks for the invite!

Im pretty flexible in terms of classes. I'd like to try a straight arcane caster class, as I haven't tried that, but am open to whatever for the group.

I'll go ahead and lock in on a dwarf Inquisitor Heretic/Monster Tactician. His weapon of choice will be his longbow which he calls 'Tsar Bomba'.

An inquisitor, an alchemist and an arcane caster of some kind possibly. A straight fighter might work out quite well with the group. Probably human.

I'm going to avoid my usual rabbit hole of getting tied down to a weapon with weapon focus and specialisation etc. I'll lean towards heavy blades but will adjust to what we find during the adventure as to what he will wield.

I think I'm going to go witch. Why? I'm not sure, but I am going to cackle.

Going with a human fighter. Neither his main weapon, shield or armour are metal... because I don't like rust monsters!

Awesome, I look forward to seeing him dishing out pain on the field (and maybe taking some in return).

Still waiting on the fifth invitee to check in. Once everyone's built and ready we'll get started.

Decided against witch, and went with classic wizard, which I've never played. I still have to fill in some details, skills, and spells.

Hi all. Thanks for letting me in on this game.

i'm thinking a paladin. yeah, I know, stick in the mud, but the combination of combat prowess, healing ability, and their effectiveness against evil and undead in particular seems... like something we'll need.

if the GM or any of the players prefer not to have a paladin around, then I'll think of something else.

Thanks Wicked DM for extending the invite to Jack.

To his point, are there any going Evil in the party?
Just because, Paladin gonna smite.

Welcome! A paladin will no doubt prove extremely useful.

So a fighter, paladin, inquisitor, alchemist, and wizard. A very balanced group!

I'm not going evil anyway. Some kind of good or maybe neutral.

Going for kind of a professional monster hunter vibe. He's got bear traps, smoked goggles and various bits for fighting monsters with odd abilities. He's on the more resilient side the offence for a fighter but has a wide variety of weapons to get past damage reductions.

Oddly good at stealth despite the armour (+12 modifier in full plate with a shield!), quite good at social situations (except the lying bit) and spotting things. I've got a rank in all the knowledges (his varied monster hunting experience!). So he can definitely contribute outside of combat... smashing things can be fun but if it's all your character is doing to contribute it gets dull.

@The Wicked DM I got a dusk lantern from adventurers armoury 2 and have paid for an extra everburning torch, can I say I paid some wizard to cast continual flame in the lantern with these costs?

@The Wicked DM: The 6 scenarios you began this thread with do not seem like background story suggestions for individual players, but scenarios to choose among by the party as a whole. Is that so?

@kevin: sure

@sub: yes, but I have no preferences and these are just suggestions. Basically you should have some reason for risking your neck out here.

I'm a little confused about how choosing spells known works wen not starting at level 1. There are the two new spells each level, and I would probably go through sequentially, mimicking each level progression, choosing spells. But this process ignores that through normal adventuring, the wizard will have picked up and transcribed a few scrolls along the way, and his spellbook would probably be a bit larger than the minimum.

How do you want to play it?

This can be done easily enough. There's a cost for scribing spells into y our spellbook, you can pay other wizards (basically 50% more) to get access to their spellbook to let you copy that spell from their spellbook. The spells known added from leveling up don't cost anything to scribe.

Cantrips cost 5gp to scribe so a total of 7gp 5sp to copy total.
1st level cost 10gp to scribe so a total of 15gp to copy total.
2nd level cost 40gp to scribe so a total of 60gp to copy total.
3rd level cost 90gp to scribe so a total of 135gp to copy total.
4th level cost 160gp to scribe so a total of 240gp to copy total.
5th level cost 250gp to scribe so a total of 375gp to copy total.
6th level cost 360gp to scribe so a total of 540gp to copy total.
7th level cost 490gp to scribe so a total of 735gp to copy total.
8th level cost 640gp to scribe so a total of 960gp to copy total.
9th level cost 810gp to scribe so a total of 1,215gp to copy total.

You can scribe spells of a higher level than you can cast but aside from maybe one level above I wouldn't bother.

There's a wondrous item called a blessed book that lets you scribe spells into it without paying the cost for scribing (but you still have to pay to get access to the other wizards book), so a 4th level spell going into it would cost 80gp. A blessed book costs 12,500gp. Remember each spell takes up a number of pages in the spellbook equal to it's level (minimum of one so cantrip don't do zero pages). The blessed book has one thousand pages, so if you get it put your free known spells from leveling up into a regular spellbook.

Useful spells for protecting your spellbooks. Book ward lasts a day per caster level so is a very nice spell to protect them from a water, acid and fire. Secluded Grimmoire is a useful first level spell for hiding your spellbook.

Consider buying a handy haversack or a bag of holding. Put your spellbook in it, it can't get wrecked by an enemy as easily if it's on another plane. I've played a little shell game before and bought an empty spell book to have out in the open, let them target that blank one while the real one is hidden in a handy haversack.

Sounds legitimate. Thanks for the advice about the haversack. and if DM Wicked approves that is what I will do..

In terms of crafting feats/Scroll Scribe and starting wealth..can a wizard get cheaper cost for scrolls of his own spells? I did see something about additional percent added to character wealth by level if having magic crafting feats.

Thank you Kevin for explaining that much better than I ever could.

I'm alright with you crafting gear, including scrolls, provided everyone's on board with that. It gives an edge to those who choose to take crafting feats. Realize that the campaign takes place in Camp adjoining a wasteland, which will necessarily limit your purchase options. However, once the party learns teleport, it would be simple enough to travel south to Bard's Gate, the nearest large, cosmopolitan city. Bard's Gate is a campaign setting in itself, with a dedicated tome of a source book. It will not be the focus of this adventure. We're here to uncover the secrets of an ancient, unspeakably evil city.

I've posted up top a couple of maps. One is for the Camp itself, and the other is a roughly sketched map that gives a general idea of the wasteland surrounding the city of Tsar.

This is a far cry from your typical adventure path. There's no plot through which you'll be railroaded. The exploration is the adventure, so it's important that your character have some motivation to remain despite the dangers. You'll get to decide where to go and what to explore, including the territory outside and inside the city walls. While the adventure begins in the Camp, it will be easy to inadvertently stumble upon challenges that will kill you. As the book says very early on, Players will die! Be prepared for this possibility, as it's part of the fun of this type of game, and have a backup character in your pocket at all times.

That said, despite Slumbering Tsar's reputation for lethal encounters, there will be opportunities for roleplay with NPCs and between yourselves. As much or as little as you like.

I'll just use the reduced cost for spells that I know, because that seems very reasonable, and wasn't actually planning on taking a crafting feat, at least not yet.

Just realized that I am building a wizard conjuror that plans to summon, but the monster tactician with the standard action summons kind of covers that.

hmm can't seem to get my dotted post to stick. maybe needs to be approved by dm.

Ulave (aka, xeyedjack)

Introducing Rurik Gorunn, my inquisitor heretic/monster summoner. I still need to work on his equipment, and I think I did a 20 pt buy instead of 25. But this is his rough build regardless.

hmm can't seem to get my dotted post to stick. maybe needs to be approved by dm.

Ulave (aka, xeyedjack)

This isn't on my end. It's probably the site glitching.

Rurik looks very interesting! I see some stealthy sniping action going on combined with teamwork feats for summoned minions. I can't wait to see how it will work.

Don't worry Sub, I'm sure the party will need all the summoned help it can get.

DM: Yeah it appears we could use a lot of summoning since Jack has built a Pally-blaster...two ranged will needs lots of allies up front.

Rurik: Interesting build. We are gonna go summon crazy. --I know its rough still, but thought I'd point out some things I see or have wondered about.

1. I see in your equipment that you have a +1 holy bow and boots of speed. If I've calculated the cost right, I think the +1 holy(+2) makes the bow cost 18k or so, and the boots of speed are 12k. I only noticed because Jack was considering buying similar equipment. and was asking me about it.

2. Can heretic and monster tactician combine? I am not that familiar with archetype stacking, but it seems that each modifies the same class features.

2. Can heretic and monster tactician combine? I am not that familiar with archetype stacking, but it seems that each modifies the same class features.

That appears to be a problem. Escape is a judgment, but Monster Tactician replaces judgment, so the feature becomes unavailable.

It's questionable whether they could. Hero Lab does not allow them to stack. If you look at Heretic, it only adds to existing judgments, but doesn't explicitly state that it alters or replaces that class feature. Howeve, the Monster Tactician's Summon Monster explicitly states that it replaces judgment. Summon Tactics replaces later advancements of that ability.

On the other hand, if you consider something like the Infiltrator archetype, its Guileful Lore feature explicitly replaces monster lore. Therefore, Infiltrator and Monster Tactician do not stack.

At best, Lore of Escape and Hide Tracks could combine with Monster Tactician, but the Escape judgment is off the table due to the Monster Tactician.

I'm fine nixing the Escape Judgement. No problem there. Weirdly enough, PCGen allows both archetypes to stack, but that's probably more on PCGen than being a comment on their true stackability.

Also, great catch Sub. My maths was off with the bow - I thought, "8,000 for the Holy attribute, plus 1,000 for the +1 = 9,000gp." Obviously not. Going to change it to a mere holy bow instead.

@Rurik it has to be +1 before adding holy to it sadly.

i think you can go to holy without the +1, so would be something like 8500 (100 base + 400 masterwork + 8000 holy). Still a little expensive for me, so went and chose a bane.

hoping i get the calcs right.

Sorry Ulave/Jack, I misled you yesterday. Kevin is right. I forgot. You can't add a special ability without first adding a +1 enhancement.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abi lities/

Anyone know if the alchemist build will be a bomb thrower or more mutation melee wonders.

Curses! Well, that frees up 8k for me to play with.

oh, curses indeed.

Character sheet should be finished. Lots of equipment purchased, holy bow is gone, regular +1 bow is in, and stats updated from 20 pt purchase to 25.

DM, how much by way of a background are you looking for?

Not too much. Enough to explain your presence. A paragraph is fine.

A very brief paragraph has been sketched. No sense in going crazy when Rurik will no doubt die within the first week of game play.

basic character up.

http://paizo.com/people/UlaveThePentinent

i still have some cash to spend on utility gear.

still need to figure out what some of the stats end up being.

for the life of me, i don't know why paizo doesn't use a fixed-width font for the text on the Profile page for the alias. Of course that's where people dump the stats