The Fall of Plaguestone

Game Master Kevin O'Rourke 440

Oh, we'll take it down. But then the real fight starts. I'm sure Vilree is watching from nearby and is losing her poop right now seeing us interfere.

Could be, but with a communicable disease like she probably is smiting the town with, she also might be far away so she doesn't get it. Story has to live up to the whole plague ideal, right? :)

A mad villain culminating her life work of revenge is going to be unable to avoid staying to watch the fuse burn down to the dynamite. Plus narratively we need a showdown with our bête noir.

Could be, but with a communicable disease like she probably is smiting the town with

The heroes can help save the day by teaching sound social distancing principles.

I think we can solve this with a quick paragraph.

"The heroes pelted the inhuman automaton until it fell apart. Then, after a good night's rest, instructions to the town about social distancing basics, and about 3 more levels, they returned to ransack the rest of the hideout. They found more improbable sharks, but this time they were ready for them, leaving them dead with a snicker-snack. They then found the clue leading to Vilree's new hiding place. They went to find her, attempting to talk her out of her revenge fantasy and encouraging her to commit to counseling. Unfortunately their compassionate efforts were only rewarded with violence, and they sadly had no choice but to kill her."

Ok so a bit less relevant to this game than most I'm in but still.

I've been kind of avoiding this for a while, I knew about a week or so back I really should get around to it but kept finding excuses to push it off one more day. For the last half a year or so I've just been floundering and then playing catch up every month or so. I hate abandoning groups but continuing as is isn't fair on people either. I'm going to be dropping out of all of the games I'm playing in and most I am GMing except two which are near the end.

The last year has thrown me out of routine with the games, the pandemic is bad enough but there's some personal stuff that looks like it's coming up that'll be making things more awkward. I've enjoyed GMing and playing but it's just not something I can do right now.

I'm going to try to wrap up Fall of Plaguestone and Rise of the Runelords.

I kind of want to buy some flasks and fill them with milk in preparation for the final battle. Milk bombs.

I juuuuust noticed we've been level 3 for ages and I never levelled myself up. I'm so on the ball these days.

Doing that soon. Tonight maybe. Just FYI in case you realize my numbers suddenly change. Haha. I'd rather not die this close to the end.

FYI, I am going to be on vacation from this Friday through next week. Feel free to bot me, or have my character get sick and unable to get out of bed, or whatever. :)

With two crits I think Vilree just put Sool down... feel free to bot Throkk this round Sool (I just give him +1 to his attacks and AC since he was never leveled up to level 3).

Probably not a good idea. I don't really know 2e rules well enough to play someone else's character effectively, I can barely play my own. Sool's corpse is going to melt beyond effective healing, so I think I'm just a spectator now. Good luck guys.

Honestly, I'm fine with just calling it as a TPK. If she does something similar to me, I'll die just as fast. Not sure we're able to triumph in this fight if one of us can die in one round like that... and honestly, the whole game seemed like the enemies were out of our league.

Ye should all have gained a hero point by this stage. I'd like to blame PBP but I find hero points/inspiration hard to remember to hand out. That'd mean Morson just gained two.

That's the end of the lions share of the adventure just a few loose ends to tie up.

Sorry the pace slowed down so much but I am glad we were able to rap it up and get some closure in.

My pace has picked up a bit with posting lately if that sustains itself I could run another adventure module if there is interest but I understand if not (especially with the posting rate on my end). Characters could carry over or fresh ones could be made as per each characters preference. Since it wasn't one of the first adventures written I am hoping the balance would be better and require less adjusting on my front.

Hmm. I'm in on another game if you want to DM one, and even willing to try 2nd edition again if that is your preference, but might make a different character. I really don't like 2e clerics... might have mentioned that too often, sorry. :) (Although if we switch to 1e, then I would be cool remaking Sazen as a 1e cleric.)

What were you thinking in terms of a new game?

I was thinking Pathfinder 2e again more than likely but if more people would prefer 1e I get that. The three action economy is great over all but I find a lot of people finding it a bit odd with casters (when in doubt reposition, shoot a ranged weapon/reload or recall knowledge I have found).

When I played a Cleric in 2e I went with a war priest, so as a front liner after casting a spell I was often taking a swing or raising my shield. It plays differently to 1e.

So here is the blurb for the module I was thinking of Malevolence:

"The house has stood abandoned on its lonely hilltop, brooding quietly over the ruins of a once thriving town for decades. No one has lived within its walls since the night a terrific storm flooded the coastal town below—and since a tragedy struck down the noble family that once dwelt within—but now, the mansion has attracted the attention of a curious group of adventurers. What is the truth behind the tragic past that empowers the evil that grips the mansion today, and what might happen to the world of Golarion if the sinister influences that grow within these haunted walls are allowed to build beyond the breaking point?"

Regardless of the edition I'd be thinking more along the lines of a module than a full on adventure path.

Sounds good. 2e is fine. I should probably learn it better anyway. Maybe a Thaumaturge. Seems like a good fit for a description like that. :)

I'm maneuvering myself further away from APs for play-by-posts in favor of homebrews and shorter published adventures. Considering that, and since I still haven't fully learned 2E, this seems like a good opportunity.

What level is the adventure for?

Maybe I'll play someone not grumpy or annoying, this time.

It starts at level three which is why some of the existing characters from this game could wind up in it... though there's a LOT more character options than when we started this!

There could always be a timeskip before the next adventure and we say Sazen has retrained into another class. Basically same character just with a few mechanical tweaks.

Yeah, sure! I'm in. I need a few weeks though to wrap up some freelance I'm pushing pretty hard on before I'll be ready to actually play. I'll keep playing Emri. I might decide to change her build a bit (her stance maybe). But I'll give it some thought.

Yeah, I'll tweak Sazen... keep the continuity going, such as it is.

Well, if we're sticking with the same PCs, I'll do the same. I'll re-build Morsun, though. I'll stick with Rogue, but probably change the focus away from the snares he never uses.

I'm also going to claim that +1 striking dagger.

Emri, do you want those bracers of missile deflection? They seem thematic for a monk.

I need to read up on PF2 mutagens. Can anyone use them, or only PCs with alchemy?

You guys seem to be settling in to Vilree's lair, I can adjust adventures to be localish, within a few days travel at least. Let ye go back to your new HQ between jobs and modify it to your tastes. Ye'd be big fish in a small pond as time goes by... assuming ye didn't just hermit crab into new bosses lairs that are cooler.

You guys could be hired to investigate the house in this ghost town. It's meant to be near Kintargo but I'm sure it can be reworked.

I'll double check with Throkk's player but I suspect the big guy'll be wandering off into the distance. I might poke one or two other people, but if anyone knows anyone that might be interested feel free to say.

Lets assume a six month time skip though we can work out any changes ye are making to the base. I'm fairly happy with letting you guys just rework your characters as much as you need though if you change your base ancestry at that stage it's just a new character... the specific subrace/heritage is workable mabye all of this exposure to alchemical substances awakens some ones underlying versatile heritage, for example one of Emri's eyes changes colour the first hint of her having a hag in the family tree.

@Morsun I think anyone can use them but you need to invest in skill feats to be able to craft them I think. The main perk of the alchemist class aside from bombs is just being able to make 'free' alchemical items that have a shelf life of until you rest.

@Emri no problem, you're clearly getting more work from Paizo these days! We all have crunch times. Worst case I can bot her in a fight and say she has a hoarse throat if we have start on another adventure.

Hey, what about that fire leopard we rescued? If I make a character that is able to have an animal companion or familiar, can I have that?

Is Sool sticking around? He's a really fun character and this is two years' worth of positive reinforcement shoved into one sentence to encourage him to stay.

I'm good with picking up one or two new characters. I also like the idea of setting up an HQ in Vilree's old fort.

I also think that sometime in the six month gap, we'll be selling the following:

Alchemical crossbow (25 gp)
2 x daggers (2 sp each)
leather armor (2 gp)

If anyone disagrees, I can adjust, but 50% of the above added to the belt pouch is 2 pp, 65 gp, 8 sp. Divided by 5, that nets us each:

17 gp, 1 sp (with 3 sp left over).

Assuming selling gear and coin values hasn't changed in PF2.

And what the heck is that key for?!

And what the heck is that key for?!

It probably opens the gate at the fort. I seem to recall we had to bash that open.

My thanks for the kind words, but I don't think I'm going to continue. I just can't get comfortable with 2e--the character building and the feats and most of the magic items are just bewildering to me. Plus I'm just kinda fatigued with all my Paizo adventure paths right now.

Thanks Kevin for a fun game, I'm super glad we finished.

I understand, on both points. I still haven't wrapped my head around 2E, and with so little free time, it's hard to find the motivation to pick up this new "skill." It's one of the reasons I want to play a bit longer.

Plus, as I said above, I'm trying to move away from APs in PbPs.

Good gaming, htrotter. Hope to see you around.

I vote we keep Sool in the HQ as a benign haunt. Instead of being undead, he just ignores us so he can write his book, interrupted with the occasional disdainful sigh.

If Sool is to be immortalized as an NPC or a haunt (!) then I wish to go on the record as saying that Sool did not dislike anyone in the group. The only person he really disliked was Bort, because he was an annoying loudmouth. In fact he rather liked Throkk because he seemed good-natured and uncomplicated.

Sool is a very lonely person who has sort of lost hold of how to relate effectively with other people. For the most part, what seems like disdain on his part was instead confusion or uncertainty with how to respond. He is very old and has watched many people that he cared about live and die and pass into the oblivion of vague memory -- that sort of thing (to my mind) would tend to throw up barriers around the heart and make it difficult to trust in establishing new bonds with new people. My concept for him was that he became an enchanter *because* he was so bad at relating to people-- he needed the 'cheat' of manipulating people with magic to properly fit into the world. As it turned out, I barely used any charm spells in the game, and the few I tried didn't work. I would have been better off playing an evoker.

Because Sool also tended to be fairly honest and speak his mind in a bland emotionless manner, he obviously came off as snooty or sneering. That was never my intent, so I probably failed in that respect with the character. To be honest I started leaning into the jerky-ness for comic effect, just to amuse myself, as the game progressed. Part of his stiffness was his unwillingness to talk about his past or his emotional pain -- trusting others is just not something he does.

I also had a concept that I'd have him 'lecture' a fair amount about the technicalities of magic, but there was clearly no one in the group who would have been had any interest in that, so I dropped that idea as well.

One nice surprise in the game was Sool's very mixed feelings about Vilree. He couldn't help but identify with her a bit, as a kindred spirit lost on a dark path. Clearly she had to be stopped and deserved to be punished, but a part of him always hoped she could be saved. He respected her skills and her spirit, even as he despised her malice and hate. That ambivalence lasted up until the moment of the final fight.

BTW, just for closure, what exactly did the town DO to Vilree's mother? I don't think we ever got a clear story there, and that was the central mystery of the adventure.

Good question. And I thought Sool was fun to banter with, but cool that the concept was deeper. Agree that we should keep him around to work on his book. I'll try to get to the rebuild of Sazen tomorrow, but it might take longer.

Agreed that getting that insight into Sool is neat, and I enjoyed the back-and-forth with him also. And I can relate to what you said about having fun with being a bit of a jerk. Sazen, Emri, and Kevin can verify.

I can also relate to how the mechanics that you start off with don't match up with how your character develops. (See my comments above about snares.)

Been working on the redo of my character in something I found called "Pathbuilder 2e" ... seems to work well. Just wanted to make sure though... am I allowed to do a dual class character (apparently from the gamemastery guide)?

I'm also using Pathbuilder 2E. It does seem to work well, although I noticed that the parts of Morsun that I'm not changing (most of him) that I re-build in this app don't always total the same numbers. I'm hoping that I have time to be able to break down each score and show on my alias where each part of the score comes from.

there's a LOT more character options than when we started this!

This feels like an understatement.

Yeah, I was struggling with getting my stats to look the same as well, but the new ones are a touch higher, so I decided to just go with it, since I am redoing it anyway. Maybe they changed the build rules a little? We started this way back in 2019, so a lot may have changed.

I am working on a Ranger/Oracle mix with a medic background to cover who Sazen used to be... and the oracle part still captures her religious devotion, just in a more general way. She also has a specialization in fighting ghosts, which will fit the adventure. ... Just want to make sure that I can do the dual class thing. Couldn't figure out how to just add one level of something else, which would be the other option, but I think I would have to do it by hand since this software doesn't seem to allow it as far as I can tell.

We might have messed up the character gen rules back in the day.

@Sazen by Dual class do you mean having a second class as an archetype? As for the leopard they included rules for that.

Vilree's Mother "When the plague came to Etran’s Folly, Silwyth Eldara did all she could with herbalism and alchemy to find a cure. Alas, the pox was too virulent, and in the panic, the townsfolk blamed Silwyth for not coming to their aid. When the aging elf caught the plague herself, the townsfolk refused her succor, leaving no food for her at the plaguestone. She died soon after, cursing survivors to a life of misery, leaving her daughter, Vilree, all alone. The young half-elf Vilree never forgave the people of Etran’s folly for their treatment of her mother."

@Sool I'm thinking he'll be pottering around keeping an eye on the base.

Awesome. Taking the Fire Leopard as an animal companion.

Second class... not sure if it is an archetype or not.

Okay, looked it up:

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1328

Looking at it here, I guess it is supposed to be their version of gestalt, so probably not allowed.

Okay, redid it to just plain Oracle... downside is no Fire Leopard... can't figure out a way to get a companion/familiar this way. Haven't updated my sheet yet, but it is built.

Let me know if we are getting close to starting up, and I will accelerate getting it into my profile.

Let me know if we are getting close to starting up, and I will accelerate getting it into my profile.

Yeah, same. I'm just working on my gear.

Alright so as for the rings.

I doubt they are overly common but I am happy to say if you pay the cost you've tracked one down or crafted one one in downtime.

@Sazen consider archetypes, off the top of my head I remembered this one from running Extinction Curse that might work. https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=38

Emri needs time, so not aiming to start too soon. We have a rogue, oracle and a monk. I'd really like to get two more players.

Okay, thanks for the tip. I can get rid of the Ghost Eater dedication and take the Animal Trainer dedication instead, which lets me have the fire leopard. :)

As far as being a better ghost hunter then, since it won't come naturally anymore... can I get a ghost touch rune on my longbow? It lets me add it to the program, but the description says melee weapon, so I wasn't sure if it was allowed or not... if you would have to get ghost touch ammunition instead, or how long range would work with ghosts.

You can't because it's not a melee weapon...

There is a work around if you want. If Sazen had a versatile heritage as a Duskwalker which I would be happy for us to reflavour to some degree. Perhaps as part of the whole oracle thing?

Anyway they can get this racial feat

Ghost Hunter:
Your connection to the Boneyard ensures that your blows strike true against spectral beings. Your weapon and unarmed attack Strikes against incorporeal creatures become magical. If they are already magical, they instead gain the effects of a ghost touch property rune. And I don't think there's ghost touch ammunition.

So Sazen could punch ghosts and all of her magical weapons (whether melee or ranged I think- I might be wrong but even if I was I'd be happy to house rule it this way) get the effect of the ghost touch rune. It's more about her weirdness than the weapon itself in this case.

Check out there racial feats below.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?Traits=257

But to be honest with you when you are talking about long range vs ghost they're not easy espeically because if they are intelligent and you get the jump on them they can usually get through the terrain easier than you to block line of sight and run away.

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Right now it's just you three guys though. I don't know that many active on the forums these days and people have declined so I might have to open us up to general interest which is something I've been generally reluctant to do but it's looking like the way things will have to go as three seems too small to realistically survive.

Oh, good call. Okay, switched from the general versatile heritage which she already had to the specific duskwalker one. Thanks for the tip.

And yeah, if you want to open it up for general recruitment, totally cool with that. I'm sure there are some good players out there that we just don't know yet. :)

Alright so three reinforcements on the way we are getting a Quisillo gnomish bard, Niven a half gnome fighter with technical gadgets and Merlin a magus hellknight arminger so lots of people for Emri and Morson to flank with but a little extra magic thrown into the mix.

Glad to be able to join you all! I'll be playing the fey-touched gnome Quisillo. This often distracted little fellow out of Alkenstar has a fascination for the First world and the Eldests, but can thankfully count on his brother Niven to keep him more grounded into this world.

Mechanically, he can offer the usual bardic support, a bit of magic healing, debuffs, and illusions. Happy to change a few things here and there to better complement the current party though!

As for myself, I have been playing PF2 for about half a year, mostly society games on the discord servers.

For our GM: how would you like to handle starting equipment for the newcomers? I'm not sure what the norm is when starting at level 3, and so far haven't really looked into Quisillo's equipment besides basic armor.

As for myself, I have been playing PF2 for about half a year, mostly society games on the discord servers.

For our GM: how would you like to handle starting equipment for the newcomers? I'm not sure what the norm is when starting at level 3, and so far haven't really looked into Quisillo's equipment besides basic armor.

The core rulebook page 510 has some rules. I'm just going to go with the gold lump sum of 75gp, it seems appropriate that Niven can easily have a suit of full plate at level three with a few other bits. Ye probably can't afford anything too extravagant but should be decently equipped with mundane items.

Plate mail?

Plate mail?!?!

Do I look like a dwarf to you? Admittedly, I do have the musculature to pull that off, but I also try to be light on my feet, ready to spring into action and rush to where I'm needed. Nay, it's is fine Chelaxian leather for me. The people there may be a bunch of devil-banging pricks, but they do good work.

My apologies, I was taken aback in correcting the misconception that I have failed to introduce myself. I am Niven Steeldrake, at your service.

Poses to give a good look

While I may be taller than my brother, I tend to be the more down-to-earth one as well. I didn't get the magic in the family, so I keep to the practical skills. Fighting and building. Construction and destruction. You can be assured of my practicality by my armaments. This little darling can be used for smashing, piercing and firing projectiles powered by alchemy. Useful in every situation.

The core rulebook page 510 has some rules. I'm just going to go with the gold lump sum of 75gp, it seems appropriate that Niven can easily have a suit of full plate at level three with a few other bits. Ye probably can't afford anything too extravagant but should be decently equipped with mundane items.

Sounds good! I'll get you an updated sheet soon then.

Hi Quisilloa and Nevin (and Merlin)! Welcome aboard!

Morsun is a typical adventuring/thieving rogue. He does have one special ability, though: He's very grumpy.

A grumpy dwarf? Pershing the thought!

Hello All!

I am excited to be involved in another PF2e game. I am loving the system.
Merlin is an aspiring Signifier Hellknight. He is LN. He has full plate.
I am looking forward to the Gnome brothers in action too!