GM Harrow’s Curse of the Crimson Throne - AE

Game Master GM Harrow

Sorry for the slow pace lately, I've been struggling with mental health and lack of energy. But I'm still here and not planning to give up on this game. :)

Sorry for the slow pace lately, I've been struggling with mental health and lack of energy. But I'm still here and not planning to give up on this game. :)

Appreciate the effort as this is one of my favorite games I'm in, but definitely take care of yourself

No worries. Sometimes it can help to take a break for a little bit. Do whatever you need to do. We'll be here when you get back.

Yes, please take care of yourself first, GM. We appreciate you and all your hard work in running the game. I'm excited to see where it goes next. (And if Field Marshal Kroft will have anything to say to us about helping a suspected wanted criminal escape custody.)

So, from Audria's last post, Talanaliel is here with us now. What did she tell us about Abella not coming with her when she went to collect her from the Soldados'? That will affect whether Shrike thinks we need to go get Abella for a chat with Zellara.

To keep things simple, we'll say that Abella has joined everyone at Citadel Volshyenek.

Jarl Flay Tea maybe vetoed by our good GM, of course ;)

I hope they don't veto it. I loved that bit. I'm sorely tempted to roll for Audria's reaction.

I do not drink black tea, but Jarl Flay sounds hilarious.

Well then it is official, Jarl Flay, Hot, is served :) Thanks for humoring my whimsy

Super chonky post, should last you a couple of weeks yes? :D

Using Harrow points in this book:

Constitution Rerolls: A PC can spend a Harrow Point to reroll a Fortitude saving throw, stabilization check, or other Constitution-based check. She must abide by the new result (although if she has additional Harrow Points remaining, she can use them to attempt additional rerolls).

Damage Reduction: A PC can spend a Harrow Point to gain DR 3/—. This damage reduction persists for the duration of the encounter in which she spent the Harrow Point. A PC can’t spend multiple Harrow Points to increase this damage reduction.

Fast Hit Point Recovery: A PC can spend a Harrow Point after resting for 1 minute to recover from her recent ordeals. She regains a number of hit points equal to her character level and 1 point of ability damage each time she does so (this does not remove ability drain). She can spend a Harrow Point in this manner once after each encounter.

Following Zellara's Harrowing, every PC gains 3 Harrow points (on top of the ones left at the end of Book 1).

To answer Shrike's question: Zellara's Harrow deck is an intelligent magical item.

Hand-painted images decorate this Harrow deck, and the cards frames are gilded in silver so that they sparkle and flash under lighting. Despite the worn condition of the card backs, the images on the faces are so vibrant they seem to move when viewed out of the corner of the eye. The deck handles with surprising ease, almost shuffling itself. A bent, torn, or lost card always seems to mend itself or reappear when no one is looking. These features are subtle manifestations of the spirit that haunts the cards. In life, Zellara lived by this deck, and in death, she has become the deck.

Zellara can sense the world around the deck via sight and sound, and she can communicate with anyone who holds the deck via empathy. She can create a major image once per day, often doing so to generate an image of herself manipulating the cards - in this manner, she can carry on conversations with other creatures in Common or Varisian. She can also cast identify for anyone who holds one of the cards of the deck to his forehead (a move action) up to three times per day.

I added this info to the campaign Info tab as well.

GM, would you allow Audria to retrain a skill? The rules for it can be found here. It'd take five days.

And the main reason she's looking at Shrike and Elric is because she thinks they both know how to swim, but doesn't know that Pava does.

Touch of the Sea might also help with swimming (though I don't think Pava's got enough specific magical knowledge to pick it out by name or as being 1st lvl and thus lower investment).

Swim comes up so infrequently in most campaigns that I didn't put any points in it. But since it can be used untrained, you can take 10 on it, and the DC to successfully swim half your speed in calm water is only 10, even an average-Strength PC with no skill points invested in it can succeed at basic swimming in a large slow-moving river. Like if Shrike had to swim across the Jeggare in good weather and with nothing to attack her, she would be fine and not drown. That's my understanding anyway, and that is why Shrike thought last time about being technically able to swim but not being very good at it or having done so in a while. Mechanically, right now, Audria would be a slightly better swimmer than Shrike. :)

However, if we go down to a sunken ship, any combat we run into is going to be absolutely miserable unless we have actual swim speeds. The guide to Underwater Combat gives a primer. Highlights: a move action combined with a successful Swim check (which we won't be able to take 10 on, because it's combat) lets you move only 1/4 your normal speed (so, 5 feet for any of us.) Moving 15 feet will be a full-round action. The same successful Swim check (again, with no taking 10) is required to attack at all without losing our Dex bonus to AC and giving opponents +2 to hit. Ranged attacks take -2 to hit for every 5 feet of distance they travel. Damage types other than piercing only do half damage. Armor Check Penalty applies to every Swim check. Basically, all of us will be wildly slow and clumsy underwater. Including those like Elric and Pava who have a couple of ranks invested. However, if we have swim speeds, it's much better: we can move the listed speed with a move action as normal and get a +8 to any needed Swim checks, so in calm water, can't fail the Swim check to make attacks without becoming Off-Balance.

In short, there are a few low-level wizard-castable spells that grant a swim speed to others (touch of the sea, slipstream), and if we're serious about doing this, we should really, really look into one of them as well as water breathing. Shrike wouldn't know anything about these magical possibilities though, just like Pava.

There are maybe a handful of instances in this AP where swimming might be relevant, so I don't think Audria needs to retrain for it. There might also be some potions available to you if you go ask your contacts...