How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
Yet we have that marvelous spell "comprehend languages" that might have helped during the last decades in understanding the dead language.
Oh well... pure geekiness here :)
I was actually surprised when I GM'ed Runelords that Chopper didn't feature more in the adventure path. This is a pretty awesome way of bringing him back
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How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
Yet we have that marvelous spell "comprehend languages" that might have helped during the last decades in understanding the dead language.
Oh well... pure geekiness here :)
Crazy whispers in his dreams taught him the secret words of a dead tongue.
Whispering always in the dark.
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How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
Yet we have that marvelous spell "comprehend languages" that might have helped during the last decades in understanding the dead language.
Oh well... pure geekiness here :)Crazy whispers in his dreams taught him the secret words of a dead tongue.
Whispering always in the dark.
That, or one afternoon tea at Brodent Quink's too many :)
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That, or one afternoon tea at Brodent Quink's too many :)How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
Yet we have that marvelous spell "comprehend languages" that might have helped during the last decades in understanding the dead language.
Oh well... pure geekiness here :)Crazy whispers in his dreams taught him the secret words of a dead tongue.
Whispering always in the dark.
"He always seemed like such a nice fellow. Even mentioned how lovely my eyes were. And here I thought he was flattering me. So lonely..."
Creative Director
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How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
Yet we have that marvelous spell "comprehend languages" that might have helped during the last decades in understanding the dead language.
Oh well... pure geekiness here :)
Thassilonian being a dead language that no one speaks is kind of not the way it stayed. The language is certainly still one that scholars know of today, especially now that the world of Golarion itself is more well known (the idea of keeping Thassilonian super secret was an early one that we more or less abandoned once we realized Golarion was really popular, and we wanted our most well-known at the time bad-guy group to be less obscure). Certainly with a lot of creatures that are immortal or super-long-lived, the idea of a dead language is a lot less believable in a fantasy world than in the real world.
In any event, Stoot himself knows Thassilonian because he's always been a little touched in the head. Kinda like speaking in tongues.
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Creative Director
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It'd be cool to describe the ghost animating a bunch of its beautiful bird carvings, warping them into horrible monstrous splintered things.
His bird carvings do feature as a recurrent theme in "Shadows under Sandpoint," since poor James Sutter's character is kinda paranoid about them. He thinks he's being stalked by Pazuzu or something.
He's right.
Looking back on when I ran this AP, I wish I had done more with Chopper and the Sandpoint Devil for that matter. It would have definitely given the module a more "Supernatural" feel.
In my campaign, there was a real change to the overall mood between the two modules.
Your players are sure to think Chopper is back and up to his old tricks when they start The Skinsaw Murders.
GET TO THE CHOPPER!!!
sorry couldn't resist.
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Creative Director
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Very great job.
We are french fan's. would it be possible to translate this article for a french's fan site?
I personally wouldn't have a problem with that, as long as you cite the original source and indicate that it's Paizo's copyright and all that. I'm not sure if the community use license allows it, but it certainly allows the use of the artwork at the very least as part of a fan site.
How comes Stoot speaks Thassilonian, a language that's been dead for 10.000 years and just barely decipherable through pictograms and inscriptions scattered all over Varisia?
Lyrie also spoke Thassilonian, how well could we consider one that spends a language slot know the language? I always considered that you cannot "speak it" but only try to translate runes, and the process is both uncertain (no real dictionaries) and takes a lot of time.
That's kind of like wondering how every Lovecraft story has somebody who happens to have read the Necronomicon, when there's only supposed to be something like three copies in existance.
Maybe the Necronomicon was originally written in Thassilonian!! Abdul Alhazred, the Mad Runelord!
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Looking back on when I ran this AP, I wish I had done more with Chopper and the Sandpoint Devil for that matter.
I decided to take Stoot in a different direction for my current RotRL campaign: Stoot succeeded.
To tie this to the characters, one of my players is the daughter of Wade Deverin, murdered by Stoot, who developed a hatred of birds after her discovering her father's body. Her uncle Gaven took the death of his brother hard and blamed himself, handling raising his niece rather poorly. Now, five years later, he has been playing around with things he shouldn't in the hopes of countering his depression and guilt and has allowed Stoot to return to Sandpoint to truly enact his revenge on the city. The player's character, Tamaze, has been trying to help her uncle through his depression, and became very concerned when she discovered he's taken up whittling to calm his nerves.
Currently, in my game, the party has returned home to Sandpoint to winter after the events at Hook Mountain. Upon arrival, they discovered someone has been stirring up supernatural trouble around the town, including agitating the Sandpoint Devil and freeing Malfeshnekor from his prison (a good bit of trouble since the PCs failed to take care of him previously), coupled with the reappearance of some Stoot carvings. I've placed some red herrings around, like Vhiski aiding Gaven in his endeavors for a price, so the PCs are going to to be in for a shock once they realize what's going on.
James, You've been playing this campaign since March of 2009 and the group is only around 4-5 level? Wow. I guess that explains why high and epic level stuff is a low priority for Paizo (not that I mind that). ;)
Trying to keep up with the product schedule also cuts into game time, alas. :)
I'd be very interested in doing that, but I would rather not have any legal problems. Who should i contact to know more about this.
TY for the great job, more french's fan love your job. :-)
Contact Vic Wertz!
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Creative Director
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James, You've been playing this campaign since March of 2009 and the group is only around 4-5 level? Wow. I guess that explains why high and epic level stuff is a low priority for Paizo (not that I mind that). ;)
It doesn't explain why high and epic level stuff is a low priority at all. In fact, if you'll look at the modules we're doing recently, many of them are high level. And we hit 15th level and above pretty much four times a year anyway with our Pathfinder Adventure Paths.
The group's encounter with Stoot's ghost was a while ago. They're now all about 7th level. And the reason for the slow advancement has nothing to do with my preference for what levels to play at (those would be, for the record, 10th and higher), but because of two completely different factors:
1) We only play, at best, once every other week, after work, for about 3 hours—generally time for one, MAYBE two encounters a session. And that date is often cancelled due to the realities of our schedule—when we're in scramble mode to complete a deadline, having the majority of the group be the same folks who have to work extra hours to COMPLETE that deadline (a deadline that always falls on a Friday, the day AFTER this game takes place), we often have to cancel the game. While in theory the game happens every other Thursday, I'd say that there's probably a 40% cancellation rate for those games.
2) There's 9 PCs in the group. That's more than twice the normal amount, and that means that when XP gets handed out, those totals are divided by 9. Which means that the XP accumulation is pretty slow... even with the Fast track.
1) We only play, at best, once every other week, after work, for about 3 hours—generally time for one, MAYBE two encounters a session. And that date is often cancelled due to the realities of our schedule—
When my old group had a schedule problem, where it came to be the dreaded life ruled more than our resident rules lawyer did, we looked at ourselves and said, "Seriously, WTF. Does this night/day/time make sense for us anymore?" And lo, it verily did not.
So we picked a day/time that didn't suck so hard.
C'mon, James, you guys are like professional gamers! Move the night and play more. :)
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Creative Director
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1) We only play, at best, once every other week, after work, for about 3 hours—generally time for one, MAYBE two encounters a session. And that date is often cancelled due to the realities of our schedule—When my old group had a schedule problem, where it came to be the dreaded life ruled more than our resident rules lawyer did, we looked at ourselves and said, "Seriously, WTF. Does this night/day/time make sense for us anymore?" And lo, it verily did not.
So we picked a day/time that didn't suck so hard.
C'mon, James, you guys are like professional gamers! Move the night and play more. :)
We did the same thing. Thursday, as it turns out, is the best choice. And also turns out, finding a single day of the week that works good for most of a 9 person group most of the time is VERY tricky.
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You can check out the campaign journal over on our boards—it's generally only a few game sessions behind where we're at.
I have been meaning to get that up-to-date....really, I have! There's just no opportune time to sit down and write...between chatting it up with the Worm that Walks, slaying the Sandpoint Devil, and dealing with Kirin and his crazy bird talk...what's a paladin to do?
And I really don't understand all this nonsense you've put under Stoot's name....other than he's EEEEEEEVIL! But I knew that, of course. It's my job to know these sorts of things.
YOINK!
(Thanks James!)
We did the same thing. Thursday, as it turns out, is the best choice. And also turns out, finding a single day of the week that works good for most of a 9 person group most of the time is VERY tricky.
Keep trying man, I ran a group that hit 11 people (we'll ignore the other logistics involved in that for now!). It's doable to find a time. Might mean some slide in late or leave a little early.
Quick rules question- would a ghost be able to use its sneak attack with corrupting touch or would sneak attack only be applicable with a ghostly weapon? I could see the sneak attack damage reflecting extra damage the ghost does by using "corrupting touch" on a vital organ or something like that.
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Creative Director
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Quick rules question- would a ghost be able to use its sneak attack with corrupting touch or would sneak attack only be applicable with a ghostly weapon? I could see the sneak attack damage reflecting extra damage the ghost does by using "corrupting touch" on a vital organ or something like that.
Sneak attack works with anything that does hp damage. So yeah, it'd work with the ghost's corrupting touch.