Ahoy, me hearties! It's been a while since I've written something for you scabrous dogs... since last year in fact! (That's my stupid New Year's joke, which is something I will try to refrain from doing for the rest of this blog. No promises, though.) Anyway, I'm super stoked about what's in adventure deck five—it's the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: The Price of Infamy Adventure Deck—so there will be none of my usual blah blah blah at the beginning of this post because the less I write here, the sooner we get to the sweet stuff. Onward to the Obligatory Shark Section!
OSS (Obligatory Shark Section)
I have a confession to make. A long time ago, I told you there was a shark in every adventure. That was maybe not totally true. There is no shark here. However, there is something even better. Something so good it deserves its very own one-time super special deluxe section. Ready?
Do you want to build a Galvo?
I have another confession. I just saw Frozen. No really, not like you, who watched it last week for the fifteenth time. I just saw Frozen FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER. And by forever I mean, for the first time ever. EVER. So, there's gonna be a little bit of that going on in here. I'm sorry, but I won't stop. Honestly, I probably couldn't even if I wanted to because holy sea cucumber, those songs are catchy. So, on to the Galvo...
Question: Is anything greater than a mass of electric eels that forms a humanoid shape and works together to destroy things it doesn't like?
Answer: No.
The Galvo is my favorite thing in all of Skull & Shackles. Just like the Wendigo is my favorite from Rise of the Runelords (#teamwendigo4evs). But what makes the Galvo so great? Everything. My love of galvos began when I read this line from The Price of Infamy, "There is no true Galvo society." I mean, how do you not love that? Anyway, it just gets better from there. Baby galvos are called "tangles," which is stupid cute. I mean, seriously.
So, what about the actual card? Well, you've got that "before you act" check. Yeah, Galvos sometimes just spring out of the water and attack people, kind of like—SPOILERS!—Azog in the newest Hobbit. Seriously, if you didn't see that Jaws moment coming, well, I'm very disappointed. We have you make a Dexterity or Acrobatics check to see if you can dodge that, or you'll be taking a little bit of damage. ZAP! And of course, there's that swarm power. Galvos are nothing if not persistent. I think they get that from Malvo. Fargo on FX, anyone? (Watch it, seriously, so good. It's also got a Hobbit in it.)
I could talk about Galvos for probably an entire blog but I should move on to some of the other sweet stuff this adventure contains. Anyway, you'll know me at a convention if you see me wearing a Galvo Society shirt. But you can't join because there is no true Galvo Society. I'm the only member.
Other Sweet Stuff
There's a lot to love (and be afraid of) in this adventure. Here are a few more things you should keep your eye out for.
Albatrosses are better than people... just like reindeer!
The good news is, the Albatross allows you to defeat a non-villain bane. The bad news is, it flies away and you have to bury 1d4 cards from the top of your deck. If you don't get why the Albatross does you some harm, you should read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which honestly, you should read anyway, because it's amazing. You get 5 Cool Points if you've already read it, and 3 if you read it after reading this.
A man goes to a restaurant and orders albatross soup. He takes one bite and immediately kills himself. Why?
I have to confess, Mike and I really wanted this card in the game because we're really big into puzzles and riddles, not because there is some big part of the Skull & Shackles story centered around albatross soup. [Mike says: Click at your peril.] That doesn't mean this card is something you don't need to take seriously, though. You will banish or bury at least one card when dealing with this. Banishing one of your allies will make this go away, but banishing your friends isn't very nice. They're your friends, so why would you do that? Or, you could just bury the top card of your deck and really hope you don't blow it when you try to make the Constitution or Fortitude check and also hope that the card you bury isn't that one card that you need that would make everything totally groovy, if you had it. If you bury, roll, and lose, even more people will get to decide how they deal with this troubling soup.
Groot + cigar = Kapre. Sort of.
Kapres are basically the cigar-smoking tree-huggers of Skull & Shackles. No, literally, they can meld with trees, which is basically the ninja level of tree-hugging. These guys go around smoking cigars and defending nature. How badass is that? Very. Anyway, if you wander into some Kapre territory, they blow some cigar smoke at you and you get all confounded and wander away, leaving the nature natural. Plus, you can use your Charisma or Diplomacy to befriend the Kapre, but even though the Kapre likes you now, its cigar smoke is still enough to persuade you to just leave the location you're at. If you're not wise and just blunder around ruining the Kapre's territory, it's gonna deal you damage, and if you're smart, you'll get the heck outta Dodge after that. I like the Kapre, and I think you should not fight them and instead be their friends.
Scenario Info
There are some things that are just better when served cold. Ice cream, for one. I'll be honest with you, I pretty much like almost all leftovers cold and unheated. Spaghetti, pad thai, mattar paneer, pretty much anything goes. Unless it's supposed to be crispy, then you gotta heat that in the oven. There's one other thing that is also better cold: revenge. Why all this talk of serving things cold? Well, it just so happens that the name of the scenario I'll be telling you about today is called "Best Served Cold." And it's pretty bonkers.
You best get ready to buckle some swashes. There are some scary things ahead.
Replacing all the allies with monsters isn't really what you want. Less friends, more baddies? NO THANK YOU. Although, it does mean you have better chances of finding a Galvo, which I think is great. And after all I've told you about Galvos, don't you want to meet one? No? Well, you're wrong. Stop being wrong and get with the Galvo program.
We also have three named henchman plus the Erinyes Devils. Let's meet them now, shall we?
This is Luccaria and she doesn't like you.
Luccaria basically isn't interested in dealing with you until she has to. As in, unless there are basically no cards besides her in a location, she's going to do some damage to you and dip out until later. Once you manage to get her to pay attention long enough to fight you, she's going to be real unhappy about any of your Divine spell nonsense. Bury ‘em. And then beat Luccaria, so she goes away forever.
This guy gives me some serious heebie-jeebies.
Gilbrok's a bit of a fixer-upper. Nobody gave him etiquette lessons when he was a kid, so he doesn't know it's rude to stick his tongue out like that. Also, it's seriously icky. If you aren't Swashbuckling when you go after Gilbrok, you won't scare him with your piratical prowess, and you'll have to subtract 1 from each die you roll. Oofda. And then, when you don't defeat him because his freaky-deaky tongue throws you off your game, you'll get to encounter one of these curses.
Curse is pirate for "wah wah."
It's just better if you can beat Gilbrok, so he goes away forever.
This Kipper is very different from the dog in the children's cartoon. Very different.
There's a children's cartoon out there with a dog named Kipper, and it's about this sweet little dog and his friends. This Kipper is not sweet. And you've read about his friends—they're jerks. This Kipper shoots first and doesn't ask questions later. He's doesn't care who you are or where you are. When somebody runs into him, he's just gonna shoot someone. Not cool, dude. Plus, if you don't impress him with your swashbuckliness on your check to defeat, any damage he deals to you is going to be increased by 6. It's probably best for you to avoid Kipper if you can, or just pound him into the ground, so he's gone forever.
Bye bye, blessings!
When we were writing this game months and months ago, we needed to add another power to the Erinyes Devil, and I suggested that perhaps these Divine-hating ladies should banish any of your boons with the Divine trait. And now they do. Oops. #sorrynotsorry. I am sorry that I just used #sorrynotsorry, though. Anyway, watch out for the Erinyes Devils. Hopefully, you can fight them without needing help from your friends. By the way, if I was in your party, I probably wouldn't help you. Those are my blessings, and I worked hard to get them, and I'm not gonna banish them just cause you bumped into an Erinyes Devil. This game is more cooperative for some than it is for others. Anyway, smash the devil, and send her away forever.
You may have notice by now that there are lot of small confessions in this blog. Well, I have one more. When I told you that you should get rid of Luccaria, Gilbrok, Kipper, and the Erinyes Devils, I was maybe sort of not telling you everything. When I said they would go away forever, what I meant was "they will go in a henchman pile, and when you encounter Barnabas Harrigan, each character will have to summon and encounter one of them." That's pretty much the same thing, right?
Ring, ring, ring, ring Barnabasphone!
So, even though those henchman are really awful to fight, it's still probably better to deal with one of them than to have to deal with Barnabas. First, you're going to have to succeed at a Wisdom or Perception 14 check or the checks to defeat him are going to be increased by 6. And you've lost the opportunity to evade him. Then, before any check to defeat him—note: there are 2—you must recharge an armor or 1d4 other cards. And if you were dumb enough to think you could go barging up to Barnabas with a big group of friends, you have to discard those cards instead. Yipes. Then, when you're done with all that and you've made checks to defeat him—which, let's be honest, you probably failed—you have to knock some cards off the blessings deck. Or, if you're swashbuckly, just the top card. Yowza. Like I said earlier, lots to be excited about and lots to be afraid of.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this blog and have been enjoying the game. I know I did. I also have one last confession for you. Best Served Cold might be our revenge against all you who said the game was too easy.
Until next time, you salty sea dogs! I gotta go sing more botched Frozen lyrics to myself.
Gaby Weidling
Adventure Card Game Developer
[Mike says: Seriously, Gabs, let it go.]
