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Desires Unmasked and Unbound

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Designer Liz Spain continues her breathless romance-novel previews of Mummy's Mask, here showing off the bounties in Adventure Deck 2: Empty Graves. The desert awaits.

Far from home as it was, the city of Wati was comforting, familiar somehow to Estra. Though her old ears struggled to understand the exotic tongues the local merchants spoke, the shopkeepers were always excessively polite. This was a city that embraced death, lived next door to death. Respecting the elderly was etched into the bones of Osirion culture.

The young man managing the auction offered Estra a well-muscled arm and led her to a soft cushion to rest. "May I?" he asked, unfurling the small carpet she kept tucked under her arm. His voice was rich and warm as he comforted, "Ask for Ptemenib if you desire for anything else, Honored Grandmother." She didn't need the seat; she felt as spry as a woman half her age.


Of course you do.

But this vantage point allowed her to watch the stevedores fill the Canny Jackal's storeroom with treasures scavenged this morning from the necropolis. Grave goods crafted in a dozen different dynasties shuffled through the doors, glittering gold and lapis in the light of the oil lamps. Occasionally, pieces of the dead carefully wrapped in blessed linen joined the gaudy trinkets on the storeroom shelves. She spotted what appeared to be a severed hand and gasped. "No worries, Love," the gruff voice at the back of her mind reassured, "he deserved it."

A cleric of Nethys appeared from the shadows. He was looking for someone.


Don't hands usually come in pairs?

She was about to admonish Honaire with her favorite line from the parable of Pharasma and Forgiveness when the exuberant shouting of the auction broke into screams. A crash-tumble of precious objects clattered to the floor as the mummified remains crawled off the shelves. A falcon-headed canopic jar rolled into the bidding room, cracking against a stone column. The abomination that spilled forth was malevolent and... juicy.

"There!" Honaire spotted movement through the window. A golden-masked figure dashed into an alleyway, the cleric of Nethys in close pursuit.

Outside, merchants hunched over their wares. It was all they could do to protect them from the panicked customers desperate to escape the vanth stalking above.


Psychopomp is totally a real word.

All around Estra, young wills broke and they ran for safety. There was danger, sure. Estra had seen the chaos of death many times before. In the withering gasps of a sick child in her arms, in the bewilderment of restless battlefield shades, as the light faded from the eyes of her own Honaire, death marked the beginning of a new journey. In this hot and sandy place, on this journey through ancient graves, she carried the wisdom of Pharasma. A powerful ill will was causing the dead to rise. She could help, but only one at a time.

The screams pouring in from the street broke as the crowd passed. In its wake, a woman in mourning garb glared daggers at all who passed. With kohl-rimmed eyes streaked by tears, she was quite young to be widowed. Cold, dark energy coalesced about her arms, ready to defend the figure still wearing his funerary shroud shuffling behind her. This poor woman reminded Estra of her younger self. She remembered the black well of loss, her desperate screams into the oblivion that claimed her beloved. Her old heart cracked, then broke. Her love poured forth in a plume of vivid ectoplasm that took shape around her.


The good spells have names like "deathgrip" in this set.

"I'll protect you while you talk to the sorceress, Love," Honaire reassured. Though always together in a way, his physical presence blanketed her with a comforting armor. Called to act, she clenched her jaw and wrapped her fingers around the tassels of the carpet as it rose. This night would have hard lessons for the young, lessons Estra knew well: Death is not the enemy, and love is not enough.

Liz Spain
Adventure Card Game Designer

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Panic deck? Aaaaaaah!

Variant on the image problem: if I click on a card, I get a smaller version of the card on the resulting page.

Anyone else have the problem? Happening on Chrome, but not Firefox. Cleared cache etc & restarted Chrome, no change.
Lone Shark Games
Iammars wrote:
Panic deck? Aaaaaaah!

There is no need to... well, actually, yes there is.

And why does the _human_ sorcerer have pointy ears?

Hey there.

Evening at the Canny Jackal states 'To win the scenario, each characters hand, deck and discard pile must total at least 21 cards.'

In regards to this, can you please advise where a characters buried cards are considered to be ?

I'm playing as CD Amiri and would like to know if I have made a sup-optimal choice.

Thanks
zeroth_hour2 wrote:
And why does the _human_ sorcerer have pointy ears?

Maybe cosplay is a thing in osirion?

zeroth_hour2 wrote:
And why does the _human_ sorcerer have pointy ears?

Spoiler:
You got it wrong, the mummy is on the left and the sorcerer on the right!

Dunesparrow wrote:

Evening at the Canny Jackal states 'To win the scenario, each characters hand, deck and discard pile must total at least 21 cards.'

In regards to this, can you please advise where a characters buried cards are considered to be ?

I'm playing as CD Amiri and would like to know if I have made a sup-optimal choice.

Since it's not on the list, buried cards don't count in the total. Simple. Cards do what they say and don't do what they don't say.

In this scenario, Amiri will have to do without burying too much. This is where the fun starts when you don't have to always play the same character the same way.

Hey there.

Thanks for the response Frencois.

Is anyone aware of any other Scenarios that have turned a specific characters power from beneficial to detrimental? and if so what are those scenarios?

Here is a list of characters who use the bury mechanic:

Amiri (CD)
Amiri (RotRL)
Brielle
Ostog
Maznar
Reta
Ramexes
Raz
Alase
Balazar (CD)
Crowe

It seems harsh to make a characters power into a negative effect for the party.
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Dunesparrow wrote:

Hey there.

Thanks for the response Frencois.
Is anyone aware of any other Scenarios that have turned a specific characters power from beneficial to detrimental?....

Oh yes! I can think of many cases where specific scenarios force a character to change her game because it impacts the relative value of this character's powers:

- Scenarios where the hench/villain is unaffected by attack spells (and therefore also powers that count as playing an attack spell) or immune to specific attacks?
- Triggers that hurt scouting powers
- Scenarios where moving is costly or random that makes it hard for support characters to be with other ones and therefore to use powers affecting characters at your location
- Scenarios where you hand size is reduced, which has a very different effect on some characters' powers
- Locations where you cannot play certain cards (spells, allies...) or must play it with a price
- Hench/villains that make you bury/banish the weapon you use against them
- and so on

I don't see it at all as "negative". This is not a videogame where you try to beat the high score by minmaxing characters. I see each scenario as a different puzzle/challenge where the relative role of party members may have to be thought again each time.
Dunesparrow wrote:
It seems harsh to make a character's power into a negative effect for the party.

Most of the goblin characters pop in my mind. :-)

Do I have it right that if there is a bunch of characters in your location when you encounter the silver chain smuggler, chances are all the boons on top of your location will be banished, up to the first bane that was there?

Hey there.

I am sorry for not being clearer in my question. I should have asked:

Is anyone aware of any other Scenario Cards that have turned a specific characters power from beneficial to detrimental for the party?

I think that the examples are not the same as the 'Evening at the Canny Jackal'Scenario, as they effect everyone in the party, you are still able to succeed, you can choose which character in the party to tackle the challenge or they only occur if a specific character encounters a specific card.

Whereas with these characters your choice is :
1.use my power and decrease the parties chances of successfully completing the Scenario
or
2. not use my power at all

Ahhhhhh I forgot about Gronk

I have often wondered why some characters like Ak exists at all.
zeroth_hour2 wrote:
And why does the _human_ sorcerer have pointy ears?

Now, why would you go ahead and just assume things about how someone self-identifies?

Also, I just love how Ozirion apparently doesn't have slavers, but 'relocation and employment assistants'. Makes me wanna play a Cleric of Milani...
Dunesparrow wrote:
I think that the examples are not the same as the ...

OK I may have got it wrong, but if I understand well, the bury power from Amiri is a "you may" power. Nothing forces her to use it.

So take a scenario like the regatta. You lose if you close a location. Then take a character like Ramexes that has a power that says "you may... to add ... to your check to close a location". Nothing forces him to use it. But if he does the scenario is lost. Aren't we in the same case (i. e. in certain scenarios some of your powers may have a reverse effect)?

Actually it's worse with Ramexes: if he uses his power once the game is immediately lost. Not the case for Amiri that can bury multiple cards and still win the scenario (by aquiring cards or reveiving cards from others).

Hey there.

That is just the type of thing I was looking for.

Thank you Frencois
Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Another fairly common example: Villain has text that makes it undefeated/evade unless it is the last card in the location deck. It starts on the bottom, or has been placed there through careful play. Merisiel has a power to evade whatever she likes, but if she uses it there, she shuffles the deck moving the villain off the bottom, which makes winning much tougher.
Iammars wrote:
Panic deck? Aaaaaaah!

I initially thought this would be No Big Thing until Simoun kept running into henchman that could only be defeated by Charisma/Diplomacy. :<

Don't think we went over 7 cards in the panic deck, but random distribution of Cha/Diplomacy-requiring henchman in the decks Simoun could reasonably close and Combat henchmen in the decks she couldn't, really, lead to a lot of "well, I set this deck up for you, Estra, I-l'll just start scouting the next location..."
Contributor

Why does the Canny Jackal location specify that you must "draw" the ally you acquire? What else would you do with it, except put it in your hand?
Lone Shark Games
Ron Lundeen wrote:
Why does the Canny Jackal location specify that you must "draw" the ally you acquire? What else would you do with it, except put it in your hand?

Because there's some sponginess in the game around "summon and encounter" when it applies to a boon. Summoned cards always go back to the box, so we have to explicitly say when they don't.

We also did this for the card Aspis Analysis in Season of Plundered Tombs 3-1B: This One Time at Aspis Camp.
Ron Lundeen wrote:
Why does the Canny Jackal location specify that you must "draw" the ally you acquire? What else would you do with it, except put it in your hand?

I guess it's

1) to overrule the base "summoned cards always go back in the box" rule.
2) to trigger potentially powers that trigger on drawing cards (else they could have just say "put it in your hand")

IMHO, because I too made myself the same remark when reading the card

Wooow, ninjaed my Not-this-Mike himself!
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
zeroth_hour2 wrote:
And why does the _human_ sorcerer have pointy ears?

Added to FAQ.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Frencois wrote:
Do I have it right that if there is a bunch of characters in your location when you encounter the silver chain smuggler, chances are all the boons on top of your location will be banished, up to the first bane that was there?

Yes, that would happen whenever the number of boons above the first bane is less than or equal to the number of characters at your location who don't have the Attack trait on their check to defeat their smuggler. Since this scenario makes your group bunch up, you might want to help make sure your friends are equipped with Attacks.

Quote:
The young man managing the auction offered Estra a well-muscled arm and led her to a soft cushion to rest. "May I?" he asked, unfurling the small carpet she kept tucked under her arm. His voice was rich and warm as he comforted, "Ask for Ptemenib if you desire for anything else, Honored Grandmother."

I hereby nominate Ptemenib as business manager of the year! All in favor say I! :D

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Mike Selinker wrote:
Ron Lundeen wrote:
Why does the Canny Jackal location specify that you must "draw" the ally you acquire? What else would you do with it, except put it in your hand?

Because there's some sponginess in the game around "summon and encounter" when it applies to a boon. Summoned cards always go back to the box, so we have to explicitly say when they don't.

We also did this for the card Aspis Analysis in Season of Plundered Tombs 3-1B: This One Time at Aspis Camp.

This FAQ entry allows us to stop doing that.

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