In the latest PACG Homebrew Special, our Online Venture-Captain Tyler Beck returns with a new Adventure Path for kobolds! Because more kobolds is good kobolds. —Mike
Hello again, everyone! It's your mostly-fearless-except-for-fear-of-falling-from-heights Venture Captain for online Pathfinder Adventure Card Society, Tyler!
I had a blast at PaizoCon, and we got LOADS of new information from Paizo on the release of the Core Set and the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path (both available now), on the new Year of Rotting Ruins that begins at Gen Con, and on the fact that the Core and Curse scenarios in the storybooks that come in the box are sanctioned for PACS play! I also want to give a quick plug for the current online PACS play-by-post convention, Cards Against Gnomanity II. Though the event has already begun, we'd love to have you join us for future games, so if you just tell us in the recruitment thread that you're interested, we can help you find a game—even if you've never played PACS through play-by-post!
Mostly, though, I want to talk to you a bit about something that I spent several months working on leading up to PaizoCon, and then spent most of my actual time at PaizoCon running: this year's homebrew special, entitled "I Want My Mummy!"
This set of three adventures was designed to run during three afternoon sessions at PaizoCon. We decided this year to do Tier 1, Tier 3, and Tier 5 so that people got a broader taste of the characters. The story is based on some of the most popular PFS scenarios from WAAAY back in season 5: the Destiny of the Sands trilogy. This means that your kobold characters (new versions of the infamous kobolds from True Dragons of Absalom) get to interact with everyone's favorite creepy dude in a hot tub, Grandmaster Torch. He'll send your kobolds on a grand adventure to… do a bunch of seemingly mundane tasks for him, as is tradition.
Grandmaster Torch, the guy everyone loves to hate. One of his requested tasks is to harass the owner of a legitimate cabaret hall and her elemental buddies.
That's okay though; you're well aware that Torch doesn't always have the interests of the Pathfinder Society at heart, and you will get the chance to disrupt his plans several times. Along the way, you'll also be able to use the fun trap-setting mechanic that we introduced back in our first kobold-themed homebrew special, "We Are Dragons". There are several ways to set traps, one of which is represented by the kobold Alchemist, Athrax:
The kobold Alchemist, Athrax. There's no "n" in there… read it again, I promise you it's true.
As you can see from his character and role cards, Athrax uses the trap-setting mechanic to keep from banishing his Alchemical items. He also has a few spells, but he just straight-up banishes those, so it's best to keep things like Cure and Find Traps in those slots, which can be useful one-shots. Athrax also has a useful way of ignoring Triggers, by setting traps and then examining locations. Sometimes it's more than worth a buried card to ignore a Trigger.
In brief, trapsetting works like this: When you set a trap with a card, you display that card next to your location (we played them facedown at PaizoCon because we had different-colored sleeves for each character, which helps determine who set the trap initially). When a monster is encountered at a trapped location, the trap is sprung, and you get to add 1d6 to all checks against that monster for the encounter.
After Adventure 1, we skip ahead to Adventure 3, where you're in hot pursuit of two Aspis agents who have gotten hold of one of the fabled Sage Gems, mythical gems that hold the power of the Jeweled Sages inside them. Several of the scenarios in this adventure allow you to gain Chase Points for finishing quickly, culminating in a scenario where you're literally chasing the Aspis agents along a set of locations, trying to move quickly to the place where another Sage Gem is likely to be found. Once you arrive, you find many dangers, the worst of which is the deadly Sage of Plagues, who has one of the most diabolical powers I've ever written. When you defeat him, he explodes in necromantic energy, shattering the Ruby Sage Gem… but even shards of such a powerful relic have the ability to grant incredible abilities to those wielding them.
The Sage of Plagues makes you so poisoned that you can barely hold onto any of the items you've been carrying. At least you gain some extraordinary abilities out of the deal, right?
Finally, in Adventure 5, you've got a chance to really make use of your new mythic abilities, going up against some truly terrifying mythic foes. You even have the chance to fight the diamond sage, Tahonikepsu herself, whose powers as a time dragon are nothing to sneeze at. Check out her character card below, and keep in mind this scenario power that is in effect when you encounter her: "At the beginning of your turn, expend a mythic charge or uncheck a skill or power feat from your character or role card; If you can do neither, bury 1d4 cards from your hand and 1d4 cards from your discard pile."
The Diamond Sage Tahonikepsu, a mythic time dragon sorcerer who does NOT play around.
This time, I'm not JUST going to tell you all about these fun scenarios… I'm going to make them available to everyone! See the Dropbox link below to download the character sheets, custom cards, and adventure text for the I Want My Mummy adventure path. It could be a great set of scenarios to run in between regular adventures of the Mummy's Mask AP, or you could just run it on its own… just remember to level your characters up appropriately in between the adventures!
LINK WITH ART: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dwvhoe3xdinjt3a/AAB7643f_nBGsp3CAo0gatvla?dl=0
I'm working on an even more ambitious project for next year's PaizoCon, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!
Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck
Venture Captain, PACS Online Play
Homebrew Special: I Want My Mummy!
Friday, July 12, 2019
